Day 149 ContinuedLater that day we scheduled having Asum drive us to the airport. He showed up right on time and it was great to see him. He’s such a great guy. We talked all the way to the airport. I missed him when he left. It was nice having a local friend. Ana as well missed him.
Our trip started the moment Asum dropped us off at the airport. We went inside the airport and immediately it was the usual chaos and disorder. Along with a bunch of people who didn’t want to do anymore than they had too. We found the right line (the one with all the authentic looking Black African people – Racist but true) and got in it. Checking in was easy and we had about 3 hours to waste till our flight. We sat around the airport and drank some coffee with the last of the Egyptian money we had. I actually had just enough to buy 2 coffee’s and tip the waiter. Perfect. Just the way I like the money to run out. That way we don’t have to double exchange the money.
After we tipped our waiter with the last money we had he smiled and told him good-bye. Nice guy. At least I though so until I found him in our terminal smoking like a chimney right beside us. Punk was creating fog for at least 2 hours. I think I lost about .034 percent of my lung capacity due to him. Should have never tipped him.
So finally we boarded the plan with a little more tar and a little less lungs. It was nice to get on board since the night was getting late and the Dramamine I took was starting to kick in. The plane jumped into the sky bouncing a bit but not enough for me to catch a quick nap before they started serving dinner. Dinner on Ethiopian Airlines was about as good as I had suspected. I’m glad we ate before we got on the plane. I think that’s the least I’ve ever eaten of a free meal.
Me and Ana were able to take up two rows of seats and stretch out. I kind of fell asleep in that gimp fetal position you have to be to lay across three airplane seats. Especially big long me. I’m sure I looked pretty stupid but I didn’t care.
Day 150 I awoke drowsy sometime around the time we started to descend into Addis Ababa. My eyes wouldn’t open so I just threw my body upright and made sure the seat belt looked secure and the seat was upright. About what seemed like a micro second after that the plane hit the runway and we bounced to a stop. I was pretty tired and not looking forward to getting off the plane at 3:30am in the middle of Ethiopia.
I was hopping we would be a couple hours late and then we would have to wait a while for our bags and by that time it would be around 5:00am and getting closer to the sun coming up. But of course the only time I wish a plane was late it was right on time. In fact we had our bags in hand by about 3:31am. Suckers.
Anyway we proceeded to head out of the baggage area and brave the sea of idiots. We decided we would try to get a taxi to the hostel we had tried to book earlier but failed to reach. No longer did we get out of the baggage area and we were being sold a taxi ride. Our nerves were low and we decided to give this taxi guy a try. He seemed some what ok. Even had a little receipt when we paid him the money to go to the hotel?
Of course it was to good to by true. When we got outside the real taxi driver was waiting in his 1910 car that barely ran. Nice. We threw our bags in and off we went. It was about 4:00am or so when we left down the road and I remember feeling it was much colder than I had ever expected. It was so cold that the windows on the taxi were all fogged up. But the guy was smart and had a rag to wipe the window with. Between that and his one bent windshield wiper you could see the blurry road perfectly.
We managed to not take out anyone of anything on the way to the hotel. We were both tired and I was crossing my fingers that the hotel as going to have room or that someone was going to be there that late at night. The driver began to tell us how dangerous the area we wanted to go too was and how we should go to another hotel he knew of. All the roads looked dangerous to me and I told him don’t worry I was also dangerous and that they should look out for me. He laughed.
We made it to a large metal gate door on the side of the road. Didn’t look like much but he said it was the hostel we wanted. Looking up there it was a small hand painted sign with the name “Baro Hotel”. As I started to get out the driver said “Quick lock the door”. I did so quickly and noticed there were two young guys walking past our car. He said be careful. By this time I knew the guy was a freak. I’m sure those guys might be dangerous but damn he was super scared. I don’t think it was as bad as Compton there. But he sure thought so. I told him don’t worry I used to role with Snoop. He didn’t understand me but Ana laughed.
After the guys were safely down the street I got out of the car and banged on the large metal door. I heard an old man saying something but I couldn’t understand so I knocked again. I was obviously irritating him but I didn’t care. I needed an answer. He finally put his head outside the door and said “Full”. That I understood and I responded to with “Shit”.
We got back in the car and I said ok what do we do now. I was low on sleep and that wasn’t what I wanted to hear at 4:30am in the middle of black Ethiopian streets. We decided to try and go another hotel. The driver started to drive and said he knew a place close to the airport. We said no and continued to argue with him as he was driving. I could tell he was bringing us to the local hotel he got a kick back from. In the end he found a place pretty close to hotel we wanted and it was open. He pulled in and said see if they have a room. I wasn’t hot on the place because it looked “fancy” for the area.
Sure enough rooms were 38 American dollars a night!!! I could buy a human being for that much in Egypt. I sucked up my pride and loosened up my wallet and decided to take the room for one night. It was about 5:00am and we were dead tired. It was kind of worth the money.
As I started to pay the driver he started changing the price on me. That little weasel. We ended up paying him about 12 US dollars to drive us around and then another 38 for the room. Man we’ve only been in Ethiopia a few hours and I hate the place. I paid the guy less than he said and Ana ran off saying “Don’t pay him anymore”. It was nice again to see her all passionate about the money. The taxi driver took off mad but I’m sure he made out big on us.
We got the room and it was no way worth the money. But it was a bed and the sun was just starting to crack the sky. We laid down and I tried to get some sleep. I was very restless and didn’t really get much sleep. But I did toss around for a while and tried to let my body get some rest.
We got up sometime around 10:00 and took a shower. We headed down stars and got our free five star breakfast from the hotel. Now my stomach was even hating Ethiopia. I tried to just relax and let myself be grumpy. It was different being in this country. It felt different when we walked out on our tiny balcony. You could see a sea of black people walking up and down the streets. They seemed like they were all walking somewhere far. The city didn’t seem laid out very well. It seemed like all the blocks we could see were miles between each other and everyone was walking between them.
Ana decided to go try and call the “Baro Hotel” and see if any rooms had opened up. Somehow she was actually able to use the phone and found out their was a free room for us. We were pretty excited. Finally something went our way. We packed up and got another taxi back to the hotel.
Upon arrival the hotel looked ok and the cost was only .25 the cost of the previous. That in itself made it look much nicer. We got a chance to talk to some of the staff and found out their were two major routes for exploring Ethiopia. One was in the North which I was familiar with. This route had allot of historic sites, etc. The other route I didn’t know about was the South route that was much more of a cultural route. They said their were a bunch of tribes and things to see in the South. Me and Ana were both immediately interested more in the South than the north. Historic sites are nice but none of them seemed that impressive. At least not after seeing Egypt.
We were lucky because we found out that their was another guy from Spain floating around and he also was looking for a group to join up with to tour the south. His name was Santi and we met him and another guy from Isreal named Nirr. We talked with them for a while and they seemed pretty cool. They mentioned they were negotiating with another guy to a10 day trip to the south at 90 American dollars a day. That 90 included a car, gas, and a driver. We said we were interested and said we were going to try and see if we could get some money out. Little did we know getting money out in Ethiopia was like getting urine from a rock.
We walked around that crazy little town for about 2 hours looking for banks that had an ATM. I couldn’t believe it there weren’t any that accepted international cards. To top things off Washington Mutual decided it was a brilliant idea to switch to the poorer Mastercard rather than Visa at the last second before our trip. That just added to the heartburn I was getting.
In the end we found out their was a massive really nice Sheraton Hotel in town and that they did cash advances for 5% of the money you pulled out. 5%. Those PUNKS! We were forced to cash all of the travelers checks we had and still take out $500 in cash advance. I wasn’t sure how much our bank was going to charge us as well but I was sure we were getting bent over to take money out. The whole process was SOOO frustrating. I can’t believe this country. I guess that was the reason we came here was to find somewhere untouched. But man that can also be a big pain in the butt.
We went back and ate some pizza at a joint close to our hotel. The one thing I noticed very quickly was that there were allot of people with a deformities in the streets begging for money. Their were a few guys with conditions I had never seen before. They were hunched over and walked like monkeys on all four limbs. They would carry blocks in their hands so they didn’t have bend over all the way to touch the ground. Their lower backs were extremely skinny (About 6-8 inches wide) and you could see the outline of their spin. I think the condition was Polio? Not sure. But if it was it was really sad to see that a simple shot I got when I was young could have stopped what happened to this guy.
Despite the distorted figure many of the people with deformities had perfect faces. Complete with a smile that would warm your heart. I tried to look at them as people and not as different people. I said hello and they smiled back many of them shy then to ask for money. It was very sad to see so many people with aggressive deformations and obvious health problems. The city didn’t seem that much poorer than allot of the world. But the people were a clearer indicator of the fact that people were so poor they didn’t have access to good medical care. It makes you feel so small and helpless to see so much and feel like there is nothing you can do. It really sad but at the same time really real. It’s what I came to see and experience and lock in my head for eternity. Real people living in world so different than mine.
After eating a wonderful pizza at the pizza place we went back to try and meet up with Nirr and Santi. We found them and they had pretty much locked down the details of the trip and negotiated the price (90 a day split between 4 of us). We were moving lightning speed into this relationship and the next 10 days of our trip but something told me to just go for it. They seemed like good hearted guys and the trip sounded incredible. So we sat down signed the contract and paid the 900 dollars for the trip. Now let’s hope the car and driver would be there the next day?
Me and Ana were exhausted by the end of the day when we signed the contract. It was about 9:00pm when all was complete and we decided to eat a little something and go to sleep. Tomorrow was the first day of the trip and we were heading out early. We weren’t 100% sure what was in store but I trusted the other guys had worked out the details and done the research. They seemed to be pretty knowledgeable on the country. Especially Santi who seemed to have done his research beforehand. Something I should have done.
After eating a little bread we headed to sleep. The bread was fresh backed and it was wonderful. I was hoping we could find bread that good everywhere. If I could then I think I could survive.
The bed was pretty bad. Old, curved, and had that musty wet smell like when nothing ever dries in a wet climate. Nice. In fact the night as pretty cold and it was filled with moisture. Not what I had expected of Ethiopia cold and moist? Despite the conditions both of us sleep like little kids on the night before Christmas.
Day 151 We woke up around 7:00am and took a shower. We’ll I guess you could call it a shower. See there is a rule we were starting to understand in Ethiopia. It’s the rule that nothing ever works at the same time. Things trade off working. It’s the rule I call the “Cal Trans” rule. One things works while all the other things don’t.
In the morning the power was working so that meant the water must not be working. Sure enough when Ana tried to flush the toilet it didn’t work. But when I turned on the water for the shower it was working? In fact it was really hot? Could this be hot water is working and the lights at the same time. YEAH.
But soon we realized the hot water worked but not the cold water? Don’t ask why just trust the “Cal Trans” rule. So rather than be able to mix cold water into the blistering hot water to cool it down we were forced to take a boiling shower. I couldn’t even hold my hand 1 second under the water it was that hot. This was the hottest water I’ve felt in all of Africa but I couldn’t cool it down. So in the end I just washed my hands and face and called it good. That’s about all my hands could stand of the water. In fact we steamed up the entire room so bad with smoke that it looked like a fire going out the door. We had to open the door to the room to let it all out. Oh Ethiopia you aren’t making my life easy.
