Crown Hotel

On Thursday evening, Tesfaye took the families that stayed at the Guesthouse along with a woman who was volunteering there to the Crown Hotel for dinner and dancing-not us, we just watched.  (The family that stayed at the hotel was invited also, but did not attend.)  The baby and my son stayed at the Care Center for the event, but the older child participated with our families.

We were seated on stools around tables that were about coffee table height.   There were also some woven tables that are sized to the diameter of an opened injera.  See the colorful table on the right side of the photo.  There was an array of people (see left side of the photo) at the Crown Hotel.  It seemed like the place to go for celebrations and showing Ferengi a good time.

An employee (I don't know his official title) brought a pitcher of water and soap to our table so we could wash hands.  I also experienced this at another restaurant I went to.

The food was in a buffet format.  It included two kinds of injera, rolls, several spicy meat stews/sauces of beef, lamb and chicken varieties, some vegetarian options, Ethiopian cheese, and side vegetable dishes.  The only thing I had (I didn't try everything) that I didn't like was a false banana bar.  It was grayish-dough colored and cut into a rectangle shape.

Intermittently, the smell of burning would arise.  I'm pretty sure it was from the coals set out for the coffee bean roasting.

Throughout the dinner we were able to enjoy the dancing and singing provided by the entertainers.  I was told the songs and dances were representative of the different regions of the country.  I'm not so sure all the costumes were authentic as the men looked quite a bit like jockeys for one number.

     

There was a really cool dance where the woman whipped her head around really fast, hair flying everywhere.

The men, one in particular, seemed to enjoy flirting with Granny.

We returned to the Guesthouse after 10pm.