Ethioguide's Addis Scenes

Some Addis Residents Celebrate Haile Gebreselassie's Victory by driving around town with a cutout picture of the 10,0000 meter Olympic Gold Medalist on top of a 4 x4. All around town, people were honking their car horns, walking around wrapped in the Ethiopian flag and dancing near a huge poster of the athlete near Ambassador Theater.

Derege Desta, along with Solomon Abate is coeditor of Eletawii Addis, holds up the first issue of the paper, the newest daily in Addis Ababa, on Tuesday, September 25. (The journalists had printed out a trial issue about two weeks ago.) When I stopped by the newsroom Tuesday around 8 p.m., reporters and editors were bustling about working to put out the second issue. Derege said he was operating on two hours of sleep.

The above-the-fold section of the paper featured Haile Gebreselassie with the headline, "Yichalal," or "It's Possible." (The slogan was popularized by the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce.)