We were happy to see our driver Bahilu outside sitting their with the Land Cruiser we were going in. He seemed like a nice guy and the car looked ok. It had bald tires but and a cracked windshield but it was still better than our car in Bolivia. We packed all our bags in and jumped in the car. We fit pretty good only being 5 of us. 2 in the front and 3 in the back. Not bad. I tried to settle in and hoped for the best in the next 10 days.
On the way out of town we stopped at a local market. We were going to try and buy some food for the next few days. I didn’t have my hopes up on the food. But when we arrived to the small market I was pleasantly surprised at the selection. Although it was the biggest and best market in town it still only took up about 20x20 feet of space. Cramped but it did have some candy bars, peanuts, peanut butter, bread, Pringles, water, wine, and batteries. All of which were essential in a 10 day safari trip. We loaded up and headed out.
On our way out of town we passed a flipped over local bus. It was pretty beat up and I don’t know how many people got hurt. It always kind of puts a knot in my stomach to see things like that. I could have been on that bus. Worse yet Ana could have been on that bus with me. That is one of my fears in these crazy countries. God willing though we’ll make it through without a scratch. Odds are I’ll probably get his walking the down the street the first day back in America. Time will tell.
As we were driving out of town the one thing that keep entering my mind was that everyone in Ethiopia walks. I mean the streets were filled to capacity with people walking. Cars had to beep and move people and cattle out of the streets to get through. The streets were equally for people as they were for cars. You could tell people were poorer and worked harder. They just seemed to be everywhere moving. That was nice change from Egypt where people seemed to be sitting everywhere doing nothing. People in Ethiopia always seemed like they were up to something. What I don’t know.
We continued to the south getting further and further from town. There were rolling fertile green hills everywhere. Occasionally there were some huts that looked very tribal. People still lived in them and you could see them sitting in the doorways or working just outside of them. The country was beautiful.
We were also the stars in the country. As we drove down the highway people would spot our white Land Cruiser and white skin and smile and wave to us. Because there were so few cars on the road people seemed to take notice on every car passing by. It was nice to feel so welcome. The people were genuinely smiling and waving. Some were asking for money or pens but for the most part they were just excited to see different people passing by and felt the need to wave and smile at them. What a great experience. Kind of like being on a float in the parade. I of course waved to people with that all to well known float wave.
About 3 hours into the trip we came up on a dusty little crowded town that was having a market. The driver asked us if we wanted to stop and check it out. I said “Is a frog’s butt water tight?” Of course we wanted to check out the market. We drove down the crowded street filled with people, dirt, animals, and all the variations of them you can imagine. We drove the car right into the center and by then had attracted a pretty large crowd of kids around the car. All of them yelling and trying to get our attention.
I was hesitant to get out. I would have to plow a few kids over just to open the door then deal with at least 20 of them at once. It was kind of exciting and I had never experienced anything like it before. I couldn’t believe we were so exciting that we conjured up such a crowd. Of course the crowd wanted to get stuff from us but they were also definitely interested in how unusual we were.
After securing my money safely in my inside pants pocket I jumped out of the car. Immeditely I was immersed in the African children mod experience. It was really fun. The kids were talking at us and trying to get our attention. There were at least 10 people touching you at all times and no matter where you went they would twist and turn to follow you. We all laughed and took off into the market to see what people were selling and what it was like.
The market was very large but also very simple. Most people just put up wooden poles with old seed bags torn open as the roofs. This created some shade and gave them a place on the dirt floor to display their goods. Most of them had carried their goods so their usually wasn’t much displayed in-front of each person. Some had coffee, some had grains, and some had flour. Simple items just laid out in the air on some cardboard or seed sacks. Very interesting.
As we got toward the back of the market there were much more sophisticated booths. These people obviously had a cart or vehicle and their goods were much more sophisticated. Things like metal pots and rubber boots were everywhere. The selections were simple but the products were machine built and really nice.
After about 25 minutes we had enough of the constant attention and smiling and laughing while people drove you nuts. Toward the car we started to take a picture with me and Ana in the market. It was really funny when one of the girls gave us a liquor bottle filled with local hard alcohol. The crowd laughed when we took the picture. It was really funny and it was nice to all the people laughing together. Really beautiful. Kind of like a large family. They all had nothing and somehow that made them all feel connected like a family. Pretty cool.
We finally settled up in the Land Cruiser and headed out. It was pretty hard to even shut the door without smashing about 20 little fingers. Bahilu laughed at us. It was obvious we were all pretty mesmerized by the experience. As we drove off we had about 50 barefoot and dirty kids running and screaming after the truck. They did it for fun. I guess their wasn’t much to do in their city. Running after cars was more fun than sitting there with nothing to do.
Pretty cool experience. I always wanted to experience that. Tons of kids and people around you. It was crazy and frustrating but also very cool. We headed down the road just fare enough for Bahilu to stop and get some Chad. I said “Chad” what’s that? They kind of laughed and said you don’t know what Chad is? They gave me the book and I read the little description. Basically Chad is a bunch of leaves you eat like a goat to get a “high” effect. They said the high was often a intellectual high and that many people will sit for 2 hours before large city and country meeting chewing Chad. Once the group has achieved a “higher” state they then start to discuss their problems and try to find answers. Now I would like to work in that country.
Anyway we picked up a large wad of limbs about 10 inches in diameter and 2 feet long and began chewing. The leaves tasted pretty bad. In fact I think the leaves in my mom’s back yard probably would have tasted better. But when in Ethiopia do like the Ethiopian’s. So I continued like a good little goat and ate my fill of leaves.
I didn’t really notice much of an effect from the leaves. I was trying to master the art of chewing the leaves and leaving them in your mouth for a long time. They tasted pretty bad so I keep swallowing them with water. But once I got better I could just chew on the same clump for an hour or so just adding a few fresh leaves every couple minutes. Was pretty fun.
Toward the end of the day I think I started to notice the grass felt really green and the environment just seemed extra magical. But it was so minor I wasn’t sure if it was just incredible or it was the Chad talking. I did though notice I was thinking more. I was more quiet and thinking deep thoughts about the universe. Like I need Chad to get all crazy like that I do a good enough job of that kind of thinking all by myself.
Later that night we got to town and got a hotel after 10 hours of driving that day. It was a pretty bad hotel but it would do. Bahilu headed out and left us at the hotel. I wasn’t sure where things were so as a group we headed out on the town to see what was going on and see if we could find some dinner.
As a group we still were getting to know each other. The experiences so far had started to loosen us up but we were still very polite and distant from each other. But we were starting to gel and that was nice. I was having a good time.
The streets of the tiny city were very black. Their weren’t many streetlight or lights really at all so it made things a little scary. Although I was a little scared I’m never that scared in small towns. There just isn’t the room for people to steal and get lost in the crowd. Usually someone will find out or know who did what. That is what makes a small town safe to me.
We found a little place the book recommended and sat down to eat. The prices were really high and I decided to try the fish soup they were well known for. Bad idea. The fish was really bad and I only ate a little of it. Luckily I ordered some bread and that was really good. The bread so far has been great and I think I will be eating allot of it on this trip.
Ana ordered a deep fried fish which was huge and not to bad. I ate a little of hers but really wasn’t that hungry. We both haven’t been eating to well. The food just isn’t that appetizing. Their also was a stray cat running under our feet the whole time and place just overall had that dirty vibe to it. The addition of everything just didn’t make you very hungry.
After eating Santi wanted to go smoke some Shisha. I was kind of up for it but a little tired. The guy from the restaurant said no problem and told us to follow him down the dark street to a place we could smoke. I wasn’t feeling to good about following this guy but we did. Eventually we ended up at a really seedy dark light bar/house with some drunk or high people on the outside tables. Nice. The guy said come on to the back.
We followed like sheep into the lions cage. At least that’s what it felt like. The guy ended up having a little area in back of the place where he brought us a Shesha and packed it for us. We sat their under the stars and Ethiopian moon smoking the Shesha. It was really nice and I really like the smoke from the Shesha. Very smooth.
We spent about 45 minutes their before deciding to head out. Ana and Nirr weren’t smoking so they were a little bored. After getting back to the hotel the power shut off. Made sense since I was about to take a shower. So I took a cold shower in the dark. I washed my cloths. I was happy at least the water worked. I was in dire need of a shower.
After the shower we jumped in our nasty little beds and put the mosquito net over us and fell asleep. Sleep like a champ. A couple times though I did wake up to mosquitoes right by my ears outside the net trying to tell me something. I didn’t want to hear what they had to say and threw the pillow over my head.
Day 152 I woke up in the morning and fell back asleep. I had some weird dreams at that point. One dream was I had to meet the father of my girlfriend and convince him I was a good guy. The dad of the girlfriend was a big business man and I had to be on my best behavior. Weird. Probably means my wife is driving me nuts or something like that – who knows?
We left our stuff at the hotel and went to go get breakfast. We had some mango juice that was really good. Everything else looked a little scary. Mango juice was good enough to get us going. Nirr ate avocado juice. I’ve never seen that before. He said it was pretty good though.
After our breakfast we headed out for the Chalsi Wilderness Park. It took a couple hours to get there on some REALLY rough roads. It was some pretty good 4x4in and Ana took it like a stud. Just in Argentina she was getting freaked out on hills the size of speed bumps. But now we were climbing some nasty vertical hills with large cliffs and she was just smiling and enjoying it. Pretty cool. That girl amazes me. I guess she’s got to get pretty tough on a trip like this. I love that she is growing and that it opens doors for us to experience more adventure together.
After a few hours of bad roads we made it to the park. It was really amazing. What you imagine in story books. We were in a safari car going down Safari type landscape. Very cool. Something I always wanted to do. The grass at this time of the year was perfectly green and oceans of it were everywhere. The mountains in the background were also amazing and I loved just to sit and watch them as we drove down the bumpy untouched road. The cool thing about all of this also was that we hadn’t seen any other tourist yet. Not in 2 days. Here we were in the middle of this beautiful park and we had it all too ourselves. I felt really lucky and privileged.
We turned a corner on a hill and there were about 8 zebras standing on the hill. It was amazing. They were so BEAUTIFUL. They seemed so unnatural standing there in black and white in a green environment. But at the same time they were so magical. Me and Ana were like little kids when Bahilu stopped the car and let us out to go take photos of them. We were giggling and keep saying “Wow their so beautiful”. They were though and I was totally fine acting like a kid.
We took a bunch of photos and walked after the zebras for about 500ft. Till finally we jumped back in the car and headed down the road to see more animals. We didn’t see allot more animals but we did see a few. Just the environment was amazing and it was wonderful to be there all by ourselves on the set of the Lion King movie. Our personal paradise. Were one of the lucky one’s to experience something like that. Really magical. I wish everyone could experience something like that.
After we finished the park we excited by heading down the same bumpy road we came in on. We got to see some wild boars in the thicker parts of the jungle and also some families of baboons. Pretty cool also to see. The ride back also included the Testsi flies. Those are flies that come in the windows while your driving and love to bite you. They got a pretty nasty bite so everyone said. I was the lucky one not to get bite. But even Ana got bite through her cloths. She didn’t like those flies that much after that.
