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-- Log 11 --
Addis Ababa – New Flower in
Amharic
Arrived on a rainy Saturday afternoon, after a challenging time on the
highway with the driving on the right hand side thing! Town driving is a
lot more challenging than driving on the rural roads. Even reached the
Mr and Mrs stage! Ah well…
With Sue driving and Den navigating we missed the hotel road by about
200m and managed to get ourselves back into a section of town. Finally
we asked a very friendly traffic officer how to get to the hotel. He
offered to take us there. We kicked ourselves when we saw how close we
had been, we did renew our faith in Dennis’ navigation though. Sue
managed to upset a driver by cutting in front of him when turning down a
major intersection and trying to drive on the left hand side of the
road! Dennis took the traffic officer back to his beat, all the way back
the officer complained about his poor salary and how good a tip would
be!!!! Dennis forgetting to keep right hit the island and promptly went
left – which left the officer speechless, and half frightened to death!
Fortunately the traffic was not too bad, so he was able to do a u-turn
and get out of his predicament. The traffic officer was very quick to
get out of the car!
Bel Air Hotel – Addis Ababa – N09.01.905 E038.46.418 – 7 873 ft amsl –
30 Birr ppn – 07 July 2002
Sunday found us taking a walk to have a look at the city, and to get our
bearings. We had to put up with the usual ‘you, you, you’ ‘give me
money’ etc and the beggars. They are irritating but not too difficult to
turn down. We ended up on Bole Road at a delightful café called Pizza
Deli Roma – which was recommended in the Lonely Planet – we agree the
pizza is worth crossing town for. We caught a taxi back to the hotel –
no problems and a fair rate was charged.
A young man by the name of Derej, a taxi driver, befriended us, and said
he could take us to the Embassies we needed for a very good rate, the
Sudanese visa would take two to three days – no problem. Dennis agreed
on a rate of 200 Birr – understanding that would be the payment for the
whole exercise! As it turned out we paid this exorbitant amount for very
little – to the SA Embassy, Sudanese Embassy and an Internet café, which
should not have cost more than 70 Birr! We were very disappointed and
are now extremely wary of taxi drivers, so we walk to where ever we want
to go – nothing wrong with that – we get to see much more of the city.
We have our letters of recommendation from SA Embassy and Sudanese
visas, now we are waiting for Henri and Jenny. While we are waiting, we
tried to find out some information from the Egyptian (they could not
help us – go to Khartoum they say) and Libyan Embassy who gave us quite
a run around, we walked there a few times, and finally they said they
only issue visas to Ethiopians – so we must go to Khartoum! This is
making any forward planning extremely difficult!
Still no sign of Henri and Jenny so finally we decided to try and make
contact with them via the Internet, and received the very sad news that
Jenny had contracted malaria in Uganda and had passed away, and that
Henri had returned to PE. We were absolutely devastated by the news, and
spend a couple of days in total shock! Finally we pick ourselves up,
dust ourselves off, and started to make plans to move on. We made
contact with Bridget via her email address, which was given to us by
Andy, a South African we met in Nairobi, before we went to Uganda.
Bridget and Thomas travelled to Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan in February
2002, so she has been able to give us some vital information about the
areas. She also inspired us to actually attempt this section of the trip
– many thanks Bridget. So now with a plan, we once again head to the SA
Embassy to get letters of introduction, this time for Djibouti, Eritrea,
Saudi (we may have to use this route – depending on what transpires with
Egypt and Libya Embassies in Khartoum). The Djibouti visa took 24 hours,
and we are now set.
Claire of Computech Kenya came through to us with some good news about
our HP digital camera. HP has agreed to the warranty and has replaced
the camera! Our thanks to all concerned who helped to resolve our
problem.
16th July 2002 or Ethiopian date 09/11/1994 we celebrated our 25th
wedding anniversary! Dennis had arranged a coffee ceremony with the
hotel for 8.00. He thought a.m. and as it turns out they thought p.m.!!
So no coffee ceremony with breakfast – we were both very disappointed.
We had decided that we would not buy each other gifts, but that we would
rather get a couple of footballs for the street children, who play
football with rolls of plastic bags. It was such a joy for us to be able
to give something to these children. Obviously they all want their own,
so there was much begging and pleading with painfully pathetic looks for
us to give them a ball. It still gives us joy to hear the children
playing in the street.
