It was a simple decision to start the apartment search at a large government built condo/apt complex very close to the school. The entire complex is only a ten minute walk to the school, thus making clear the main focus of all activities should be school work. The complex consists of at least 30 buildings, each four stories high containing six apartments on each floor. The set up of each is basically the same but varying from one to three bedrooms. The final decision on which unit would come down to which was finished.
The goverment of Awassa started building these approximately two years ago and most are not yet complete. The grounds still contain a lot of construction rubble and the roads not even started. Each unit we looked at was purchased directly from the goverment and would then be rented out by the owner. The interior finishes were complete based on the individual owners' preferences.
Ground or first floor units are most desirable and thus slightly more costly, however as we were doing the moving in ourselves and I really didn't like the idea of carrying three mattresses, etc up four flights of stairs. (No elevators of course)
The unit viewing process however came with its own challenges. At each different unit, the owner or the keys had to be located. Unfortunately, we were only able to view some units through the windows as the key could not be found. This is despite many men making attempts by calling out to one another across the complex. Then one man would call 'so and so' on the phone, who would then run around to the coffee shop to see if he could find the owner or keys or help in some other way. Many keys were found using this method and we successfully narrowed it down to two units each with two bedrooms, tile floors and working electricity.
Thus began, what I'll call the Ethiopian 'Come back'. 'Come back' in 20 minutes and we will have the place cleaned up. 20 minutes later we come back and nothing was done. 'Come back' tomorrow morning and it will be finished and cleaned up. The next morning we get there and it is not clean or complete. 'Come back' in 10 minutes. While having coffee, waiting the requested ten minutes, a "Broker" (turns out the men helping to find keys are "Brokers" and will expect a small payment upon the signing of a lease), finds us at the coffee shop and says he has another better unit for the same price on a ground floor.
We go over to see it and it is nice. However, it is also not quite complete. What began was three days of 'Come Back' torture. Basically, I refused to sign a lease with a leaking toilet, leaking kitchen faucet and kitchen plumbing, and kept asking them to fix it. The right thing to do but not typical. The typical renter in this area may not care that the tiles will definitely crack, water will seep everywhere and they would have to pay for the damage. The owner, a woman from Adddis who kept saying she was leaving immediately to go back to Addis, seemed astonished that the leaks would be a problem and kept telling me they did not need to be fixed. Finally she agreed to fix them right away and told us to 'come back' first thing in the morning.
On the third day of 'Come Back' torture, after about four trips back to see if the leaks were fixed, I gave up and was ready to walk away. Hagriso (our translator and man of much patience) looked hesitate to do so. Apparently they had already hooked up the electricity and he was pleased with the manner it was to be billed in the future. I however, felt lied too and tired. Clearly the owner had not hired a plumber to fix the leaks nor did she really have to go back to Adidis immediately. A solution had to be found. I channeled my inner negotiator and figured out how much it would cost to hire a plumber on our own to fix it. The approximate cost for a plumber would be....
500 Birr---- all this effort for $26!!!
We then requested a 500 Birr deduction on the first month's rent.
One hour later, after more Ethiopian negotiating in Amharic ....I said enough, "Does she agree or not?"
She did. The lease was signed. Money exchanged and the Levant's are the proud renters of a two bedroom apartment in Awassa!