It was pretty funny watching Santi swat Testsi flies against the window he had. He probably killed about 50 of them with his hat. He also almost broke the window he was swatting so hard. It was pretty funny watching him. He had been bite and wasn’t to excited to see them flying around him and landing on him. I probably wouldn’t have been laughing as much as I did if I got stung.
We got back to city around 2:30 and ate lunch at a local place. We all shared a large aluminum plate filled with Fil Fil. I had never had it and it had an interesting flavor. You also eat it with your hands which is a added bonus to the meal. Of course they give you one napkin that is so thin you couldn’t wipe one dirty pinky off with it.
I continued to eat but didn’t really like it that much. The Ingaro was kind of sour and the spices I just wasn’t used to tasting. But I ate it and Ana did also. I keep thinking this better not mess with my stomach.
After our hearty lunch we headed out to see the “Crocidile Market” which was a lake filled with supposedly “Huge” crocodiles. The locals say they are up to 18 feet long. I didn’t really believe them but was curious even to see 10 ft. crocs.
We “4x4ed” down to the lake shore through high shrubry and rough roads. Obviously many people didn’t go down that road. Along the shore were some old rickey boats and behind us in another Land Cruiser was the guide.
We walked across a make shift bridge of slippery logs out to the boat. I was really suppressed I made it without getting my feet wet. Ana had a guy walking alongside of her in the reeds and water holding her hand. She also made it to the boat with dry shoes. A miracle in itself.
We got on the boat and the Captin started up the .00005 horse power motor and we were on our way. We were smoking across the lake at speeds somewhere in the .0003 or .0006 mph sector. I had to hold onto my hat one time because the wind almost blew it off.
The first place our experienced Captain took us was about 50 feet from where we had just left. I saw the crocs already from when we got in the boat and they were about 8 feet long. Not very big. Big but not 18 feet big. So we checked them out for a big and I was thinking it was going to be a pretty gay crocodile show.
We proceeded to head to the middle of the large lake. At the speed we going I calculated we would be at the middle of the lake sometime early next spring. But with a little patience the little boat made it. We got next to another grouping of crocodiles. There were allot them all over the place and I was glad the boat had high sides and was made of steel. I didn’t want to be in that water with a boat from Bolivia I’ll tell you that.
We saw allot of birds and cruised along the shore for a while checking out different animals. We saw a couple hippos swimming really far out in the lake. That really surprised me since I thought they were ok swimmers not good enough to swim about 500 feet off shore. Impressive little water cows.
We finally got to a shore that seemed to have quiet a few crocodiles. From a distance you could see about 6 of them sun bathing on the grassy shore. The guy shut off the monster motor to not scare the crocs on the shore. As we were gliding in silently I was half attentive and half bored. All of the sudden I saw a HUGE MONSTER crocodile start running for the water. He was the first croc to get scared and take off for the water. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it. It was so big that it ran kind of awkward. The fat on it’s legs and chin went the opposite way of his body. I sat there with my mouth wide open saying “Shhhhhhiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuttttttt”. I have never in my life seen anything that large. It was MASSIVE and at least the size of the boat we were in. That crocodile could easily eat a cow it was so big. For being as big as it was it was able to move pretty quick. It hit the water and caused a huge splash and the whip of it’s tail made a woooosh sound.
After the first massive crocodile another one about 70% the size of the first one also made a run for the water. I started to settle back into the boat and away from the edge since both of those crocs were headed right at our boat when they rand for the water. We had them sort of pinned against the cove to the left of us and the open water behind and to the right of us. About 15 crocodiles left the beach and hit the water in total. The water filled with floating logs that were crocodiles.
The young boy on the boat grabbed the wooden pole and moved us closer to the second large crocodile that had entered the water. I was feeling so so about this. I wanted to see the croc closer but it was about the length of the boat and I wasn’t sure we had a clear advantage over him. But despite that he pushed us closer. The crocodile sensed we were coming his way and began moving out toward deeper water. He was able to walk in the shallow water and we followed about 5 feet off him as he headed for deeper water. It was IMPRESSIVE!. What a monster.
After about 3-4 minutes the croc had gotten in deeper water and the boy decided to hit him in the butt with the large stick. What was funny was when he hit the croc with the stick it made a funny hollow large “thud” sound. It was pretty funny. Dang thing was so massive even the sound was funny. And as soon as he hit the animal it swiped it’s massive tail and took off. WOW was all I could say. It was everything they ever said. I can’t explain how cool it was.
On the way back we talked with the guys and they said the crocs can be up to 70 years old. I also read later that 6 fisherman had been eaten in that lake in the last year. I was thinking that the large crocs we saw must have at least ate one person. 70 years old and no people seemed pretty hard to imagine. Man eating crocodiles. I totally can see how it happens. There were tons of them in the water. Big and small. I think at one point I counted I could see 18 of them. On bad move and you’re a gonner.
We made it back to shore and paid our captain. He of course wanted to rip us off but we strong armed him as a group and paid him only what he deserved. The sunset was beautiful on the lake and seeing all the fires and smoke on the hill made it that much more magical.
We got into town and went to eat dinner. The usual nasty Ethiopian food. On the way back it started raining and it was really nice. We were starting to feel more normal and not so weird being in this country. Ethiopian was starting to get to us and we were really starting to enjoy it and the people.
Me and Ana sleep great with the sound of the rain at night.
Day 153 Woke up after sleeping pretty good the night before. We headed out to see the crocodile farm. We got there and were over charged as usual to enter. Ana decided it wasn’t worth seeing so she stayed behind while we went with the “guide” to see the farm. He showed us some really poor boards with some information on them. Because he didn’t speak much English there wasn’t much he could do but point to the room and say “room”. I’m glad we paid for a guide.
We quickly checked out the boards and headed to the actual farm. While we were walking down the dirt road toward the farm we saw a white horse lying on the ground. It was really unusual to see that and it must have been sick. As we got closer the horse got up and you could see that it was pretty sick and the ribs were showing on the side. Our guide said the other words that he knew “crocodile food”. I was kind of shocked at the way he said it. It was with no emotion just more matter of fact. He kind of smiled when all of us looked at him funny and laughed a little. We couldn’t believe it. Poor horse. But that’s how things work down here and their isn’t much you can do. We did ask him if they kill the horse before they feed it to the crocodiles and he said they did. At least they did’nt just throw it into the pin and let them eat it alive.
We first were shown some larger crocs that were keep there just for visitors like us to see. There were 3 of them and they weren’t that impressive compared to the massive ones we saw before. But none the less it was nice to see them up close.
After the 3 large crocs we were taken to the large pins with hundreds of smaller crocs all crowded together. They let the crocs grow to about 3-5 years then kill them for their skin. They feet the meet of the croc back to the other crocs. Interesting recycling thing happening.
We checked those out for a while and were pretty cool. There were a few albino crocs which were interesting. I never knew there were such a thing. But sure enough there were 3 small crocs that were white.
After that we walked back and saw the 3 anacondas they had in a cage. Was pretty unexciting and pretty much felt like a little tourist trap. We paid the guide and thanked him for his great and knowledgeable tour. I think we ended up paying about 2 dollars a word for him.
We picked Ana up and headed back to the town to eat breakfast. Bahilu took us to a great little pastry shop. By great I mean out in the middle of Ethiopia great. They had about 4 different kinds of pastries which turned out to be pretty good. I’m not sure if they would have been good in the States but out there they were great. I actually ordered a couple extra cookies and a small bread for the road. I knew good food was few and far between so I needed to stock up whenever I found it.
After breakfast we hit the road. We were on the road for a good part of the day. The road was tough and it was hurting my old tailbone injury. I keep moving and trying to put my sweater under my butt. Nothing really worked and I just tried to get used to the pain.
Somewhere in the middle of the drive we came upon some baboons in the road. They usually hang out in a little community with about 20 of them. Some big males, some smaller females, and usually some children. We even saw a small baby baboon riding his mom like a horse. It was really cute.
Bahilu stopped the car and we got some peanuts out to feed them. They were really cool to see up close and they were pretty aggressive. The small ones were chased off by the bigger one’s who wanted all the food. One male chased another monkey for about 5 minutes up and down the road behind us. Was pretty funny to see.
One other thing we saw on the road was children. There were ton’s of children on the road begging for water bottles or money but what made these children unique was they would dance before the car got to them then put their hand out when we reached them. It was really cute. Bahilu said that it was a tribal dance for this area. Basically the dance looked something like a grotesque jumping jack. It also looked like it took some energy and athletic ness to complete. Those kids were really cute and for about an hour we saw them all doing there little dance for a bottle. We threw a couple bottles to some of the star dancers.
One other thing you see on the roads everywhere is women carrying large stacks of firewood or corn on their backs. They must walk for miles and miles because there is no city, town even house anywhere close to the areas that you see them. There like in the middle of nowhere hauling huge backpacks of wood to somewhere. Man they live a hard life and it’s really funny to see almost everyone carrying firewood or heavy products are women. If you see men they are usually with cattle or sitting in groups drinking under trees.
During our drive we stopped for lunch and had some more tibs (lamb meat with a funky kind of seasoning) and some bread. Me and Ana are sharing one meal because I don’t think either of us can stomach a whole meal to ourselves. I was sure the Ethiopian diet was going to shed pounds off my hips in no time. Better than any South Beach Diet. Maybe I should patent that? 1 month in Ethiopia and a guaranteed 30lbs off your waste guaranteed.
Anyway we headed out after lunch and stopped on a small mountain top to take a photo of the beautiful valley below. As we stopped two young children came up to us with their huge bail of corn stalks still on their heads. One was the older brother and the other was the younger sister. I don’t think the boy was about 10 years old and the girl around 6 years old.
They asked us for money and we gave the younger girl a box of cookies we didn’t really like and the young boy a pen. Although that sounds like nothing to them it was allot. It would be like a kid in America getting 20 bucks from a stranger. They were pretty excited even though they asked for more.
I took a photo of the girl and she was really cute. She didn’t really understand why or what I was doing but she stood their like a little statue in-front of the beautiful valley for a shot. The one thing I noticed about here when I was taking the photo was that the little girl had really buff arms. Here little 6 year old arms were so strong. It was impressive and sad to see. Having arms that strong meant only one thing. And that was that although she was 6 she had already lived a tough life.
I asked Bahilu to ask them where they were coming from. He asked them and they said that they had been walking for about 3-4 hours on dirt and mountainous roads to get to where they were. It was really far away in the valley below. I guess how it worked was that the children had homes in the village but the fields were down in the valley below. So everyday they walked to the crops below to get food (the corn stalks on their heads) and carried it back to the village to feed the goats. It didn’t make much sense but not much in this country does.
One thing I don’t understand about this country is why so many people walk and carry things such long distances. I mean I literally saw hundreds of women and children carrying stuff miles to other places. I keep thinking in my head why don’t they use a wheel borrow. They can make one out of wood. I’ve see it done before then they could wheel more weight further with less strain. They I was thinking why don’t they put the weight (firewood, cornstalks, etc) on the back of all the cattle that they have. The cows are strong enough. They were the same cows some of them were using to plow fields. But the more I asked people and myself those questions the more I realized there just is no answer. I don’t think people ask the same questions I am. I think they just do what they know and what has been done for probably thousands of years. They carry the weight on their head just like their mother did. They walk all day down dirt roads with bare feet because that’s what their parents did. This part of the world hasn’t yet developed the brain power to question things like I do. I think they just don’t know how and that’s why things are the way they are.
