Breath-taking Ethiopian Landscape

October 25^th, 2007

So we left yesterday and we are finally in Sasiga. Our drive was long yesterday. We covered over 300 km. the road was only good part of the time, but the view was spectacular. It’s indescribable. So green, with rolling hills and many different colors of grass. It’s like patchwork. There were even yellow flowers that covered various patches of land. “Lion King” trees (actually called acacia) were everywhere as well. They’re flat-topped ones.

I sat in the front seat the whole way next to Kidus who is very chatty. I had some good talks with him, but he can be very exhausting. It’s probably a good thing I sat next to him or I would have been very bored and the drive would have felt even longer. We stopped for lunch at a random spot and had some really good meat with bread that Hannah made. Hannah was a young woman who traveled with us. She is an FH accountant. She is very beautiful with braids in her hair and curls on the ends and with a beautiful smile. Another woman named Zoudanash traveled with us as well. She had to sit in the very back with our luggage. She was really sweet.

We sang songs in the vehicle to entertain ourselves. We topped again and I chased after a horse that wouldn’t let me pet it. Meanwhile, Kate took pictures of the locals who were very excited to see themselves on the back of the camera. They probably only every see their reflections in water.

Our driver was called Tesfaye and he was really sweet. He was always concerned about our well-being. We stopped at a café which had a shell logo on it, which is quite humorous to me. Just when we started to drink our beverages, a bus pulled in. it took great pains trying to park and I foresaw what happened next. It scraped the side of our Land Cruiser and we could see the Land Cruiser shaking from the impact. The driver came out and wouldn’t apologize which infuriated Kidus. The driver said that things like that happen all the time. I thought that if things like that happen all the time to him that he shouldn’t be a driver! So Tesfaye, Tekle, and Kidus reasoned and argued with the driver in Amharic for a long time while us girls sat there wondering what they could possibly be talking about. Then the traffic police arrived. More arguing ensued. More confusion from my end. We finally left and Kidus said that the policeman must have been bribed because of the things he said. But it was finally worked out somehow. As we kept driving Tesfaye kept talking about the ‘accident’ because he was really upset. So I kept suggesting that we sing in order to forget about it. It worked sometimes. They would sing a song in Amharic and then Kate and I would sing a ‘ferenji’ song. Sometimes Kidus would join in because he speaks really good English and knows many English songs. Ferenji is what they call white people in Ethiopia. It is taking some getting used to since we are used to Muzungu which was what we were called in Uganda and Rwanda. Ferenji is derived from the word French.

When we were nearing Nekemt, which is the city nearest to Sasiga, I started to feel sick, so we pulled over. I though it was because I hadn’t eaten much, but I’m not so sure now. I ate an orange, which helped. When we arrived in Nekemt we stopped at a restaurant to eat and I had a little bit of rice. I could barely eat. That night Kate and I had a whole house to ourselves. It had three bedrooms and a bathroom with hot water. We went to bed early and at about sun up I felt sick so I had to get up. My heart was pounding and my stomach was queasy. I puked. I went outside to get some air and noticed the loud buzzing. I knew what it was right away. I had been forewarned of the bees. Sure enough, there were a few huge ones buzzing around the porch. In the distance I could hear roosters crowing, dogs barking, and birds chirping. As I stood on the porch I wanted to go home so bad. I finally felt well enough to sleep again.

After 9 am, the men picked us up and we went to breakfast. I drank tea and tried to get some food down. We met a few men who would be living at the compound we would be staying at in Sasiga. It took us forever to leave Nekemt because they kept stopping places to buy food and other things. Kate and I were anxious to get to Sasiga and to get out of the vehicle. But we kept to reminding ourselves again that “We’re in Africa, baby!” We were told that the drive should take 45 minutes to an hour, but we didn’t get to Sasiga until late afternoon. On the way we had to cross a couple streams in our vehicle. Kidus kept stepping out of the Land Cruiser to take photos of our vehicle on rough terrain. Tekle kept telling us ‘Dad jokes’ which are jokes that are pretty cheesy and ones that dads typically tell. He is a great guy who has helped us feel at home. He likes to say ‘your friends are there’ which is supposed to be from a movie.