taxi driver

Man! Tonight we had one of the best meals in Ethiopia. It was at this Mediterranean place called Aladdin's...their hummus, falafel and kabobs were INCREDIBLE...and they had super cold water, which is always a plus. The whole evening this live musician name Jimmy played English oldies music...it was so beautiful. He was probably in his 60s ­ and so alive on the stage as he sang his heart out during each song. You could tell he was totally free by his body language and the joyful spirit by which he played.

I don't know who sings the song, but he played "give me the beat boys and sing my song...I wanna get lost in the rock n roll and shift away" and asked for us to sing with him. It was the high light of my evening!

As an encore he gave us a shout out with a Stevie Wonder song and invited us to sing the chorus. It¹s so exciting to see people doing what they love, and Jimmy was totally in his groove.

As the night wrapped up and we finished the last bites of our dessert, we faced the inevitable. Finding taxis home past 8 pm is my least favorite part of Ethiopia. Since public transportation basically disappears after that time, you have to negotiate with the contract taxis and pay like 30 times the price of the buses during the day.  BUT! We scored the best taxi driver in the history of my time here. JACKPOT! His name is Sentio, and he was another Ethiopian TOTALLY his groove. For the 30 minute drive home he made jokes, sang to us, danced and just enjoyed life OUT LOUD.

What a GREAT evening!