After seeing the children we headed out. The environment keep changing as well as the people. It was so amazing to see so many different climates and people in such a short distance. The tribes and each of their distinct looks and way of living was still rich visually and spiritually. Was really stunning to see a place where time really hasn’t changed that much. Tribal boundaries still present. Wow.
Along with the constant changing climates, environments, and people was the constant turning back in time. When we left Addis Ababba it seemed like a somewhat modern poor town. They had high rises being build and people wore allot of cloths that were obviously from the Western world. Shirts like Nike, Polo, 50 Cent, and even some Michael Bolton shirts were all over the place. Was funny to see at times. I’m sure they had no idea what they were wearing. But as we keep making our way the shirts were less and less and older and older. People were becoming more tribal with a blend of old and new. It was really like a time machine unfolding on the other side of the window.
Toward the evening we drove down into one of the valleys. It we obviously had lost some altitude because it started instantly getting hotter and dustier and the landscape turned into a blend of brown and green landscape.
We came upon a little wooden pole strewn across the road ahead. Bahilu asked for our passports and we gave them to him. Under the makeshift wooden gate there were two guys dressed in olive green sitting under the tree. This was a “government” gate. Bahilu talked with the guy for about 10 minutes before we knew something was really up. Bahilu was a strong negotiator and if it took more than a minute to work out you knew something was up.
So we sat there waiting for them to figure things out. Bahilu was yelling pretty loud at times and they were arguing. I was sure it was something to do with we had to pay money to get by. Some jackass with power decided we had to pay him to get by his road. We had visas and that was all we needed. But this guy was saying we needed “special papers” to get by.
We sat back and let our driver do all the talking/yelling. Finally after about 45 minutes of walking to the nearby house and talking, then coming back and yelling, then the guy poining to the road we came from and yelling we were let through the gate. The only problem was by this time the guy had picked up his machine gun and had it at his side and we were being escorted to the next city to talk to more “official people” about the matter.
So we drove down the next city with our new friend with the machine gun in the car. The gun made me a little nervous and the fact that they were arguing and yelling at each other in a language I didn’t understand made me even more worried. I’m pretty sure nothing would happen but in a country like this anything is game. The government has ultimate power.
We drove about 20 minutes more down the dirt road to the next little village. Bahilu got out and yelled at some more people. I wasn’t sure what was going on but I was starting to become sure we were going to be getting through that gate. It took about 30 minutes of yelling for Bahilu to finally get back in the car and drive back to the gate with our new armed government friend. Bahilu was pissed and I wasn’t sure what our next move was.
One thing that did happen that was pretty funny during the whole argument was that a crowd began to form outside the gate as Bahilu was yelling at a bunch of different people. One old guy keep sticking his toungue out and looking at us. It was really weird and he was obviously a tribal type guy. You could tell from his cloths and worn body that he had lived as a tribal person had for most of his life. In fact allot of the children were looking really tribal. It was nice to see that and it was the furthest back in time we had experienced. The tribal looking people were starting to outnumber the more civilized people.
Well after driving the guard back to the gate we headed back in the direction we came. Now that the guard was out of the car Bahilu was free to talk with us. We asked what was going on and he said that we had to pay “too much money” to get through. The guard and all the other guys in the city were together on the scam. They say that we need papers and if we pay them we can go through without the papers. We were so tired we probably would have paid the money. But Bahilu keep saying we had to pay “too much money”. We finally got it out of him that we had to pay 10 dollars each to get through. He told the guard he would drive 2 hours back to the previous city and get the “papers” we needed. Bahilu took it personal. He could have just asked us to pay and we would have. But instead he drove 2 hours back over hard dirt roads to the city we had passed and the next morning he would go to the Tourist Office and get some papers.
Bahilu was pretty quiet and obviously was mad from the 2-3 hours of arguing he did. What a champion negotiator. Although he lost he faught everyone. I could tell he was mad because at one cow crossing the large cow wouldn’t move so he just bumped it’s but with the bumper of the car. Was pretty funny. The cow moved out of the way after that. A little later he got so close to the cow that the cow kicked the front bumper with his back legs. It mad a pretty loud sounds and I though someone threw a large rock or something. Pretty funny. I told Bahilu I would buy him a beer when we got to town.
We arrived into the town we had lunch just about as night had fallen. We were really tired and it was nice to finally get there. My butt was killing me. It was really cool to see the little town of Consol at night. You could tell you were close because you could see a bunch of campfires on the hillside. It was really magical. Again it was like I was back in time. But it wasn’t like Disneyland it was real people cooking dinner with the only stove they had – fire and firewood.
Another thing that was interesting was that as we drove in the dark people were still carrying firewood, and corn down the streets. There was almost a full moon but the cloud cover was making the night really dark. Yet still as our lights would light the dirt road ahead you would see people scurrying out of the way to the side of the road as we came driving by in our big Land Cruiser. It was sad to see. Allot of them didn’t have shoes and they were walking down the road with a tired look on their faces. In my heart I just wanted to take the wood off their backs and put it in the truck and drive them to their village. But tomorrow when I wasn’t there they would be back to doing the same thing. I’m only a visitor. One ride wouldn’t really change anything. It makes your heart hurt and gives you the feeling you can’t change anything.
When we got to the main part of the town we got a room at the “nicest” hotel available. The restaurant next door was pretty rough and they had about 2 things on the menu. So for old times sake we had Tibs again for dinner. It was the only thing we knew they would have.
After a unsatisfying meal we headed back to the hotel. Santi wanted to smoke some Shesia. He found a guy that had one and we went over to the hotel to smoke. It was really nice and was only the third time I’ve smoked Shesia. They use a large glass bong to smoke it and it’s a community type thing. It was really fun and the smoke was really smooth. Much nicer than any cigar or cigarette I’ve smoked. We relaxed and talked a little as a group. We didn’t stay up too long before heading into bed. We were all pretty beat.
Day 154 Woke up after sleeping ok the night before. I had a cookie for breakfast and some peanut butter. Yum. At least the peanut butter was something I liked. That was nice to have found in a country like that.
The others ate some breakfast at the restaurant next to hotel as we waited for Bahilu to get the “papers” to get through the gate. One local kid followed us to the restaurant to watch us eat and sit. It was funny. He was obviously a street kid and had a really cute smile. He keep looking at us and smiling. He had so much time in his day and nothing to do that it was more interesting to sit with us for an hour than anything else he could do. He just sat there digging in the dirt with his finger and sometimes throwing little rocks. He had no shoes and he was really dirt. But none the less when he smiled he smiled as beautiful as any kid. His eyes and heart gleamed through.
I decided to show him my famous “pulling off my finger” trick. It was so funny to watch his face when I did it. He was so amazed. He sat there thinking and smiling trying to pull his finger off. He then called his other friend over to see it. I showed them both and they both were amazed. It was really funny. We got a little video. A couple other people came over and I showed them as well. They were amazed and laughed. Eventually I showed them how the trick was done. Was a really fun experience making them laugh like that.
Eventually Bahilu showed up with the “papers” to get through the fence. We headed out and after driving 2 hours down the road we had just went down the day before we got to the famous impassable gate. Our buddy was there again with his gun at his side. He wasn’t quiet so big chested this time though. Bahilu showed him the papers written in English (which he couldn’t read) and he passed them back quickly. With a look of defeat he slowly opened the gate and we passed through. Bahilu started feeling more at ease and as we were driving away he explained to us that the papers were faked. He had a guy make them in town since the Tourist Office was closed since it was Sunday. Pretty nice little scam. We all laughed.
We stopped in the little town just past the gate to eat lunch. The same town we were turned back from the day before. There was a great little restaurant owned by a proud women. We were able to get some rice and vegetables for lunch. It was really good. We were so happy not to have to eat tibs again. Me and Ana fought over all the rice that was on the plate. It was also nice to have some vegetables. It feels like we’ve been only eating carbs and meat the last few days.
After lunch we continued south down the dusty dirty and bumpy road. The terrain got a little more green as we got higher up in the mountains. There were large seemingly endless fields of corn with beautiful huts placed in the middle of the fields. This country we were passing was fertile for corn and Sogrum (Corn like plant they make Ingera out of).
As we passed the fields you could see little perches made of wood above the corn. About 1 in every 5 perches had a kid sitting in it. They were there protecting the corn from animals such as the warthog, and birds. Those kids would sit there all day and sleep there at night as well waiting for animals to come. When the animals came they would use a string and rock like David used on Goliath and scare the animals away. That was there job for 3 months when the corn was ready to pick.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to sit up on that perch and just watch the same field day and night. I don’t think I can ever know what that would be like because I always have a way out. I have family that can always lend me money or I have skill sets I can always use to make money. To be that kid and to understand the people I would need to not speak English, not have any money and have no family or special way of getting out of bad situations. If I was in that situation maybe I could understand them. I don’t think I can really ever understand what life is like for so many of the people of Africa.
One other cool thing we started seeing were massive termite or ant hills. Not sure which one’s built them but they were HUGE hills of dirt sometimes 15-20 feet in the air and about 12-24 inches wide. The bases are sometimes about 6 feet thick and then they narrow quickly into a sort of tree trunk shape going upward. I don’t think I could build a mud structure that high if I tried. Very cool little engineers. I’m not sure why they build them so high but they do.
We eventually dropped down into another valley and the weather started to change and warm up. That dry harsh heat. Wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t pleasant as well. Bahilu said we were coming up on the Ebore tribe. I though great here are some people on the side of this dirt road that are kind of like a carnival act. But pleasantly to my surprise they were much different and I felt it the second we saw the village and the people.
We rolled up in the village in our 1986 Diesel Land Cruiser. I’m sure the sound of the truck was easy to hear miles away because once we shut off the engine all you could hear was the sound of the wind and people starting to talk in the distant. We met one guy who came out and was friends with Bahilu. Soon enough like we were drowning in tribal children and women. They were everywhere. All over the car looking in at us trying to see what we were doing. I didn’t want to open the door because I knew as soon as I did several hands would be touching me and I would have to swim from then on in a sea of kids. But after checking my pocket and making sure nothing valuable could be easily stolen we jumped into the tribal sea of people.
It was a really amazing experience. We were the center of attention. One because we had money and were willing to pay it to just take a photo and Two because we were strange to them. What we did and the gadget we possessed was still interesting to them. I couldn’t believe it. They knew what tourist were and what they brought (money) but they also genuanly were interested in us. We were weird to them like they were weird to us and somehow we both sat fascinated by each other. I never expected this kind of experience and it was one I could never have imagined. Very magical, very simple, and very beautiful.
We eventually got a “guide” to show us the village which composed of about 15 houses made out of the local materials (straw and sticks). We walked with him as people tugged and pulled on our hands. They knew how to say “photo” and “1 birr” which was about 12 cents in American dollars. They keep repeating that. It was a little annoying but at the same time it was just amazing to look at the different people.
