Bureaucracy in Ethiopia

Today, we headed over to the federal police to follow up on the case from the Simien Mountains. The police in Debark promised to write about the progress of the case, but we haven't heard a thing. We were shown into seven different offices before we finally reached someone high enough in the hierarchy who dared to take a stand on anything. Until then, we were just shuffled from one office to another. There are so many people employed everywhere that we don’t think they even know what they’re supposed to be working on. It’s frustrating. Finally, we met a man they called the commandor, who picked up the phone and called the police in Debark. The news was disheartening. The Debark police are completely at a loss. They’re actually a bit skeptical about whether the crime even took place since our tent wasn’t slashed with a knife. However, they are searching the surrounding villages and interviewing everyone who was at the campsite that day. Still no leads. The commandor had his secretary write a letter in Amharic for us to deliver to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which would put additional pressure on the Debark police. Great, we thought. That sounds easy enough. So, we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And here, the bureaucratic wheel started turning again. They needed to verify the stamp and signature on the letter from the federal police. They could find the stamp in their archives, but they couldn’t find the signature. They have a procedure that requires ALL signatures from public officials to be in their archives. How did they think that was going to work...? The Ministry wanted to send us to a translation agency, after which we’d have to go to the headquarters for translation agencies to verify the translation. Then we’d have to return to the Ministry, which would give us a stamp. Could it get any more convoluted...? We were frustrated with the system and didn’t want to spend any more of our vacation on this issue. So, we just got the letter from the federal police translated. That was all we could handle. Up until that point, we had spent five hours on almost nothing. Instead, we went to Boston Day Spa. Honny hadn’t shaved in three weeks since the thieves also took his razor. So, he had a full beard, but it was time to get rid of it. He got a haircut and a shave. I treated myself to a manicure. Total cost: 145 birr. We had lunch at the modern café, Lime Tree, located in the same building as Boston Day Spa. They have amazing dishes—everything from sandwiches to Chinese food to pizza. Back at the hotel, Honny had another tennis lesson. This teacher was incredibly good at teaching but also super skilled at playing, so Honny got a real workout. Bole Road is where the action is. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, and shops. We had dinner at New York New York. We enjoyed pizza and their local white wine, Crystal. Our pizzas were so big that we should have shared one. Wow, we were stuffed! The total came to 150 birr.