Noise

Hallo ichselbst,
more or less you have to live with it, but usually you will adopt to the churches (or to the mosk, wich are less noisy than the churches. Usually it is more preaching via speakers around the orthodox holydays. Best thing is to look for a house which is in little distance to the orthodox churches. But in my opinion is Addis or Ethiopia is a noisy country in general, because a lot of people donŽt care and you have construcition or loud musik around your home. The churchsound is only additional.
I guess you are from germany? What are you going to do in Addis?

Hallo Waschbär,

erstmal Danke für die Antwort, was ich machen werde erzähle ich wenn die Sache in trockenen Tüchern ist. Bis jetzt bin ich zu 99 Prozent auf dem Weg nach Addis. Ich wechsle zu Englisch damit andere board-user mitlesen können.

Many thanks for that. I know noisy places because I have been living in Gabon for some years by now and outside of Europe for a decade. However, those churches really are exceptional. I will follow your advice suit.

There is more that I would wish to know, and perhaps you or someone else can help me with that. I wish to learn about, for instance, how I can get a working internet connection at home, and whether it makes sense to bring fridges or washing machines from abroad . or whether its better to buy on the ground - sometimes the cost of transport isn't worth it.

Then, if you can tell particularities from your own experiences - sometimes there are things that turn out to be important but a foreigner would never even come to the idea that there could be an issue?

Cheers

[Moderated: Off topic]

Thank you Solomon

you can buy decent fridges locally, not sure about washing mashines, I  looked at them first, but since I live alone, in the end I decided to have a house maid who washes my clothes once a week or so.
For internet connection your best bet is a USB modem, called EVDO, which you can buy in many computer places around town and then have it set up at an ETC office. You have options for 1GB, 2GB  and 4GB per month

The church noise is one of the things that was guiding me when looking for my house in Addis. Note that certain times of year are worse (pre easter period of about 2 months). And also the noise is not at all times of the day, it is often on from 3AM to 7 AM and on the weekends, especially on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. So if you like a house, go and see it at different times of the day to be sure that there is no terrible noise.

Dear Fatou200,

Thank you very much for the help. I will take my time to find a place where one can stay (relatively) undisturbed. Visiting a place at different hours before renting it is a very good idea. Until then I will stay in a furnished apartment.

This brings me to another question. There are not many furnished apartments in Addis that one can find on the internet, but I can imagine that there are Ethiopians living abroad – our expat counterparts – who wish to rent out their apartments in Addis. Maybe it is possible to find such a place. Any idea where one could search?

Thank you too for the info on the USB stick modem. Is that quick enough to download a pdf file at a decent speed?

Have a great day

Decent internet speed is a dream in Addis. But you can download pdfs on most days. For good speed you can go to Sheraton, and get their 1 hour or 24 hours internet access cards.

I would not advise to rent a furnished apartment, it is usually very expensive, equal to staying in a hotel, there are places like Desalegn 3 or Sidamo Lodge in the Bole area where you can have ensuite accomodation at a hotel, with breakfast included and small kitchenette, for decent prices. And if you set your mind to it, you should be able to find a house within 3 weeks.

Thnak you once more for the answer. This all very helpful.
I checked Sidama, and they ask 202$ per night for a double room (we are two, my wife and me), which makes 6000 $/month. I hope to get a furnished 1 bedroom apartment for a quarter of that. Do you think this realistic?

Cheers

The Sidama rate sounds crazy, I thought they were charging sth like 60 dollars a night. You should be able to get a furnished appartment for much less than that. I wouls assume sth like 2000 dollars a month for a furnished upmarket appartment. Check the classifieds here and also google real estate agents in Addis

Two bed room furnished at condominium, you can get with $500
if you want,contact me

It all depend where you are working- do you want to live near by so that you don't have to go through the traffic etc....I myself just got situated here. Da ist eine grosse deutsche gemenischaft hier in addis und ich bin sicher die werden dir helfen. mit geduld du wirdst eine gute wohnung finden- es kann zwischen 2-3 wochen dauern, aber du sollst dir auch die zeit nehmen und dir verschiedene wohnungen anschauen bevor du fuer eine entschedest. good luck