The one thing that was really evident was that there were ALLOT of children and women but not really any men. Later we asked where the men were and they said they were out relaxing or tending to the cattle. The other thing that was present was allot of bare breast. It was like “Girls Gone Wild” in the village except even the old grandmas were going in the fun. Not so nice of a sight I must say but for some reason in this environment of acceptance it wasn’t that bad or even noticeable. I though I would be like WOW look at those large African boobs. But actually not really. It seemed natural and the fact that the women didn’t wear shirts really just seemed to blend in like someone wearing shorts in America. Pretty cool. I think we should bring this custom to America. All in favor say “I”.
Anyway enough about the National Geographic nature of the people. We followed our “guide” to his house. Because we paid him he was going to let us go inside to see what was there. There were two main compartments to the house. The inner circle which was the sleeping and cooking area and the outer sort of “add on” building which served also as a bedroom during the hot months. It was more loosely build so air passed through it more easily.
Each of us went into the house. We had to unhook about 10 children from our arms to get in but once we did it was really interesting. The ceiling was about 5 feet tall so I had to crouch over inside. You also had to pass through a 3.5 foot door to get in. Also a bit tight.
So there we were all inside this little room with the “guide” signilling to us that this was his house and the kid sleeping soundly on the dirt floor was his child. He also pointed to one of the four women in the hut with us as his wife. That was there home and we were guest inside of it.
After about 1 minute Ana started to get claustrophobic. I must say I was starting to feel the same. I was sweating, bent over, and the smell of humans that never shower had a firm hold on the air in the room.
I was able to site on the cowhide bed without breaking it and that gave my back a chance to rest. The “guide” started trying to communicate with me. I thought he was saying he sleeps on the cowhide bed I was sitting on. I said “Oh this is your bed”. But after a couple minutes I realized what he was saying when he pointed to me and then signed I go away. Then he pointed to Ana and himself and signaled they would stay and sleep on the cow hide bed. It was hilarious. The tribal guy was trying to bargain with me for Ana. I was trying to see how many cows I could get for her but Ana caught on quick and put a stop to that. I think I could have fetched a pretty good price. White skin is hard to come by in Ethiopia and I think it would at least fetch 70-90 cows.
I laughed and signaled to the guy that me and Ana would be leaving together. He laughed and I got the feeling he was the tribe joker. Was really cool to see even in a group of people like this there can be certain roles like the joker, leader, pain in the butt, etc. that are filled. Not so different from human groups in America.
We decided to start taking photos and pre negotiated 1 birr for each shot. Of course they wanted more but we knew they hadn’t seen tourist for month (since it was the low season) and we set the price at 1 birr. Fair price and it allowed us the ability to take more photos. So I got one shot of Ana with 2 of the nagging women who keep tugging and saying “photo- photo-photo – 1 birr”. Then I also took a shot with a couple different women trying to spread the money around.
The one thing that was really magical and proved even more how uncivilized they were was that when the flash went off the whole house let out a “uuuuhhhh”. It was like the flash tickled their soul like a ride at magic mountain does to a kid. They laughed when the flash went off and sort of held their breaths. It was so impressive to them. It was so amazing to think a flash could fill them with half joy and half fear. Pretty cool.
The other thing that really fascinated the people was showing them their photos on the camera. They thought that was so funny to see themselves. They would look and laugh like little kids. I wonder how many times they have even seen their own faces. They almost had a surprised look when they saw themselves. It was really magical to see and it for all the world turned old ladies into little giggling kids.
After the photos we headed outside for some non-tribal armpit air and more photos. Even as we stepped out with all the commotion and craziness the child probably 3-4 years old stayed sleeping on the dirt floor without even moving.
The pack outside the door had gotten wind we were handing out birr and got even more aggressive. They were all over us pulling our arms and saying “photo – one birr”. We had to just keep being nice and saying “no thank you”.
Certain kids keep looking at my watch and touching it. They were so interested in what it was. I know they have seen them before but they have seen so few that it was still fascinating and magical to see a new one. They also keep touching my skin and pulling my blond arm hairs. I seemed to be as interesting to them as they were to me. They also thought my glasses were pretty cool. They laughed when I put them on my face. I don’t know if they even understood what they were for.
We were able to get some good shots of some of the kids and the huts. But being the center of attention and being so nice to the pack of wolves all around us soon wore us out. After about 30 minutes we were exhausted and ready to head out. We pushed the kids out of the way and squeezed in the car closing the door without smashing fingers and hands was a chore. Once inside the car there was a sense of exhaustion. Only 30 minutes but that was like running a marathon. My sense were on overload and the constant noise, crowding and attention really wore me down. Ana felt the same way.
Inside the safety of the car there was also a feeling of being dirty. So many of the people were covered in dusty dirt that can only accumulate on your skin that way after months of not taking a shower. Many of the young kids had snot running from their noses and it wasn’t uncommon to see sores on peoples faces, arms or legs from the lack of sanitary. I felt bad for feeling dirty just by touching them but the truth was I did and we used some of Ana’s alcohol based hand cleaner to clean our hands.
“WOW” was all I keep saying “that was cool”. It was a magical experience. The kids were still packed around the windows looking in and talking. Some of the kids keep looking in the side mirror at themselves. They were looking at themselves in a way that made me confident they had never really seen themselves in their lives. Something we take for granted in America.
When Bahilu started up the car all the kids jumped a little and moved back. They were genuinely scared of the loud motor sound. We backed out waved goodbye and headed out down the road.
Talking with Bahilu he said that 5 years before there were tribes in that area that would run away in fear whenever they saw a car. He said it was funny. They were terrified of the huge white beast coming down the road. He also said that 12 years before there was no travel in Ethiopia. The government didn’t let anyone in. He even said that there are still tribal warfare going on where people kill each other and then eat the body of the dead foe. After this village it was easy to see off the main road and higher in the untouched mountains I’m sure these kind of things were still going on. I mean even the village we saw on the somewhat tourist trail still drank blood and milk as a large part of their diet. All I can say is that was pretty freaking cool.
We drove down the road and eventually after about 2 hours got to our resting point for the night. The hotel was pretty nasty but it was all they had. I’m ok with stuff that’s dirty and nasty but what I don’t like is large bugs crawling around at night. Luckily I only saw one large cockroach in the urinal and none in the room area.
There was a sort of shower thing set up. A large barrel with a hose attached. The floor also in the shower was nasty and even standing on it kind of grossed me out. I can handle dirt but nasty old sick smelling stuff is another story. I took a shower quick and it was pretty refreshing despite the environment.
It was night when we finished with the showers and all of us sat down to talk and watch the world cup on a tv they had. Was funny that even in the middle of nowhere they had a tv on a generator with the game on. Pretty cool.
I talked a little with Bahilu about the local tribes. He said that women are basically traded like cattle between the men. They don’t have a say in what man they go. If their father agrees on a price (usually around 50 cows or so) the women must go with the buyer. Usually the buyer is a unmarried man or a man looking to add more wives to his collection. If your rich you can have as many wives as you can afford.
There also is quiet a process for a boy to be a man and to be ready to marry. Basically when he feels he’s ready or the elder men feel the boy is ready he is sent to spend 4 months by himself in the wild. He must fend for himself and only live off the blood of the cows. They say the blood diet makes them stronger and fatter and ready for marriage. When he marries the new wife moves into the house of the man. Once they have a baby together they must move to their own house.
We talked and watched the World Cup game. The moon was full that night and shinned brilliantly down from the sky. We were sitting in the dirt outside of the hotel and the air was perfect. There was no place I would rather be at that moment then there. Seeing the tribe earlier was magical and now we were sitting there under the silver sunlight, drinking a cold coke and watching the game. Man life is good.
After the game we headed to bed. The saying “don’t let the bed bugs bite” somehow now had a more tangible kick to it. Luckily though nothing happened that night. And if I ate some bugs in my sleep I didn’t even notice it.
Day 155 It ended up that I sleep ok that night. I had a bunch of weird dreams and I think the malaria pills might have had something to do with it. Either way I had some funky dream me and Ana were playing basketball and people started getting crazy. Then next thing I know I’m in a gun fight and protecting Ana. You know one of those Chuck Norris dreams. On top of that I had a dream my father was dying and I woke up with a deep sense that I had been crying really hard. Not the kind of dreams I like to have and in the morning was tinged with a sense that something was wrong and I just didn’t feel right.
We finally got up and I ate another cookie for breakfast and had some stale bread with peanut butter. I’m so glad I was able to find peanut butter. That stuffs a life saver. It’s hardy and filling and has allot of protein. Good stuff.
We left camp around 7:30am we headed out to now go see the Hammer tribe. The road to see them was a tough one and was beating up the car. We drove for about 3 hours to get to the small village just across the river from the Hammer tribe. The whole way there were large termite hills all over the place. Looked like trunks of trees everywhere. Pretty funny in the landscape. The hills didn’t seem to fit it. But there they were all over the place.
We got to the town and were instantly squeezed and departed from our money. These tribes are allot of money for the locals and this village seemed to have a strong abilty to muscle all of our money from our pockets. Either way we were going to pay. We were there and in the end it was well worth it. So after some bickering we were off to cross the river to see the tribe. This tribe seemed a little Disneyland ish because on the side of the river we paid the money to see them it was somewhat modern. By that I mean at least 50 percent of the people were wearing some kind of clothing from the west. Maybe not the nicest but they had it. Many people wore shirts that were half a shirt left. But it was all they had.
However the tribe was it still was old. People in the tribe didn’t go home to a fancy place after we left. They didn’t drink soda and play. They lived the lives of tribal people and that was clear from the other side of the river.
We left Bahilu and walked down to the river bank. Scattered on the side of the bank and roads were different people sleeping. Was interesting to see them just flat on the dusty dirt ground sleeping. They almost looked dead. But I knew they were just sleeping. Some were old people, some were young kids. Was a little sad to see.
At the waters edge there was a carved tree that was going to be our boat to cross the river. Interesting is all I keep saying. I didn’t mind swimming in the water but what I was afraid of was losing my camera or photos into the river.
Luckily we were able to make it in the carved log boat and kneel down. The boy paddled us across the brown river about 200 ft wide. Alongside of us were two young boys swimming in the river to the other side. They were really cute and the river was a big swim for them. They did make it though to the other side and helped us get the boat to the muddy side of the river. After getting out we were met by a few kids. They had noticed us coming early and walked down to the rivers edge. Within no time we were headed up to the hill to the village with about 10 kids strapped to our arms. In fact some of the kids were even fighting over which finger they were holding onto. The really young kids were so cute. They just wanted to walk with you. They had no intentions of getting money. They just thought you were interesting and wanted to hold your hand and walk with you. It was a beautiful experience when the kids were pure and genuine. So simply magic.
Meeting the Hammer tribe was different than the first tribe. This tribe was much larger and there were a bunch of men present when we walked in. The older men were sitting under the tree (about 20 of them) just talking and drinking. In the Hammer culture the women do all of the work and the men just sit drink and talk. Pretty lucky for the men.
We paid the old guys to let us in and we then walked into the village. Of course we were the center of attention and people were volleying saying “Photo – 1 birr”. The size of the tribe was huge and a bit overwhelming. There must have been at least 100 of them around us at any one time.
