Here are the items that I would love to get while in Ethiopia to honor and remember Ethiopia and to represent her birth country in our home and to give as gifts to Orange, her sister, and to family and friends. I hope we can find all of these items!...
Berbere spice
Coffee (lots)
Painting
Drum
String Instrument
Pottery
Baskets
Coffee Pot
Ethiopian dresses for the girls (several sizes)
Blankets
Hand bags
Jewelry: Rings, Bracelets, Necklaces (silver and/or beaded)
Wooden paintings
Dolls
Tablecloths and Napkins/Place Mats
Small toys/trinkets (ie wooden animals)
Amharic Bible
Candle holders
Scarves
Map (if it's more detailed than the one we own)
We will just keep shopping until our shopping budget runs out or until we can't find anymore of these items. We only get 1-2 hours to shop. Eek!
WE'RE IN ADDIS!!!!
3 hours ago
15 comments:
That'll be a busy shopping trip!! Great list...lots of treats for your sweet girls!
Ok so HUGE tip here.... if you want a map you can go to the Ethiopian Mapping Authority.... no one knows this place exists even the taxi drivers, but it is across the street from the Hilton and it is not easy to find. So the street that runs in front of the Hilton has this HUGE median and it is on the other side of the street and if you are looking from the hilton towards that street it is to the right. It is not directly on the street but a little back but you can see the sign on the front of the building. And there are guards at the front and just say you want to get some maps.
Anyways, we happened upon this by some grandpa that was in the Union with his family adopting his grandson from Holt and he had detailed maps of Ethiopia and super detailed maps of TINY villages. And I mean TINY, I googled my daughters birthplace and nothing came up. So he just so happened to have one of them with her birthplace on it and he let me buy it off of him. The next day my hubby and some of the other guys took a taxi to find the map place but he says finding your village is like a finding a needle in a haystack but seriously it might be worth it. These maps show how to get from addis to her birthplace and are so awesome!
Anyways email me and we can chat about it if you have time before you leave and are interested....this is the longest comment ever.
only 1-2 hours? Yikes. Good thing you wrote out your list. good luck!
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Not that you're asking for advice, but if you see something you like, just buy it. We do have some regrets about things we saw and didn't pick up.
I think this is a good list. We shopped in less than 2 hours and were able to pick up most of these items. Just don't leave your list in the hotel like we did! :)
My goal when we arrive early on Saturday is to find maps!! I'll check out Paul and DeeDee's suggestion.
SOOO excited for you- it's almost here!!!!!
That's a great list - I might steal it someday to use myself! Hopefully you can come home with many Ethiopian treasures for your family.
i wish i would have had a list before we went. you should be able to find all or most of those things where on the shopping day. there is a grocery store by the italian restaurant/art gallery you go to on that day as well. it has spices for cheap. we love our drum, painting, and ethiopian outfits! i wish i would have gotten one for myself and a shirt for my husband.
i just found out our friends, jason and nikki, will be traveling with you. it's coming up so soon!!!
Ok, so I realize you didn't ask for advice but here is some anyway.
1.If you want to get a lot in a short amount of time you have to know what prices are reasonable to pay. Haggling will suck up all of your time. But paying what they ask will suck up your budget.
So from my experience:
little girls dresses/outfits - bought in the market (not store) no more than 50 birr for linen/cotton outfit, not more than 100 birr for gauzy material traditional dress with headwrap
Men's shirt with embroidered design on front (same material as girls' dress) 50 birr
Traditional ethiopian coffee pot (the kind with the pink wood stopper on top and sitting on woven base) no more than 30 birr ANYWHERE and should include stopper and base and should be shiny and already polished
Woven baskets - look back a few posts on my blog for the photo of the material (the baskets are next to it) approximately 50 birr each (these are the kinds with tops) for larger open baskets with a fancy design probably 60 or 70 birr MAX
If you have the option ask them to take you to the market by the post office or to Sherameda - do not go to a "store" as you'll have a lot less to choose from. However, you won't find much jewelry outside of the stores. Different markets/stores have different kinds of things. Post office market area in my opinion has the best range.
Use those prices to help you decide how much to pay for smaller items. Seriously, the haggling can take forever so just knowing where to start can help.
If you are at the post office area shopping please buy gum from the little boys selling it. They are great kids and are part of a street child ministry. The police act like they are evil and beat at them with sticks unless you are buying the gum. (oh, 5 birr/piece btw and not a cent more. :) ~Amanda
You will have to get some traditional ethiopian crosses, they are wood carved or in silver. Make sure you ask when you are shopping, pewter or silver as a lot of the silver isn't polished. They also have these amazing little animals that are wrapped in yarn and the traditional ethiopian dolls are so cute, its a male and a female stuffed doll. Just stay focused and don't forget your list and if you see it, buy it, you won't find that much of a better deal down the way.
Something to consider with the coffee...We got 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of coffee. When you put that much coffee in your hotel room, the aroma is OVERWHELMING. Even as a coffee lover it was about more than I could take. Fortunately we had some of those giant vacuum seal bags which is essentially like a huge ziploc bag. We put the coffee inside of that, sealed it up, and it helped tremendously.
Since I too adopted a toddler, consider adding shiro to your list. It made a lot of quick meals when we got home and Ashi didn't want to eat anything else (they ate shiro twice a day at HH) It's super chea and you use like a cup of it at a time, so a kilo or more if you're going to cook much for her at home.
Thank you all for these amazing tips and advice! I have printed several of your comments to take with me and have made many notes on my shopping list...and have added several items to the list thanks to all of this great advice!!!
Theresa
Great idea about the Amharic Bible-I never thought about that!
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