Everyone is on board and we're on our way
Week 3 in Ethiopia begins
Well I’ve once again seen and done a great deal in my week in Addis. I guess first of all my weekend was actually spent out of Addis and it was quite a wonderful experience. I saw all sorts of amazing things both good and bad, but most of all I saw 28 excited children and another 9 excited adults all having a fabulous time doing things for the first time – over and over.
We set out early in the morning before daylight – that was interesting in itself, getting everyone organized. There was a businessman who supports the centres sometimes who lent us a bus he has, and the driver, so that wasn’t a cost and we could all go in the one vehicle. Getting the bus up to the house through the very narrow, rocky streets took a while. We loaded 12 girls, 3 women and Ermi and Henok (who had driven here by car), a very large cassette and CD player, a huge amount of food, some of it in traditional hide containers (sort of conical) and other stuff that I had bought including a lot of fruit (40 oranges, 40 apples, 10 pineapples, watermelons, 40 bananas, 12 loaves of bread etc., bread and honey for breakfast on the road and juice and snacks). And, of course, about 8 mattresses up the back. The bus had bench seats, two people on one side of the aisle and 3 on the other.
So in the dark we make our way back through the narrow, rough and rocky streets and round through more of the same to the boys’ house. There we loaded 16 boys, 2 more male adults, more mattresses, more food and then a bed on top of the bus! So this was going away for a weekend Ethiopian style. We were minus the live chooks and goats that I saw on some other vehicles, although I felt their lack marked us out.
We drove south out of Addis for about 4 -5 hours (I don’t wear a watch here so I don’t really know) through traditional villages and farm fields – very small areas of cultivation of wheat, corn, tef (what they make injera out of – we don’t have it), round mud houses of one room with thatched roofs, thorn enclosures for cattle and goats. And the pedestrians – they were everywhere all along the highway, as well as small carts drawn by either donkeys or ponies (some of them very thin) that act as taxis and trucks. I thought we’d completely lost the gearbox at one stage but we did make it eventually to Lake Langano.
As soon as we pulled up everyone was out of the bus and down to the water – a very muddy brown, obviously full of silt, and quite warm on top and cold underneath. None of the kids could swim very much at all so I gave untold swimming lessons (frog kicking didn’t cut it) and some of them got the idea, others were not so keen to keep trying, and no one could get the idea of floating or of blowing the air out in the water. Some did quite well under water. I really had to watch them as they would get out of their depth quite quickly if not constantly warned. I did have to go out after one girl – Hosanna – who was actually screaming without anyone taking any noticed at all. Often Ethiopians don’t seem to take a lot of notice – of other people talking, of pedestrians etc. etc.
I was amazed at how cold they all got and at how quickly they got cold. It seemed like just a few minutes in not really very cold water (seeing as how I could get straight in). So out they would all pile into the sand (grey, coarse, volcanic looking) and bury themselves and then once warm, back into the water. I think I satyed in trhough about 3 in and out trips. Volleyball was also the order of the day and a kick of the soccer ball.
We stayed there and had a lunch that we’d brought as a picnic – the traditional injera and chicken sauce (packed in the big containers) for everyone except me for whom some rice was bought. Some of us then went to the bar and had coffee – and then come mid afternoon we all piled back in the bus and headed for Awasa – another hour and more south. This was where we were staying the night – the kids all sleeping in a church and me in a hotel. We went to the church (a small 3 or 4 roomed mud building) and unloaded all the mattresses etc. and then down to the lake and I shouted all the kids a boat ride. None of them had ever been in a boat before so for 10 birr each (about a dollar thirty) we all took a boat ride in the sunset.
Back in the bus and off to a local restaurant for dinner for everyone. It started to rain so no campfire, for which I was almost grateful – everyone was tired and the night seemed quite late enough. They took me to my hotel which was miles away from where they were staying and down a very rugged dirt track, past the armed guard (with the SLR) and through an avenue of trees (everyone worried about the bed on top) and into my room. What can I say – very bare, two beds (with mossie nets thank goodness) and a small bedside table and then the bathroom – one of those “toe-curling” ones, so I was into bed as fast as I could. Actually, although the bed sagged in the middle it was very comfortable and I slept incredibly soundly.
Up early and the hot water lasted long enough for me to shower, I was a bit concerned about there being any – bare wiring to the small hot water service perched on the wall, no shower curtains of any sort so a flooded bathroom. Off through the fairly nice gardens past the dark green swimming pool to the restaurant for breakfast. The hotel is right on the lake so the view was good. Monkeys everywhere but not too cheeky. Lots of birds. The manager arrived and introduced himself so I found out that the hotel has just been bought by Sheik Mohammed Al-Mahoud, the extremely rich man who has built the Sheraton in Addis – he’s famous here, I guess he’s the richest bloke in town, has lots of developments going on, the government recently gave him the award of the Developer of the Millenium. So the manager told me about all the plans to build right out over the lake and to completely refurbish everything – I guess if I go back in a couple of years it will be a completely different place.
The bus came and collected me (after having delivered the bed) and we headed for Wendo Genet – over quite a lot of dirt road, up over a mountain and down again. This is a hot springs and the swimming pools are hot and there’s a shower area with the water pouring out of plain pipes. So you take a shower and then into the pools – it got too hot for me fairly quickly but the kids were in there for hours. The toilets were my worst experience yet in Ethiopia – squats with the most unbelievable smell – unisex dressing rooms were also an interesting experience.
We were there quite a while until we had lunch at a nearby hotel (monkey in the dining room and all), took lots of photos and then we headed home, arriving home quite late with everyone pretty weary, although with the extraordinarily loud singing, screaming, ululating and clapping a lot of the way home, there wasn’t much sleeping happening.
Blogger doesn't want to upload any more photos tonight - I keep getting an error message. I'll try to add more tomorrow night.
Lots of love for now
Lyndall
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