Monday morning, July 4, we loaded up at 6 am. I had again eaten something that was not agreeing with me. Some how I have been way more sick or gastrologically irritated this time. In any case I was a bit worried about the long trip but decided I really couldn’t cancel and I was feeling ok.
Tomeskge picked me up and then we went to get Bekele. Tomeskge is a bit on the rounder side average height and very jolly. I was exhausted so it was hard to stay awake, but I managed to be polite and get him to promise me that he would back me up when we got Bekele and I insisted on sitting in the back. They have paved Bekele’s road, which if you remember from last year I dubbed the worst road in Addis. It was now quite nice. And sure enough I had to enlist Tomeskge’s support as Bekele started in on his “no chief, chief, you must sit in the front, you are the guest chief, sit in the front.” He addresses every one as chief, at least if he knows them. I won the argument thankfully.
The second problem with the travel was in part due to Bekele’s acclimatization and the fact that the rains really haven’t come. He had told me we were going into the highlands where it was cold. Well it was damn hot. So the bag of extra layers was useless and on my return this morning I gave the landlady some very smelly clothes for washing. She gets paid $12 a month to do the wash, and iron.
So the first three hours I nodded out and in, hilly and mountainous country, fairly green because of the light rains and fog, but again while its getting some, this is supposed to be non-stop rain for about 6 weeks, which is pretty much the only rain for most of the year, so…. We stopped at ten to get coffee, dangerous but needed. Dangerous because of the stomach. The coffee is soooo good here. We then went about a mile farther and got breakfast. Roast sheep – tibs. Very good but not something I’m used to for breakfast.
Then back to the car, the Toyota Land Cruiser. Maaaan, they should make an advert that says something like “where no one wants to go we are the trusted car of the world.” We drove through some high mountain passes, got out to take some pictures and stair down at the valley below. Breathtaking. We were so high, the air so thin, and the beauty of it all. It was very green. The valley’s some of the most fertile in Ethiopia because of the mountain rain run-off, this now in jeopardy because of the very little rain. Some men appeared out of no where, we were no where, but one thing I have learned is that it does not matter where you are in Ethiopia, some one is walking, often many people, often dogs, often goats, cows, and camels, not always near their owner. The men approached and wanted to sell us hats. They were woolen, striped, cylindrical, with a feather out the top, and very similar to some Peruvian styled hats. I didn’t buy any. Pretty but not my style.
Back to sweaty bumpy drive. The road is paved, but full of dips, not holes just molded bumps with insane bus drivers. We saw a lot of accidents after the fact. I must hand it to Tomeskge the driver. He kept us going, alive, with very few real scares.
We arrived at a high mountain pass. Traffic was backed up for several kilometers (I could do the math and convert to miles but why bother). There is a tunnel through the mountain that is under repair. Tomeskge muttered something and swerved out around the parked traffic and then took a right up the mountain on a very rocky road. After, yes more kilometers, we all got out to relieve ourselves as we had been bumping up and down at a too fast rate. It took about a half hour to take this crazy switch-backing road of rocks, rocks the size of your fist, not gravel, to get to where the tunnel would have taken us. Then we got some truly great coffee. Then on again.
We stopped suddenly, jolting me awake. My two friends were excited. I could only see the road we were turning off and the dusty dirt road we were pulling into that had chairs and a table set near a shack. They explained we were going to have fresh fruit. I thought, oh god any progress on my stomach that I have made is going out the window. It was bowls of papaya covered in ice, water from it melting, sugar, and lemon. I looked at Bekele and said, are you sure the water is clean, and he said he was, that in fact he knew their well and it was as clean as it gets. Lots of thoughts on that went through my head, but I ate. It was very good, and seeing that it was about 100 degrees now, as we had come back down a bit, it felt very good. As I was eating, a preying mantis fell in my bowl. He was kind of aggressive, trying to attack my fingers. I used my spoon. I made every effort to be gentile and got him off the table only to see the young women of the establishment stomp it. Made me laugh. No one understood. Oh well.
We arrive in Kombulcha at about 2 pm. I was told that it was as far as we would go. That was strange, but I was glad to be out of the car. They don’t use the air-conditioning much. In fact they often are still wearing their coats, while I am thinking if I don’t strip down to a t-shirt soon I am going to die. We immediately hit a speed bump at the hotel where because I was a Ferengi (foreigner), they were going to charge me about twice the rate. This had Bekele furious, which is not something one sees everyday. Tomeskge took over and we ended up putting my bill on Bekele’s so as not to screw up some policy of the hotel. In all the hotels I have stayed this is the first time for that. Ferengi was just foreigner to me last year, but I learned this year it is more a title of awe and respect than a slur, somehow it celebrates elegance and knowledge that foreigners have. This goes with the incredible hospitality and generosity that Ethiopians show to all guests.
More to post tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment