Hawassa town

We spent a total of four nights in the city of Hawassa (Awasa), mostly just hanging out.  We walked around on the cobblestone sidewalks, did a little shopping and ate good food (fish goulash!).   Hawassa is the capital of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, which encompasses over 45 ethnic groups and a huge geographic area all the way to the Kenyan border.  Sidama is the biggest group with less than 20% of the population, and the dominant ethnicity in Hawassa.  



Hawassa has some great restaurants and lots of universities; a college-town, so of course we felt right at home.  The wide, clean streets (what a contrast to Addis!) are full of blue and white bajaj, a.k.a. tuk-tuks or triicycle taxis, which the boys enjoyed squeezing all four of us into to get out to the fish market!  

Hawassa is filled with these amazing tile mosaics of Sidamic images, while bamboo is the primary material for other arts and crafts, including the woven houses.  Most of the photos here are from the Sidama cultural center in Hawassa.