Ethiopian night life & sex trade workers

There is no such thing as a singles bar in Ethiopian society: what they have instead are bars where sex trade workers get friendly with patrons, perhaps getting drinks bought for them, perhaps a little something more like dancing together at the bar, or perhaps going "home for coffee" and an all night gig for the equivalent of $20 - $30. I found myself into the world when sitting in a bar with my friends, wanting to start something I invited an attractive young woman I took to be our server to come over and chat. So she sat down beside me and with translation assistance from my friends we chatted. Our driver, Ziguy (we often affectionately called him ``the guy``) was VERY good at chatting up the women and could easily make them comfortable and so was soon engaged with her teasing and joking with both of us. After a while I realized that she was in fact a sex trade worker and why there were so many good looking young women taking turns standing on the other side of the room waiting for something to do.

So the three of us had an enjoyable time as we continued the teasing, joking, interplay with her of course trying to warm me up for something else having already invited me to her house for coffee. J I asked her through Ziguy what it was she had planned for her life, and she said she would like to get married someday. Finally I told her that I really was not into getting laid tonight, but that I would be coming back in 4 months, that she should work on her English, and that will look her up when I get back to Woldiya. I also tipped her the equivalent of $10 for her time with us, my generosity bemusing my friends.

Afterwards in discussing the sex trade with my friend Derebew, (he has been an international development researcher and project manager in his own country for 14 years) he explained that these girls work for themselves, and that there is not the same stigma to being a sex trade worker, neither is it criminalized. As such these women represent an available pool of talent for a hotel which will want to provide western levels of service to their clients as they are more client-centred than the staff in the hotels we visited in small town Ethiopia, where levels of service are often nowhere near where they need to be. The hotel likewise can be for them a way of transitioning into a less risky line of work that can still give decent remuneration.

A couple of nights later in Bahir-Dar, we were again in a bar that soon filled with over a dozen attractive women, focused on the prospect provided by a couple of white guys. On my last night there I invited over the most attractive of the women and ended up with an amazingly wonderful evening of dancing, joking, talking with this mature, intelligent, gracious, gorgeous and oh, so sexy young woman. We both really like singing and dancing and so had a wonderful evening enjoying the music together, with me being absolutely blown away by her dancing, and telling her so often. She told me that she planned to continue in the business for another couple of years until she had saved up enough money to open her own business. I promised her I would look her up when I got back to Ethiopia, she said she would be happy to come and see our new hotel in Woldiya, and like with the first woman I ended up with her phone number, real name and working name. She also got tipped, the equivalent of $18. J