Ethiopian Listro

I went with a friend of mine to a shoe store yesterday. His shoes were a little dirty so he wanted to get a new pair for the new year. He said $50 was a small price to pay to treat himself for New Year's. In Addis Ababa, he could have saved his money and for 10 santim (about 1 penny) he could have got his shoes washed and for 35 santim (about 4 cents) he could have had them cleaned and polished. A good Listro is very valuable if you're gonna walk around Addis Ababa, trust me. I had two favorite Listros over by Wolo Sefer. They were brothers who say they are 14- 15 but they looked more like 8 - 9 years old. They would go to school in the morning and work in the afternoons or vice versa. My shoes always got the VIP treatment because I always paid a full Birr (about 11 cents) for my daily polish.

After you spend a week or so in Ethiopia you start to think in Birr not Dollars, and it kind of clouds your vision a little. I always regret not taking the two brothers to their school and paying for their full year tuition before I left, it would have probably cost me $20 (US) each. Shoot, for all those months of shining my crappy shoes I should have splurged sixty bucks to pay for their school and get them both new uniforms and shoes.

Update: This is a picture of my shoe on an average day in Addis Ababa. Matter of fact I was heading to a fancy restaurant on Bole Road for dinner.