Reply #9: Ethiopia

[LibertyLover]

I visited Ethiopia briefly in 1974. Just Addis Abbaba. But it was a fascinating place. Great beauty and great poverty alongside each other. I was with my mom on an African safari tour and the group went down to the main market in Addis. We were told to watch our bags and wallets carefully because of the thieves and pickpockets. One woman (I do not make this up - she, her sister and brother-in-law were staunch Republicans from Pennsylvania and were traveling together. We were in Capetown SA when Nixon resigned - you should have seen their long faces and heard their dolefully moaning) was still in the tour bus, standing by the back door with her bag on her shoulder when a thief reached in, grabbed it, ripped the strap right off her shoulder and took off. Luckily the tour guide and the 3 local guides were right there and the guy didn't get far. They ran after him, tackled him, the local guides shouted in Amharic that he had robbed a little old lady and hurt her badly and then left him for the crowd. The last time we saw him he was being surrounded by people.