The Sheraton
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 28/Dec/2009 15:43, 34 days ago
We had another lazy morning doing the crossword and then Nancy, Trish and I decided to walk to the Sheraton for a boxing day treat. Nancy had been given some money for her birthday a few weeks ago, with orders to treat herself to a banana split. We also new two people who had decided after 3 years as volunteers in Ethiopia to treat themselves to Christmas at the Sheraton so we thought it would be a good opportunity to be nosy and see their rooms. The walk to the Sheraton was typical Addis. Noisy traffic, potholes, beggars etc. Just before we reached the Sheraton we took a short cut through some slums which sit right next to the massive hotel. What a crazy contrast! The Sheraton reminds me of Vegas in more ways than one. It is total extravagance in a totally inappropriate place. However... just like Vegas, where I initially thought I would hate it... or at least feel uncomfortable with its lavishness... but couldn’t help loving it! It was amazing! We marvelled at the shiny toilets with toilets that you could flush paper down, we gawped at the gorgeous furnishings, we got excited by all the Christmas decorations and we enjoyed the gardens which hosted a number of British telephone boxes. We then went for ice-cream. Nancy had her banana split and I had delicious cinnamon and chocolate ice-cream in a cone. We met Cath and July who were staying at the Sheraton and after lots of persuasion Cath convinced me to splash out on a pizza. Although double what you would pay anywhere else it was only about£4 and it was by far the best pizza in Ethiopia. For just over a fiver I had a pizza and ice-cream at a 5 star hotel! It is funny because in England you wouldn’t think twice about spending that on a lunch out but here it was total extravagance. Cath made me feel better when she pointed out that if I go home to visit I’m likely to spend more on a simple yet boring snack at Heathrow airport as I wait for my bus to arrive.Some people feel very uncomfortable about going to places like the Sheraton when you are surrounded by such poverty. I’m not too sure exactly where I stand. I do know that I really enjoyed it and I don’t see why I should feel really guilty about that. I know that if I ate in a nice restaurant in England I wouldn’t be spending the whole time thinking of all the poor people in Africa (or homeless people on the streets of London for that matter)... should it really be so different when they are just next door? Although the people in the surrounding slums would never be able to experience anything like the Sheraton and the amount you spend on a night there is more than most of them would earn in a year it is not as if, if you didn’t stay there you would go and give all that money to those people in those slums. In fact on the contrary, by staying at the Sheraton you may actually be helping these people. The Sheraton employs thousands of staff who may otherwise struggle to get jobs and encourages rich tourists to stay in Addis who might not visit if there wasn’t such an establishment. These rich tourists or business men bring lots of money into the country. True that the money they spend isn’t very evenly distributed but I do think that as long as the money is being spent in Ethiopia it does eventually trickle down to even the poorest people. Not as much as might be desirable but surely that is better than nothing. If some businesses do well then the multiplier effect should mean that others should too? Perhaps I am just trying to make myself feel better for enjoying the Sheraton so much but I hope there is some truth in what I just said. It really was a very nice experience and I would love to go back.