The next day I discovered we weren't the only Americans
traveling in Ethiopia when I heard, “This orange juice is freaking ridiculous! It's awesome!” coming from a nearby table on the terrace of our hotel near the main roundabout in Gondar.
I looked over at the two twenty somethings from Colorado as they chugged the orange juice.
. The juice in their glasses was awesome. It was pure, fresh
squeezed, and thick. It’s the way juice comes here in Ethiopia.
You can get
mixed juice in layers too if you want. One layer of orange, another of avocado,
a third of mango… It’s freaking ridiculously healthy and delicious and awesome and only
costs around twenty cents for a mug.
Coffee, which was invented in Ethiopia, is
not bad either. They call it a “ceremony” when they grind, brew, and pour it in
front of you. I wasn’t always sure about the flavor though. At a Starbuck’s like cafe, called Kaldi’s Coffee Shop, we were able to order a frapoocino.
Ethiopia is mostly made up of mountains and people. If you could view all of Ethiopia from the air, you would
see some paved, but mostly dirt roads crisscrossing the mountainous country and
very few vehicles.
A road in Ethiopia is one long conveyer belt moving an
endless stream of pedestrians from village to village and city to city. From
sun up to sun down it seems all of Ethiopia is out for a walk. Herders drive
sheep, goats, camels, cattle and loaded donkeys down the middle of the road.
Women walk miles and miles with huge bundles of wood or plastic jugs of water
on their heads and babies on their backs. Men carry 14-foot long sections of
timber for scaffold.
And everyone seems to carry an umbrella or a stick with
them where ever they go. When children spotted our truck and Farange (white foreigner) faces they
practically trembled with excitement. They jumped up and down and spun in
circles. As our driver leaned on the horn and weaved around the unperturbed
masses they cried out, “You! Farange! Where do you go?” or,
“You! I love you!” or often just, “You, you, you, you!” When we stopped to bush
camp for the night, it wasn’t long before there was a group of children
gathered around us. At one stop I inflated one of the plastic globes I brought
with me and showed the children where we all were from - England, Australia,
Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S.
They were absolutely fascinated
while I held it during the geography lesson. We all pointed at spots on the globe and ooed and aahed. But when I handed them the globe and
suggested, “Take this to school, to your teacher” they did what all children do
when they get something bouncy and round. They played soccer with it. Within a
few minutes, it was punctured and they were back at my side asking me to repair
it. I would always say the same thing, “The world is fragile. You
can’t kick it around.” All I got in return were blank stares and, “You! Fix
it!”
“Al Gore has been trying to do that for years” I’d say, and
they would give me a look that said, “This white lady is crazy…. but she has
footballs” and smile broadly while holding the globe out to me.
In Lalibela we camped near The Obama Souvenir Shop.
(Later in Tanzania Scott stopped in to get his hair cut at the Shave and Be
Smart Barber Shop that had a painting of Obama and some unknown (by me)
rapper on the sign.) For the most part, they like President Obama here in East
Africa and for the first time in our travels we get a lot of thumbs up and
comments such as, “American has the democracy we only dream of.”
Lalibela is famous for it’s 13th century
underground rock hewn churches but we’ve seen them before on a previous trip so this time we
headed for the huge open market located at the edge of town. We were hard
pressed to find any produce.
The market consisted primarily of live goats,
camels, donkeys, chilies, and exotic spices for sale. Our sole purchases were a
very hot Berber spice powder, and an umbrella. Such a handy thing the Ethiopian
umbrella. I used it for sunshade, for an instant privacy screen for emergency
loo stops along the road (after ingesting too much Berber spice), and a few
times I even used it in the rain.
In Gondar we toured the Dashen Brewery and tasted beer in the garden for far
too many hours. But it was the first beer we had been able to get since Egypt-
Islamic Sudan is not only arid, it’s “dry” and we were mighty thirsty. The next day there was a pounding in my
head. But it wasn’t from the beer. From the hotel terrace I watched a man with a hammer pounding large
stones into small ones. All day long he
sat on a pile of the gravel and patiently shattered rocks.
While Scott hiked the Simian Mountains for three days, I
nursed my bulging Achilles tendon in Gondar. From the hotel terrace I
watched countless donkeys carrying recycled US AID sacks on their backs as they walked
themselves through the bustling streets unaccompanied by a human. Donkey after donkey walked with odd purpose through downtown Gondar. They were obviously on a mission. But
where were they all going? How did they know which way to go? After a day of
watching and wondering I decided to follow one of the donkeys. I walked behind a
donkey with a load of hay for about an hour before finally asking two women, “Where do the
donkeys go?” Rather I pantomimed it since they didn’t speak English and my
Amharic is limited to hello, goodbye, beer, and thank you. The women pointed far up a
mountain side. Sure enough I could just make out a train of donkeys headed up into the hills. It looked like a steep hike and that wouldn’t have done my tendon any
good, so I never did discover the ultimate destination of the donkeys. Still, I
would recommend the donkey walk to anyone visiting Gondar.
In Bahar Dar Scott saw the headwaters of the Blue Nile
during a spectacular downpour while I had a close encounter with an escaped
crazed monkey in the campground.
In Harar, children held our hands while we walked around
inside the old city walls. At night we fed raw meat to wild hyenas from the end
of a stick that we held between our teeth.
Well, I did. Scott had no desire to
get within ten feet of the steel jawed carnivores that regularly roam the
alleyways of Harar. (If the video actually uploads, you can see me feeding them by clicking on the photo link
below.)
In Addis Ababa I spent a day at the Hilton enjoying their
sauna, steam, and Jacuzzi with a few of the girls from the truck and considered
booking a massage after I saw a billboard for a day spa where one kitty is
giving a massage to another. Puuurrr.
In Awassa I visited the fish market and tried to keep the
blue-ballied monkeys (I can’t remember what they are really called but
blue-ballied is the more descriptive name for them anyway- see photos!) away
from our picnic lunch on the bank of beautiful Lake Awassa.
Everywhere in Ethiopia we watched World Cup Football
usually in a bar packed with locals who were politely supportive when either
the US, Australia, or England were playing, just because they guessed that’s where
we were from.
Lastly, in Ethiopia, for the first time ever in all our
travels to Africa, when we lifted our cameras to take photos of locals, they were
often already taking photos of us with their cell phones.
In a few days, when they’ve finish loading (I’m not kidding.
Internet connections are just that slow) you will be able to check out photos
of the crazed monkey and all the Ethiopia photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/scottandtris/EthiopiaUpdate
Next: Playing Scrabble With the Samburu Tribe in Kenya
Kwaheri! (Bye in Swahili)
Scott and Tris,
Kigoma
.