We got the ability to walk around some of the village and see some of the houses. It was a way to get some of the crowd off you. There were people going about their daily routine which was nice to see and didn’t bother to come up and ask for a photo. That was cool to see. The village was like a large group of people camping.
We took some photos of the people we liked and I took the camera and money to try and keep some of the people off Ana. She was getting a little claustrophobic and me having the camera and money seemed to keep the attention off her and more on me. I wasn’t as bothered by the crowd but none the less it was slowly beating me down.
At some point the two kids that swam across the river had latched themselves on my arms permanently. It was kind of nice because they were big enough to keep too many kids from trying to hold on my arms as well. So rather than try and get rid of them I keep them on my arms. They also allowed me to hold my camera in a position that allowed me to sneak a ton of photos. Most of them were sideways and weird angles but I did catch a few photos that were really spontaneous and magical.
At one point we came across a group of kids playing a rock game in the dirt. I was watching it when the teenage kid started staring at me. He was staring at me in a very jelous and envious way. I didn’t like the way he was staring and remembered that I had a knife in my pocket should things get out of hand. Some reason that made me feel better.
After looking at me for a little bit he said something in his language. I asked the guide who was with us what he said and he said he said he wanted my camera. I laughed and walked away. The kid was trouble and I wanted to get away from him quickly. That was my first encounter with a tribal guy on that level. I don’t think there was any other like him but I got a bad taste in my mouth and had the feeling that some of the tribe didn’t like us there.
I shrugged off the guy and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the tribe. This one girl with a baby keep bugging me to take a photo. So when I saw the kid breast feeding sideways on her hip I decided that photo was worth a birr. It was so funny because she was totally unaware there was a baby breast feeding on her boob. She just looked at me and smiled like she was the only one there and the baby was just a sack of flower or something. Pretty funny and pretty stunning.
The one thing that was apparent about this tribe was that they used red mud in their hair and on their bodies to decorate themselves. They are a tribe that was well known for their desire to never take showers. Their hair was woven and then at the ends it had red mud in it. Their skin also had that mud red color and smell too it. Interesting.
I continued to snap as many photos as I could with the camera secretly. At one point toward the end when we had all had enough and were heading out a girl in the tribe caught onto what I was doing and starting talking loud to the others. She saw the image on the camera and pointed to it. I showed her it and said I wasn’t taking photos the camera was just on. She seemed to buy it but I was glad we were on the way out. I didn’t want any trouble with the tribe. I wanted to get in see it and get out. They have their own set of rules and I didn’t want to find out what they were.
We headed down to the canoe and crossed back over the river. The ride was interesting but we made it without flipping over or loosing any valuable electronics. Once on the other side it was nice to be away from the tribe. Seeing them was great but this tribe was more aggressive, big, and I had some mixed feelings with certain guys in the tribe. Either way it was cool and nice to see such a large tribe and see how it worked and felt.
The one thing I realized after smelling that tribe for so long was that they smelled like the money we had been carrying. The money in Ethiopia was VERY old. Sometimes it was very hard to see the difference between the money because they were all brown. When there new they are different colors (yellow, red, blue, and white) but when they were old they all became brown. So from then on the smell of the money grossed me out. I tried to get rid of the old dollars as soon as I got them. Yuck. I can still smell that smell in my imagination. Nasty. I’m sure Ana can still smell it as well. Don’t think I can ever forget that.
We drove back to the town we had spent the night before at. Along the way we saw allot of people walking to the market. They had stuff in their hands, on their heads, or on their backs. All goods they were trying to sell. They were walking from all over to the town we stayed for the market. Tribal people in what looked like costumes walking down the road. Man what a sight to see. You almost have to blink a couple times to make sure it’s real.
Once in town you could see many of the Hammer tribe people present. They were walking down the street. We had a women come in our hotel area wanted us to take a photo of her. She was a beautiful young girl with strong features. Me and Ana regretted not taking photos of her. She just stood their. I asked what she wanted to Bahilu and he said she was waiting for us to take her picture. We didn’t cause we were eating and felt pressured. But none the less there she was in full dress. Cow hide as a dress, beads on her neck, mud in her hair, and carrying a bottle of goat milk in which she drank. So real.
After eating we headed down the street to the market. We had a local kid act as our guide. He spoke the local language and pretty good English. He wore a San Diego shirt which I told him was a city close to where I grew up. He seemed pretty amazed at that.
The market was really fabulous. We got there and it was as real as it gets. Tons of tribal people sitting around with their wares displayed in front of them. Most of them either sold grain, coffee, or salt. There was section in the back that had more tools and water bottles. This seemed to be a bit for the tourist possibly. I was really interested in the necklaces that they had. I had the guy with us try and bargain them down on the price but they were pretty strong old buzzards. Eventually after walking away and all those tricks I purchased an authentic Hammer tribe “First Wife” necklace. It must have been worn by some women who had died and now it was for sell in the market. I could tell it was original by the smell. Man did it smell like the Hammer tribe people. As I’m typing this I can still smell those people. I think it’s been burned into my nose forever. I was really excited to buy the necklace and regret not getting the two other necklaces that the hammer tribe people wear. But I got in a 10 dollar battle and didn’t want to give in. Stubborn old ladies. I guess I was that way as well.
Along with the necklace I also bought a carved wooden weapon they use in battle and for beating their wives. They use the side of the weapon to do that. It wasn’t as authentic piece and looked a little new but none the less it was pretty cool. I could use that tool on Ana if she gets out of line. I keep telling her we should move to Ethiopia to settle down in one of the tribes. I told her I would give her the first wife necklace and only make her carry the small bundles of wood. The second through fifth wives will need to carry more fire wood. For some reason I’m having a hard time selling her on the idea? –- Women.
Anyways “old fella” we headed back to meet up with Bahilu. On the way our young local guide told us he was practicing for the “cow jumping” feat he would have to perform before he could marry. Basically a young man is given one chance every two years the tribe lines up 8 cows in a line. The young boy then has one chance to run and jump onto the back of the first cow then continue across the next seven before jumping off the back of the last cow. If he is successful without falling off he is ready to become a man and given permission to marry should he choose. Pretty funny to hear the kid who looked almost modern in his “cleanish” San Diego shirt describing what he was practicing for.
He also had to drag us to a part of the market where his soon to be wfe was sitting with her friends. He grabbed her like you would a trophy to show someone. He said if I can jump the cows later that year he was going to buy her as his first wife. She didn’t seem to pleased about the whole thing but in this culture it didn’t matter how she felt. If her father struck a deal with him then the daughter would be his wife. 50 cows was about the going price. You could have less if you mixed in some goats or chickens but that was a good stable middle price.
Talk about slave trade. It was real and their right in front of me. It wasn’t though white people buying black people so it somehow didn’t have the sting I thought it should. He was black and so was she and it was custom. Somehow that made it feel not so bad. But in the end it really is horrible for the women. There lives are pre programmed and lived out the way the men say it should be. No one should have to live that way. But right in front of me was a beautiful young women who would. It made me want to take her and bring her back to America. But I can’t bring all of Ethiopia with me in my backpack. So like so many times I say WOW and continue on my trip.
After the market we headed back and had a coke. They were a couple local guys and we all ate some Chad (Minus Ana and Neir). We took some Chad with us and headed out down the dusty bumpy road towards Jinka. It was 5 hours till we finally reached Jinka. My butt was feeling the consistant miles and I had to put my sweater under my to make some padding. Who would have thought I needed more padding with my big getto butt. Ana must have been dieing with her flat butt. But she didn’t say anything about it to me.
We reached Jinka during sunset. It was beautiful to watch the tribal and slightly more modern people walking down the road at sunset. The light was orange and warm and they were beautiful silhouetted by the sun. The air was cool on my face and we just keep passing people and children that were waving at us. I love that time of day and being their made it even that much more magical.
We got into town and looked at a couple rooms before finally settling on one hotel. It was semi clean and we were really excited about that. I felt like I could walk on the floor without getting grossed out. That was a nice change of pace.
We went to a local place to have dinner. Me and Ana split some eggs and bread and a coke. Usual dinner. We’ve been eating very small portions of food in Ethiopia. I knew this was going to be the case and was trying to gain some weight before the trip for this reason. I was kind of like a camel but my hump was on my stomach.
We saw some other white people that evening. Was funny to see them. We’ve only seen about 3 different small groups of people (About 8 in total) since we started 6 days before. Really felt privileged to be in this country. We are one of the few lucky one’s.
Headed to bed a little early. Were pretty tired and ready to be horizontal for a while.
Day 156 Ended up not sleeping that well because of the mosquitoes. Those damn little buggers. Me and Ana finally turned the lights on in the middle of the night and put on bug spray. They were driving us both mad. Ana had some pretty good bumps on her when we woke up in the morning. In addition to the spray I also put in my earplugs to stop the mosquitoes that keep hovering 3 inches from my ears.
During the night it was raining off and on. I didn’t like that too much since the roads were all dirt. In the morning when we had breakfast our driver Bahilu was looking a little worried. I asked him if the roads were as rough as a few days before. He said no it was much worse. That meant the roads must be REALLY bad and to top it off they were going to be wet. Wonderful.
Sure enough after breakfast and some mango juice we headed out. The roads were HORRIBLE. I’ve never been on roads that bad. There were several times I was sure we were going to get stuck but Bahilu knew his car really well and was able to get through some obstacles that seemed impassable.
At the gates to road we picked up an armed guard. The government requires that you take one if you are going to see the Moursi people. This tribe of all the tribes were known for being aggressive as well as having guns.
The Moursi were well know for stealing as well. Our guide Bahilu said during high season they will chase off people yelling at them to go away and banging on the cars. They don’t even want the money they just want you gone.
They were also a true nomadic tribe and Bahilu asked around to see where they were before we headed out. He knew approximately where they should be at that time of year. Bahilu had a deep respect for the Moursi people. He thought they were crazy but he liked that about them.
After getting the armed guard we continued down the road. Occasionally Bahilu would get out and open up the crimped tail pipe so the engine could breath again. He did this about 5 times in four hours. Then all of the sudden he turned off the main road and started plowing through the 5-6 foot high grass. I though he was going to stop but he keep going avoiding trees and going down what I think used to be a road. We all looked at each other like what is he doing he’s crazy.
But after about 5 minutes he slammed on the breaks and said “SHIT”. For him to say that meant something broke or we were stuck. Sure enough as he threw it in reverse the only thing that moved was the tires. We had gone right into a huge puddle about 3 feet deep with the front tires. He got out and checked out the situation. For me it was like finally we got stuck. I’d been waiting to get stuck for hours.
Bahilu was pretty quite as him and the armed guide got out checked out the area and then continued to try and put branched under the tires and dig the car out. No luck. Bahilu said the Moursi were right around the corner and he didn’t seem to happy about that.
After about 15 minutes of messing with the car out of the thick shrubby came some Moursi tribal men. They were around 25-35 and the stronger men of the tribe. Bahilu wasn’t to happy to see them. I think it was a mixture of embarrassment and worry that they would try to take advantage of us in our position (steal something, etc.).
Bahilu told us to role up the windows and lock the doors when he saw the Moursi people. It was pretty funny and pretty exciting to be that far out in the middle of no where and see those guys coming from the low coverage. Pretty cool.
