Traveling Like a Local (Ethiopian style) -- Part One
(a couple weeks back)
After returning to Jinka, covered with dust, and with a cup of it up my nose and in my lungs, I took a cold shower. The same dusty clothes returned to my body, as I didn't want to waste a fresh set on a travel day. After a quick dinner it was off to bed early -- the next morning would be an early one.
Catching a bus in Ethiopia is always a pre-dawn affair. Buses are not allowed to drive at night, so they start very early. Vlad and I joined up with Borut and Eva, and their guide, Anteneh. (Everyone calls him Antony, but hi name is Amharic, and actually pronounced more like Anteneh, or maybe Antuhnuh. There are no true English equivalents to some of the ounds in Amharic.)
The five of us crammed into the back seat of a bus, only to be joind by one more. Several sleepy hours later landed us in Weyto. Here we would wait, and ask every truck passing through if it was going to Turmi, our final destination.
We breakfasted on injera. We read. We napped. I wrote a bunch of postcards.
Seven hours later we heard that the truck to Turmi had come through the day before around seven PM. That would be in another three hours. Ouch.
When the truck finally came, it was full to overflowing with goods and people already. some things came off the truck for delivery, and we all piled on. the bar that runs the length of the bed -- which people uually hang onto (above their heads) for balance, was instead used as a seat for several of us.
A few of the other passengers tried to get me to pay their fares for them (half of what we paid, by the way) but gave up when I pretended not to know what they were trying to say. the pretty young woman sitting behind Vlad told Anteneh she wanted to take him home, but Anteneh replied that I would kick her if she tried. I laughed and gave her the waggling "no" finger with a smile. She really got kick out of that.
We finally pulled away, only to stop a block away to pile on more goods. Night had fallen by the time we really got going.
It was a beautiful drive. People chatted away. The temperature of the evening was perfect. There were a million stars out. An old woman sang local songs.
Hours later, everyone was tired and cranky. The old singing woman was crushing my Eva's legs, and a Hamar man was crushing mine. Every bump in the road was an unbearable pain through my behind (remember, I was sitting on a bar). A guy grabbed Eva's ankle, and Anteneh got up and cuffed him in the head.
When we finally arrived in Turmi, after midnight, the town was dark and deserted. The only power here is provided by generators. Anteneh took us to his friend's hotel, but they were full. In fact, all the beds in town were full. The kind people at the Tourist Restaurant put us up for the night. Eva and Borut got the security guard's bed in the rec room, and Vlad and I slept outside, on a mattress, under a mosquito net. As bad as it could have been, I slept pretty well, though the eary rise of the locals meant a short rest.
I did a whole lot of nothing in Turmi. While Vlad went to see some villages, I took care of our accommodation for the next night. I read, and lazed around. I hung out with the local children. The next day we would catch another truck out of town.
In the morning, still wearing the same clothes from days before, because there were no showers in this dusty town, we went back to the Tourist Restaurant to await the truck. As we waited, Vlad started to feel ill. By the time the truck arrived, he was feeling horrible.
Luckily, the four people in the cab were willing to squish even further to make room for a sick Faranji. I hopeed into the back of the truck with Botur, Eva, other passengers, a radiator, a bag of manure, several sheep, and a bunch of other bags of an unidentifiable substance. Getting in, I stepped down on one of the unidentifiable bags, earning a shout and a glare from one of the guys on the truck. Oops, sorry!
The two men accompanying the bags seemed very protective of them. Every time we stopped they shouted at people not to step on the bags. Sitting on the bags was not an allowable practice either. The bags looked like they were filled with liquid of some sort, and when one of the protective guys moved one, he wiped something dark on his pants leg. I thought maybe it was oil, so I made sure not to let my bag touch the stuff.
Eventually I was told that the bags were filled with honey. Gallons upon gallons of honey! :) I could see then why the men were so protective.
We arrived in Konso as the sun set. Eva and Borut would continue on with the truck, so we said goodbye and went off to find a room at a (for once) comfortable-looking hotel for the sick man. Vlad and I checked in, and Vlad got himself horizontal on the bed. He was feverish, so I administered some Panadol (Tylenol) and made him drink water and a packet of rehydration salts.
I went downstairs to ask the staff something, and ran into Borut and Eva. The truck driver had decided that five people was not enough to continue with, and decided to stop for the night. D'oh! I found our hotel man and asked him for another room for them, but the hotel was full. Double d'oh! As Eva and Borut went off to search for a room elsewhere, the man said they could come back if they needed to, and he would put a mattress in our room for them.
About fifteen minutes later, our friends were back. We were lucky the staff was so helpful -- at least they had a place to sleep!
We all took cold showers, ate a little, drank swigs of Borut's home brew of honey and moonshine, and passed out.
Vlad's fever broke in the middle of the night, and Eva and Borut left a short while later to catch their pre-dawn bus.
This is as good a place as any to break up the entry. There is plnty more Ethiopian travel to cover, and I have little time in which to do it.
Back in real time, in Nairobi, I am booked to leave tomorrow for a safari to Ngorongoro Crater, in Tanzania. It will be a few days until you hear from me again.