We thought we may have started something we would not be able to finish,
the next day as we walked into town, we were mobbed by the children,
this time they shook our hands and said thank you! It brought tears to
our eyes!
We celebrated with a quiet dinner and a bottle of champagne brought from
Nairobi. At 8.00 p.m. we were invited to the elusive coffee ceremony! To
our utter surprise the staff had gathered the other guest in the hotel
and invited them to join us as well.
The Hotel owner gave us a bottle of Ethiopian red wine, and the Ceremony
was a gift from the Hotel staff. The ceremony was very special for us
and it truly made our anniversary very precious! We even had a bash at
Ethiopian dancing!
![Coffee Ceremony – 09/11/1994 (16/07/2002)](log11/image002.jpg)
Coffee Ceremony – 09/11/1994 (16/07/2002)
![Hotel guests joined us on our special day](log11/image004.jpg)
Hotel guests joined us on our special day
![Coffee Ceremony](log11/image006.jpg)
Coffee Ceremony
![Ethiopian dancing](log11/image008.jpg)
Ethiopian dancing
Ethiopia is a land of kings and legends it has a fascinating history and
is rich in tradition and culture. Although nearly half the population
adheres to the deeply rooted Christian faith of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, a large percentage is Muslim, and there are some who practise
ancient forms of Judaism. The people are incredibly friendly and
hospitable, no matter what their social status. Ethiopia is a very
colourful country, with beautiful scenery.
The country’s rich tapestry of history is woven with fascinating facts
and legends – there are tales of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;
the journey of the Ark of the Covenant, which is now said to rest in
Axum, the growth of the ancient Axumite kingdom and the birth of
Christianity and the introduction of Islam.
Amongst the rare books at the National Library are the four Gospels, an
early fourteenth century illuminated manuscript, and the Pauline
Epistles, a fifteenth-century manuscript found at the monastery of Lake
Haik. There is an Old and New Testament, which is made from 500
sheepskins and which took five calligraphers five years to produce.
Enough sight seeing … back to work.
The repair that was done on MR W to try and stop further cracking on the
canopy has not been successful. There is a garage called General Motor
Co, which is 200 m down the road from the Bel Air Hotel, so we asked
them if they could weld the cracks – at least the wet and dust would not
get in. The lady at reception said the job could be done but not the
same day as the paint needed to dry. Dennis said he does not need paint,
just the welding done – nope that was not possible – it is not
professional! All we want is some welding done, eventually the manager
came out to see what all the fuss was about. After much discussion he
agreed to just do the welding job. The guys did a brilliant job of the
welding and even managed to get their way, and paint where they had
welded. The job was done for free. We were so grateful. The people at
General Motor Co were fantastic. The Manager came and had a drink with
us at the hotel, and invited us to his home for lunch the next day! Mr
and Mrs Abebe gave us an incredible welcome and laid on an extensive
spread! We enjoyed spending time with you and your family – thank you
very much! We look forward to being able to reciprocate when you visit
South Africa.
Ethiopians have a wonderful sense of humour. There is a ‘homeless’ man
who lives under a shrub and a piece of corrugated iron. He has bits of
coloured paper and tinsel as ornaments at the doorway to his ‘home’. We
pass his stretch of road every time we go to or return from town. Every
time he sees us, he grabs his blue bowl and rushes over – jabbering away
in Amharic. He always has a cheery smile, or laugh, and manages to make
us laugh. His mime and antics are a delight – eventually he managed to
get us to place a few Birr in his bowl!
It is time for us to move on – we plan to visit Bahir Dar and Lake Tana
to visit the island monasteries, to see the Blue Nile Falls, from there
go over to Lalibella to see the rock hewn churches, then to take a
shortcut through to Dessie and Mille and onto Djibouti. We will have to
spend some time in Djibouti Town in order to get our Eritrean visa, and
from there we will follow the coast through to Eritrea through the
Danakal Depression (Afar country – one of the hottest places on earth)!
We hope to be able to do some snorkelling in the Red Sea and then will
go onto Sudan, turning west for Khartoum. It is quite a drive, many
kilometres and challenging conditions. The GPS is going to be put to the
test!
![Rest in peace Jenny, we will miss you enormously](log11/image009.jpg)
Rest in peace Jenny, we will miss you enormously
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