Yeut?

Approaching the UN headquarters, I come across yet another reminder that while things seem different here, they are in a lot of ways the same. Urban agriculture still exists. At home it takes the form of community gardens, while here; herds of sheep and goats, each displaying the color of their herder, take over the road. Addressing also takes on its own unique form. When I first arrived, I found it difficult to distinguish where I was and especially to give directions on how to get somewhere. Very quickly though and without realizing it, I’ve taken on the local tactics. In a city where most streets lack names and addresses are nonexistent, landmarks are the way to go, “Across from this, down the street from...., just past....” are now my replies. In the office, I am linking the addresses of Kebele houses to surveys given to residents last year. The only problem? Most people don’t use addresses. As a result, what is standardized in the computer, doesn’t actually exist on the ground. It is easy to understand why. Even myself, raised living at exactly 2936 West 31^st avenue in a city laid out in a grid, no longer know exactly where I live. When clearing UN security for the first time, I was asked to list my current address. My answer: “ummm.... I’m not sure….Wallo Sefer??” (My neighborhood), “.....Down the street from Biomedical college???”. This was the closest I got to conveying my place of residence for over a month. Without realizing, I have been converted. My house by the way does indeed have an address. It’s even listed on the front gate, but do I know it? No. Will I learn it while I live there? Probably not. The guard didn’t seem too fussed about it in the end. It probably would have been stranger if I had actually had given an exact location.

-Krista