Leave a comment in my New Journal
After returning to Jinka, covered with dust, and with a cup of it up my nose and in my lungs, I took a cold shower. The same dusty clothes returned to my body, as I didn't want to waste a fresh set on a travel day. After a quick dinner it was off to bed early -- the next morning would be an early one.
Catching a bus in Ethiopia is always a pre-dawn affair. Buses are not allowed to drive at night, so they start very early. Vlad and I joined up with Borut and Eva, and their guide, Anteneh. (Everyone calls him Antony, but hi name is Amharic, and actually pronounced more like Anteneh, or maybe Antuhnuh. There are no true English equivalents to some of the ounds in Amharic.)
The five of us crammed into the back seat of a bus, only to be joind by one more. Several sleepy hours later landed us in Weyto. Here we would wait, and ask every truck passing through if it was going to Turmi, our final destination.
We breakfasted on injera. We read. We napped. I wrote a bunch of postcards.
Seven hours later we heard that the truck to Turmi had come through the day before around seven PM. That would be in another three hours. Ouch.
When the truck finally came, it was full to overflowing with goods and people already. some things came off the truck for delivery, and we all piled on. the bar that runs the length of the bed -- which people uually hang onto (above their heads) for balance, was instead used as a seat for several of us.
A few of the other passengers tried to get me to pay their fares for them (half of what we paid, by the way) but gave up when I pretended not to know what they were trying to say. the pretty young woman sitting behind Vlad told Anteneh she wanted to take him home, but Anteneh replied that I would kick her if she tried. I laughed and gave her the waggling "no" finger with a smile. She really got kick out of that.
We finally pulled away, only to stop a block away to pile on more goods. Night had fallen by the time we really got going.
It was a beautiful drive. People chatted away. The temperature of the evening was perfect. There were a million stars out. An old woman sang local songs.
Hours later, everyone was tired and cranky. The old singing woman was crushing my Eva's legs, and a Hamar man was crushing mine. Every bump in the road was an unbearable pain through my behind (remember, I was sitting on a bar). A guy grabbed Eva's ankle, and Anteneh got up and cuffed him in the head.
When we finally arrived in Turmi, after midnight, the town was dark and deserted. The only power here is provided by generators. Anteneh took us to his friend's hotel, but they were full. In fact, all the beds in town were full. The kind people at the Tourist Restaurant put us up for the night. Eva and Borut got the security guard's bed in the rec room, and Vlad and I slept outside, on a mattress, under a mosquito net. As bad as it could have been, I slept pretty well, though the eary rise of the locals meant a short rest.
I did a whole lot of nothing in Turmi. While Vlad went to see some villages, I took care of our accommodation for the next night. I read, and lazed around. I hung out with the local children. The next day we would catch another truck out of town.
In the morning, still wearing the same clothes from days before, because there were no showers in this dusty town, we went back to the Tourist Restaurant to await the truck. As we waited, Vlad started to feel ill. By the time the truck arrived, he was feeling horrible.
Luckily, the four people in the cab were willing to squish even further to make room for a sick Faranji. I hopeed into the back of the truck with Botur, Eva, other passengers, a radiator, a bag of manure, several sheep, and a bunch of other bags of an unidentifiable substance. Getting in, I stepped down on one of the unidentifiable bags, earning a shout and a glare from one of the guys on the truck. Oops, sorry!
The two men accompanying the bags seemed very protective of them. Every time we stopped they shouted at people not to step on the bags. Sitting on the bags was not an allowable practice either. The bags looked like they were filled with liquid of some sort, and when one of the protective guys moved one, he wiped something dark on his pants leg. I thought maybe it was oil, so I made sure not to let my bag touch the stuff.
Eventually I was told that the bags were filled with honey. Gallons upon gallons of honey! :) I could see then why the men were so protective.
We arrived in Konso as the sun set. Eva and Borut would continue on with the truck, so we said goodbye and went off to find a room at a (for once) comfortable-looking hotel for the sick man. Vlad and I checked in, and Vlad got himself horizontal on the bed. He was feverish, so I administered some Panadol (Tylenol) and made him drink water and a packet of rehydration salts.
I went downstairs to ask the staff something, and ran into Borut and Eva. The truck driver had decided that five people was not enough to continue with, and decided to stop for the night. D'oh! I found our hotel man and asked him for another room for them, but the hotel was full. Double d'oh! As Eva and Borut went off to search for a room elsewhere, the man said they could come back if they needed to, and he would put a mattress in our room for them.
About fifteen minutes later, our friends were back. We were lucky the staff was so helpful -- at least they had a place to sleep!
We all took cold showers, ate a little, drank swigs of Borut's home brew of honey and moonshine, and passed out.
Vlad's fever broke in the middle of the night, and Eva and Borut left a short while later to catch their pre-dawn bus.
This is as good a place as any to break up the entry. There is plnty more Ethiopian travel to cover, and I have little time in which to do it.
Back in real time, in Nairobi, I am booked to leave tomorrow for a safari to Ngorongoro Crater, in Tanzania. It will be a few days until you hear from me again.
Leave a comment in my New Journal