The Apinautica - Bahir Dar

[emo_snal]

Continuing "the book." Any and all feedback to be yes plz.

( Previously)

BAHIR DAR

Wednesday, April 25th [2012], Day 19, 6:30am - I realize at once my mistake. The severe-looking woman manning the airport baggage x-ray machine has just pulled from my bag a flat six-inch-long by inch-and-a-half-wide piece of stainless steel, bent ninety

Comments

[chocolate_frapp]

I haven't been commenting much but I want to tell you I find this a really interesting read.
I had my bottle opener confiscated at airport security.

[emo_snal]

Thanks!

My silliest airport confiscation was when i had a wooden gavel i had just won at a Model United Nations convention and they wanted to confiscate it at Sacramento Airport. Finally we compromised that they could confiscate the shaft and leave me with the engraved head piece of the gavel. I was able to later buy a new shaft for the gavel but i was pretty unimpressed with the whole occurrence. A gavel is literally a symbol of justice and would probably break if one tried to use it as a weapon

[chocolate_frapp]

the TSA person who confiscated my bottle opener spoke very bad English and told me I was going to get arrested when she intended to tell me I WASN'T going to get arrested. This wasn't even the worst experience I had with TSA people.

[emo_snal]

O:

My scariest TSA-like moment was when a plainclothes Turkish police officer took me down to the basement and interrogated me when I passed through Turkey. That was far too scary.

[engarian]

Oh, what a lovely waterfall - I'm a total waterfall addict.

The crowns are more than likely real - that style of wirework and metalwork has been done for centuries. They're quite lovely. It's too bad you got some of the reflections in the photo so that not every placard can be read easily.

"He introduces himself as Terefe with OCAV-ODCA [fun fact, I've just reversed and slightly changed the name of the actual organization here, which is ACDI-VOCA]" - OK, I'm wondering why you felt it necessary to change the name of the organization and/or tell the reader that you did so. It seems rather silly from the POV of your reader.

It seems that the people are quite hospitable. I assume you were charged (or donated) something for the coffee? And that the boat was hired, not there for free. You might have mentioned that you hired the boat, but the coffee seemed totally off-the-cuff, which I rather doubt.

Still, I'm finding myself eager to read this chapter.

- Erulisse (one L)

[emo_snal]

Oh the stuff inside the square brackets is not actually in the intended text but an aside to the LiveJournal readers. I thought i should change the organization's name just in case they find they don't like their portrayal and get mad about being in my book. ACDI-VOCA i think i definitely have to change because they don't always come across best and they've already complained to me once when i criticized them in a Facebook comment. The other organization i work for, Winrock, I'm undecided if I'll have to change since i think everything i have to say about them is positive. When i finish the book maybe I'll ask them.

And yeah i paid for everything, everything was just a few cents (a common monthly salary is just $12 there), maybe i should make it more clear i was paying for everything

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[aerodrome1]

I really like this. I hope you will make it into a chapter in a real travel memoir.

[emo_snal]

Thanks! That's what I'm working on! (: You can read there first three chapters here. And I'm currently posting the fourth chapter in about 2000-3000 word segments on Sundays.

(current organization pattern is whole countries as chapters and individual "days" as sort of mini chapters)

[aerodrome1]

Excellent!