The men proceeded to talk with Bahilu and eventually a few of them started trying to help us get out of the mud. We put sticks under the tires and rocks but no luck. We rocked the car back and forth but no luck.
Ana was sitting on the side watching us play with the car in the mud. She called me over after a man tried to take her to his hut. He had come up to her and very aggressively pointed to her then himself then gestured they both go back to his hut. It was pretty funny and for the second time they were trying to negotiate Ana away from me. I was starting to think I could fetch a good price for her. I’m thinking something like 75+ cows?
But I didn’t negotiate too much I just signaled to him that she was mine and we were leaving together and he laughed. Ana was happy to see I was going to take her with me and not sell her off. The whole things was pretty funny.
Eventually we got the car out of the huge mud pit by letting all the Moursi guys which eventually was about 10 of them go in the water and push the front of the car while us clean tourist with shoes stayed on the mud and pushed the car from the side. Slowly and with smoke streaming from the sliding tires the car rolled back out of the mud and was free. We jumped in before too many of them could get any hands inside and drove around the large puddle another few hundred feet to get to the village.
When we arrived there were a few people in the village but Bahilu honked the horn to get the ones out tending the crops to come in. It was a cool feeling being there. The people were very aggressive and I felt like I had to be that way in response to show them I wasn’t a push over. They would grab my hand and pull me and I would refuse to go and push off their hand. It seemed almost like they were testing me to see how strong I was. Subtle gestures that set allot of foundation for the relationship that would last another 45 minutes.
We checked out the small village for a little bit before letting the money show for the pictures. We all knew once the money came out the natives became restless. They were like sharks when they saw that someone had money and they didn’t.
So we all took our time and pre-negotiated 2 birr to take a photo before we started any photos. The tribe hadn’t really seen any tourist in the last few months so we were able to knock down the 3 birr fee to 2 birr for each photo. They charged the most out off all the tribes. They deserved it because they were such a famous tribe.
Pretty much as soon as we had hit the village I was spotting for the people with the Moursi trademark of the lower tounge plates. I found a few women with that. One young girl in paticilar had about a 4” round clay plate in her bottom lip. I saw here putting it in. It was pretty nasty to see her 3 inch or so streached out bottom lip. Also before the plates in you can see her bottom teeth and she had a hard time talking. Very strange and very visually aggressive. But according to them they think it is something that it very beautiful to the men. Go figure.
The one thing that was present once again was that there felt like there was no sense of white/black people. We were all people that just looked different. I loved that feeling and I don’t think I’ve ever if rarely felt that way with African Americans. I usually feel like were different. For some reason with these people and most of the people of Ethiopia I just felt different but not in a bad way. Just different. I never expected that but it was a wonderful surprise. People being people.
We started taking photos and the frenzy began. But since their weren’t as many of them it didn’t get too crazy. Everyone got some money and they seemed to slow the crazy pace. I got some great shots. One shot is one of my favorites of the trip. I took a picture with the Moursi girl with the large 4” plate. Another girl also stepped in. As Ana was taking the picture I put some bunny ears on the Moursi girl with the large plate. When I did that the other girl in the picture looked up at me and was wondering what I was doing. Ana took the shot and it was perfect. So wrong but so funny. I love that shot and it definitely will go up in my office the next time I get a real job. Too funny.
At one point one of the girls didn’t like the money I gave her (was too dirty) so I took two other bills out and offered them to her. While I was doing that a guy about my age came up and grabbed the two extra bills and took off. That little punk. He pretty much stole them from me. So I followed him and wasn’t going to let him get away. I told him I paid for his picture and I want the money. He was smiling and I knew he was sizing me up. I made him pose and I took a couple shots of him. I considered it a middle ground and next time wouldn’t let them see more than 2 bills at a time. Seeing the way he acted with me gave me a strong sense of how bad they can be. Lucky I was about 2 feet taller than him and that fact made me a little more confident.
Ana got suckered into a couple shots with the guys. I must say I almost got suckered in with the same guy as well. He was 25 or so and pretty tall and strong. The fact that he also had a machine gun on his shoulder made him that much more intimidating. He grabbed Ana’s hand and said picture. It’s pretty hard to say no. So rather than fight we took the picture and got ride of him. Later he tried the same with me but I shrugged him off and laughed and joked. Was able to get out of it but he was pretty aggressive.
They offered me to shot the guns they had. They said for 10 Birr ($ 1.25 American) I could shot the guns. I wanted too but the guns looked pretty old and I wasn’t sure they would fire. They looked more likely to blow up in my hand then to actually shot a round off. I passed and said maybe next time.
I got a good shot of an older lady that had some real problems with her lower lips. She obviously had worn a large clay plate in her lip when she was younger but now that she was old I think the skin died and fell off and she was left with a distorted bottom lip that looked really bad and unhealthy. Sad to see but when you distort your body that much it’s bound to catch up with you.
I also found out that the women in this tribe also do all the work. The men are free to hunt or just laze around all day depending on how they feel. Nice. They also drink the milk and blood of the cows as a main staple in their diet. Pretty smart if you ask me. The milk is a great think to drink but the blood also is. You don’t kill the cow yet you are able to now extract to vital life giving liquids from it. Pretty smart if you ask me. But don’t ask me to drink it myself. I can only imagine it’s got to be thick and nasty.
Just before leaving I bought 3 clay disk from some of the women selling them. They were really cool and I hope they make it home without breaking. We’ll see.
After about 1 hour we headed out. We had to push start the truck to get it going. Not sure why but we did. We hit the road for another 4 hours or 4x4in. By the time we hit town we were pretty exhausted. Was a great day and I really enjoyed seeing this tribe. Won’t ever forget that and I got a great shot to always remind me of it.
We felt pretty nasty when we finally hit town. We took a hot shower which was freezing cold. I love when they sell you the room with “Oh yeah it has hot water” and of course about 90% don’t. But by now it wasn’t a big surprise and we just braved the cold to get clean.
After the arctic shower we headed down the street to buy some mangos. We ended up getting 5 mangos for 12 cents – Not bad. We walked with some of the local kids who ended up showing us the place where we bought the mangos. One of the kids I meet was a really interesting boy. He seemed really smart and was asking me for money to help him go to school. He said he needed $1,200 dollars for a years schooling. I was really interested in helping him but that kind of money was just too much. It wasn’t the money but more the fact that I had no idea where it would end up. Probably was a scam but the kid was super intelligent for his age and I wished him the best of luck in the future. I gave him my email to contact me in the future. Who knows maybe there will be a way I can help him someday.
After returning we went to go have some drinks with Bahilua at a local bar. The beer was a honey based liquor. It ended up being pretty good and tasting a little like wine. The place we drank it at was a local grungy dive with nasty floors, walls, and smell. But it was pretty cool to be there none the less.
Of course about half way through the bottle the lights went out in the city. No one had a torch (flashlight in Africa) so we walked back with a little candle. Pretty cool walking down the dark roads at night with a candle and a little buzz from the quite strong liquor. Must have been like it was in the old days before electricity. Was a magical evening.
The light eventually came on about the time we reached the resturaunt we were going to eat at. So me and Ana shared a vegetables and meat with bread meal that was about average. Not that great.
After dinner we headed back to catch some long awaited Z’s.
Day 157 Woke up after a pretty restful nights sleep. Not that many mosquitoes and I think I only woke up a couple times that night. We met up with Bahilu and went and had our usual mango juices and bread for breakfast. Man those mango juices were good.
After breakfast we headed to the local gas station and got some gas. Was pretty funny when he used a hand crank to crank the normal gas filling machines you see in the US. I guess they had no power or it was broke. Either way he pumped for a little bit to fill up our tank.
While they were filling up the tank we went and bought some more fruit. 10 mangos for 20 cents and 6 bananas for 10 cents. Not bad. I love that the fruit is so cheap and so good here. Definitely a benefit in this country.
After gas we headed to the airport to drop Neir off. He was leaving the group and heading back to Israel from their. It was kind of sad to see him go but on the other hand very nice. He was a very strong know it all type of guy and after 6 days I’d had about enough of him. Ana felt the same way. I think Santi did as well. Either way I he was off and headed home. Seeing him heading home made me want to go home. But my heading home isn’t for another 5 months so I tried not to think about it too much and get myself too homesick.
We drove away from the airport and the car had an immediate different dynamic. Much lighter and not so aggressive. There was more room in the car now that there was only four of us and both me and Ana really enjoyed Bahilu and Santi’s company.
We went to a local museum in the town to see what they had to offer. It actually turned out to be a nice little museum and I enjoyed it. It talked about how in some tribes the women pull their bottom teeth out. How women who work hard are looked upon in society as good people and wives. The relationship between husband and wife was more like slave and master. In some tribes the women couldn’t even speak with the man till she had at least 2-3 babies. Also if the first wife couldn’t have babies for some reason the second wife had the baby and once it was old enough to not need the mothers milk the baby was given to the first wife. It was cool to see most of what was in the museums was still true today. Crazy.
After the museum we stopped for some more Chad for me, Santi, and Bahilu and headed out on the road. We were consuming pretty large amounts of Chad but oh well we were only on that trip for 10 days and I probably wouldn’t be doing it after that.
The Chad this time was stronger. It was really relaxing and nice to fly down the dirt road past all these people working, laughing, running after the car, and just living in such a different way than I know. Bahilu was playing his Christian Ethiopian music and the cool wind was in our hair. It was a nice 4 hour ride to the next town. I’m sure the Chad helped me to take in the beauty and smooth out the bumps in the road.
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed out to see the “New York” hills. They say that because they are supposed to look like a bunch of building on the horizon. I wasn’t to sure about that but what the heck it’s part of the tour.
As soon as we hit the “New York” hills we were mauled by the local people. They were aggressive little punks and I’m sure the fact that no tourist had been there in a while made it that much more worse. The “New York” hills were pretty unimpressive. Having had seen Bryce in American this really didn’t compare. We lasted about 5 minutes before we got back in the car to tired of being grabbed pushed and begged for money or photos.
We headed down the road to the other local village. It was a much more modern village and the huts were built out of more perminate materials like rocks and big logs. Although it was pretty modern and allot of the people were wearing western type cloths it was still cool to see.
We came upon a group of men drinking in the village. They offered us some of their “home brew” and I tasted it. I was sure it was going to give me the poppers but what the heck beer was worth a couple days on the toilet. I drank the beer and it tasted very wheat like. It had some grains in it and wasn’t that good. But I was sure if you had enough you could get drunk. Many of the men their had already proven that though.
We walked around the village a little and didn’t end up staying too long. It wasn’t like the other villages and I wasn’t that impressed and frankly was getting really tired of the people all over me. I think we all were.
We headed out and back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel we saw something that really drove home how poor these people are. You know traveling her you sometimes get numb to all that is around you. It seems like people have enough to eat and are doing generally ok for themselves. But when we drove past a line of about 10 people carrying a stretcher with a sick or dead person laying there really drove home how poor they were. They didn’t even have a car to transport this person who was under a sheet not moving. I doubt they even had the money to care for him despite how sick he might be.
