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I found an interesting post on a blog called Jessica’s Rants. Jessica is an American woman working in Addis and living at the Hilton. She talks about observing the many adoptive families who now stay at the Hilton while in Ethiopia picking up their children. If you plan to stay at the Hilton, you’ll probably enjoy her observations.
She mentions getting sick twice from eating at the Hilton. A few years back, the Hilton breakfast buffet had a reputation for causing stomach woes, but I hadn’t heard of recent problems until now. Has anyone else had trouble recently with eating at the Hilton restaurants? I’d be interested in hearing recent experiences with food there.
Jessica’s comment reminded me that I haven’t written about avoiding food-borne illness in Ethiopia. It is good to keep in mind that most of the water in Ethiopia is not fit to drink, and a fair percentage of the population of Ethiopia has giardia at any given time. Fortunately bottled water is cheap and easy to find. If you buy it in 6-packs or 8-packs at a grocery store instead of your hotel you’ll probably some money.
be sure also to wash your hands frequently. I carried instant hand sanitizer with me wherever I went, and used it frequently. Unfortunately if you adopt a baby, you can easily catch giardia from your baby’s diaper, since many babies come home with rip-roaring cases of giardia. So wash, wash, wash.
But it’s not enough to wash your hands and avoid the water.
- Don’t order drinks with ice, since ice is usually made with tap water.
- Don’t eat cut fruit, since you don’t know how it has been handled.
- Don’t even brush your teeth with tap water unless you’re willing to risk tummy trouble. This is so automatic that it can be a hard one to remember! Some people leave a washcloth draped over the faucet to jog their memory.
The standard rule of food safety in third world countries is a good one to keep in mind. “Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it.” In the case of fruit, you should first wash it and then peel it. It seems a shame to pass on the lovely-looking fruit at the restaurant breakfast buffet, but I figure it’d be a bigger shame to spend hours of my precious time in an Ethiopian restroom!
Also of interest:
I stayed at the HIlton with Hayat for nine days last November, and ate in the restaurants a couple of times, and ordered room service every day.
Getting sick was something I was determined to avoid, because I was there in Addis by myself with a new baby (and if I got sick, I didn’t want to have to take her back to the orphanage!). So, I, too, used the liquid hand sanitizer like a fiend. I also washed the bottled water bottles with bottled water and detergent (!!!) before using them — sometimes the outsides of the bottles were pretty nasty.
I ordered doro wat key (spicy, not the doro wat alicha which is mild) from room service several times — knowing that it was stewed for hours and it arrived very hot, so I felt comfortable eating it. By the way, it was FANTASTIC. Wow. I also ate a chicken pasta dish in the restaurant downstairs, and had “Thanksgiving” dinner there — they had a buffet featuring 1001 takes on turkey, including a roast turkey. I tried to keep to the stewed dishes (there was a delicious turkey curry) and away from fresh fruits or vegetables or cold dairy stuff. Anyway, it all worked out great. I did not get sick and I was in Addis for 3 weeks.
I should also add that I brought food with me — and I had many inelegant meals of fruit cups and tuna salad kits. But it was all worth it!!
Oh, and the room service coffee at the Hilton is the best coffee I have ever drunk. Ever. And I think it was a whopping 13 birr for the coffee and hot milk, a large carafe of hot water for bottles, plus the room service delivery combined.
Thanks for the great tips, Anne. Fruit cups are a great idea. I craved fresh fruit while there, and that would be a nice easy solution. I did also buy fresh fruit from a fruit stand and washed it well and peeled and ate it without trouble.
Such good info- I love the idea of draping a towel over the faucet and the hand sanitizer. We’re also thinking of bringing latex gloves (my husband thinks he would use these no matter what- even w/o the giardia
I did notice in the comment above that she ordered a large carafe of hot water for bottles. Is that how you prepare warm bottles for the baby? I’ve been wondering if we should bring a bottle warmer (do those work?), but we were planning on trying the bottles with the disposable drop-ins. I’m confused!
We stuck to the guidelines pretty carefully while in Addis until we went to a place for lunch and without thinking, dived headfirst into the most delicious salad dish on our fasting plate. My husband also ate a GREAT number of hot peppers stuffed with a pico de gallo type of fresh mix, and we were fine. I though about taking a preventative dose of cipro, to be on the safe side, but waited to see if I needed it, and really, I have a very wimpy GI system, so I felt totally lucky!
Stacie, we use the drop-ins for Meklit and have had trouble with them melting sometimes, when we’ve tried reheating the formula. We’ve had much better success adding warm water to the formula as needed. And now that she’s been home for awhile, she’s much more willing to tolerate a cool bottle too.
Stacie — I ordered hot water and wrapped it in a towel so it stayed hot for a few hours, AFTER my immersion water boiler broke on the first day. The immersion boiler (coil-type, bought from REI) was the best thing because I could heat water when I needed it. I would suggest bringing a back-up in case the first one breaks! Someone delivered a new one to me while I was there (my husband sent it to her to bring for me). I brought a large ceramic soupbowl/cup to heat water in for bottles and tea, and my friend also delivered a stainless steel thermos (also REI) for keeping warm water handy for nighttime bottles (thanks, Alicia!). I used the bottles with drop-in liners (still do). For the 6-oz bottles, I use four ounces of room temp water and 2 ounces of boiling water — room temp water went in first to avoid melting the liners.
Sorry for the novel