It broke both of our hearts to drive out care past them and continue down the street and into the town. I felt like saying put him in the car and we can take him to the hospital. But Bahilu just keep driving like nothing was happening and I stayed silent shocked by the situation. We passed another guy again just down the road and he was obviously in pain and on his side on the stretcher they were carrying him on.
Me and Ana both felt like crying after we got back to the hotel. It’s really tough to travel sometimes in this country and seeing those sick people really hurt our hearts. She wanted to fly home at that moment but I told her to hold on and we’ll be fine. She knew but none the less both of us were impacted by that site. So deeply sad.
After a little bit I told Ana let’s go eat to get the sadness off our minds. Sitting around only made us deeper and more sad. We ate a little and after headed to the rooftop to smoke some more Shesha. But as soon as we hit the roof it started sprinkling. So we took the pipe down stairs under the cover and smoked their.
Me and Santi really enjoyed the Shesha as well as another local guy we started talking with. We had a nice time and it is a great way to unwind and reflect on the trip. After the Shisha burned out we went to the restaurant with with Bahilua and Santi so they could eat and we just talked. The rain started coming down in buckets. It was really fun. When me and Ana decided to go to bed we got soaked just walked about 100ft in the rain. It was really coming down. They must get some pretty good rain in this area.
Day 158 Sleep good with the rain outside. That’s my favorite sound to fall asleep with. In the morning though me and Ana were a little mean to each other. I can tell that seeing what we’ve seen and traveling the way we were was starting to eat away at both of us. We were starting to turn to each other to let out our aggression. Were both feeling disturbed and funny and I tried not to get to mad or take what she was saying too seriously.
We headed out after breakfast and headed toward Yabello. Kids were out running down the road yelling “Highland! Highland!”. That’s the brand of water bottle. See they were all hoping we would throw our empty water bottles out to them. They could then sell them later for money. It was funny to think that so many kids wanted something that we’ve been throwing away for the entire trip. “One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure” really rings true here. So the kids that really ran fast or were really funny we threw the empty plastic water bottles we had too them. They were really cute little guys.
On the way to Yabello we passed a new site. We saw tons of camels being herded down the road. Some had as many as about 40 camels. Was pretty cool to see that animal in this environment. I think all camels are in the sand deserts not wandering around fertile plains. Pretty cool to see.
We also stopped at a local market that was found along the way. This local tribe was much more advanced than the previous tribes and also much richer. All the people wore these really colorful dresses and wraps on themselves. They were beautiful to see against he brown and green environment.
As soon as we drove up we were surrounded by people. Kids, teenagers, and a few adults with kids. We stepped out into the sea and immediately Ana was making friends with one guy who seemed a little strange. She said she didn’t like the way he was grabbing her arm and asked me to take care of him. So I ran defense for her. It didn’t take long to realize this kid was really disturbed. Disturbed in a bad way though. He seemed crazy and capable of doing something drastic. I started staring him in the eyes to get him to leave us alone but he just stared right back with a cold lost evil stare.
I was getting really tired of the kid and had tried several things as drastic as pushing him away and telling him to leave. But he keep following right next to us and grabbing at my camera. I could tell he was trying to steal something. I was getting really pissed off and worried about him. If he had a knife or rock he could really do some harm. If I was in America I would have punched this kid dead in the face but I couldn’t here. Were not in my country and I don’t know all of what’s going on. So I asked the local kids to please take him away or I had to go back to the car and leave. They knew him and held him back as we continued. I had a bad taste in my mouth from that guy which took a few minutes to shake off. He just wasn’t a good guy and I didn’t like him the least bit. He was dark.
But after a few minutes the cute local kids had me forgetting all about that kid. They were so cute and Ana loved them. We started taking pictures of them and showing them on the camera. They would laugh and say “Take picture of me”. Soon enough we had a whole group of about 30 people all wanting their picture taken. It was great because I was getting pictures I had been trying to sneak of the kids for days. They would all pose for their pictures. It was fun. A couple older people actually asked me as well to take their pictures and show them. They would look at the picture and laugh. I could tell that they hadn’t seen themselves many times in their lives. I don’t think many of them even have mirrors. The look on their faces I won’t ever forget.
We checked out the market and took photos for about 30 minutes then headed out. It turned out to be very nice after we got rid of that little dark scary kid.
We headed down the road after picking up some more Chad. As some point along the road we hit asphalt again. Man it was nice to be on that. The car was so much smother and quieter. I forgot how nice driving could be.
Eventually after a few hours we reached the “Black Salt Pit”. This is an old volcanic crater that was filled with salt that they harvested at the bottom then brought up the hill on the backs of donkey’s. The really interesting thing about the whole thing was that the bottom salt lake that they collected salt from was black as tar? I wasn’t quite sure what to believe and thought it would be a little black but not like tar.
But when we got there sure enough it was black as tar. Really interesting. We negotiated the price and almost left after we found out how much they wanted to charge us. Those punks. Man I’m so tired of getting scammed.
After some fighting and getting back in the car and driving off then coming back we got the deal to walk down to the bottom with a guide settled. It was really expensive but we were there and why not do it.
Our guide ended up being a real dick. Sleazy little punk. He pretty much ran us down to the bottom which was about 1,500ft down then tried to take more money from us any way he could. I was ready to tie him up and drop him in the black lake myself.
Despite the pain the ass guide, and people everywhere the salt lake was actually quiet interesting. When we got to the water it was jet black. There were people swimming out in the middle of it gathering the salt. How they did it was they would take a 10 ft. pool of wood and drive it down on the bottom of the lake floor to dig up the ground. The ground was so hard that you had to do this to be able to scoop anything up. They also did all this while swimming which made it that much more difficult. Then after they did that they would swim down to the bottom with a bucket and scoop the salt into it. Then bring it into shore. I guess the middle of the lake had better salt concentrations so that’s why they couldn’t just dig up the shores.
The guys who were digging the salt were all black from the water. It was the minerals in the water that made it so black. It was actually pretty nasty stuff. The salt was used to feed animals and not humans. They said during the late part of the year the lake gets more white and that is when they can harvest salt from there for humans. Didn’t sound too appetizing.
We proceeded to walk around the lake and argue with the guys who wanted 15 Birr for a photo. I was so pissed I wouldn’t have taken a photo if they paid me. I felt like saying “Screw all these guys let’s leave them here in this shit hole to rote”. But of course I didn’t really want that but at that moment I sure did. The heat, exhaustion, and constant lying and manipulating had finally caught up with me. I was done. I wanted out of that crater and that salt hell. Ana felt the same and Santi was close to feeling the same.
Our guide was pretty pissed with us because he couldn’t make any sales and took off up the trail leaving us behind. I was ok with that and said fine “go to hell you punk”.
The trail was pretty strenuous and Ana and I keep a steady pace all the way up. At the top we were tired, pissed, and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the village people again.
But our guide luckily stopped right before the top to wait for us. That punk. As soon as I got near him he shifted gears and started trying to be nice. “How did you like the trip” and things like that. I told him it kind of sucked and he got quiet. He they proceeded to ask me for a shirt. I said no and he took off up the hill. What a dick. He waited for us just to try and get more stuff out of us. I was going to kill that guy and so was Ana.
At the top he met us again and there were kids selling cokes. He proceeded to make jokes I’m sure which were aimed at us and the kids laughed. Lucky were in Africa and I’m afraid of what would happen if I punched you dead in the face. I just sucked it up and ignored him. Both and Ana were sweating and tired when we got to the car. I jumped in and said let’s go. Bahilu could tell we weren’t too happy and quickly drank his coke and we took off.
About 5 minutes down the road I was starting to feel better. I was on my way out of the salt shit hole and that made me happy. But Bahilu started looking for his cell phone and sure enough it was gone. He was sure some kid at the village stole it and he turned the car around and headed back. I was pretty pissed now and so was Bahilu. We pulled up to the village and everyone was gone. Sure enough. Bahilu was able to find his phone and negotiate it back for 50 Birr (About 6 American dollars). At that moment I wanted to light that village on fire. But I just gave up on being so mad and sad “Oh well, sometimes it goes that way traveling”. Plus I knew in a few hours I wouldn’t feel that way. I was just at the end of my rope.
We stopped at another site on the way back and it was closed. Supposedly the men work in a line passing water buckets from a deep well to let their cattle drink. I think there can be as many as 30 people and they all sing together while they work. They weren’t there when we got their so we just keep driving. I was tired and sort of glad we were just headed back to the hotel.
Me and Ana had paid for the last 2 extra days on the trip and so far they weren’t worth the money. But I was in a bad mood at that point and I think anything would have been wrong if I thought long enough on it.
We got back to the hotel and showered. I was tired of being dirty, tired of the African crap, and just wanted it to end. But again I tried to just let the day pass. Tomorrow was another day. But man was I determined to make everything wrong.
After the shower and a little time I was feeling a little better. We ate some rice with vegetables for dinner and it was really nice. I drank a bunch of the wine we had in a box and that also help cool me down. We watched some World Cup Soccer and headed to bed when we got tired. I was pretty sure the wine would have me sleeping like a baby despite the nasty backed up sewer smell that was just feet from our room.
Day 159 Ended up sleeping like a rock that night. Good old wine. At 8:30 we ate the usual for breakfast – mango juice and bread. I think me and Ana are going to start turning into mangos soon.
We headed down the road about 10 ft before Bahilu bought some more Chad for us. He paid about 500% more for the Chad at this place than any other. He said it was really good Chad and it was worth it. It must have been for him to be willing to pay that much.
So we headed down the road toward Lake Aswasa and the next day the final day Addis Ababa. Chewing the Chad I noticed not allot of difference. It was nice and is a really relaxing thing to do when you have time. Kind of like eating sunflower seeds.
We passed through some very mountainous country. In fact at one point it got really foggy wet and rainy. I told Bahilu I had to pee and he stopped on the side of the road. Although we were close to some huts I tried to pee fast. But of course about 3 younger kids came out to watch the white guy pee in the bush alongside the road. It was at that moment I could feel the Chad. I just didn’t really care and continued like a local peeing there. They didn’t really mind either and were more interested in the truck and maybe getting some money out of the others. Weird experience. Oh well
We headed down the road again. The climate and tribes were changing quickly. Hut were starting to get really large. In fact many of them had circle bases that must have been about 30ft in diameter. Really impressively built. I read in the book that the hut can last up to 20 years. Not bad for some sticks and grass.
We made it to the lake around mid afternoon and it was still raining. We threw out stuff in the room and tried to watch some tv in the rain. The TV was covered but all the chairs were in the rain. That lasted about 15 minutes and we decided to go down to the lakes edge and see the scenery. It was raining so we didn’t last long but the lake seemed really nice.
About 2 hours later the rain let up and we again walked to the lakes edge just 100ft from our hotel. There was a nice little dirt path along the lake and we walked along it. A ton of people had come out to do the same. Allot of people walking and some on bikes. Was really peaceful and a beautiful lake. There were allot of different kinds of birds and brilliantly colored as well.
We got back to the hotel around dark and watched another World Cup Game. It was really nice to just chill and see the games. It’s been really nice to have the world cup happening during out travels. Gives us lots of entertainment.
One thing that was really funny was that I was extremely stressed from all the Chad we had eaten earlier. I had to drink some wine to calm me down. Chad had never done that to me before and I didn’t really like it. I hate being all wound up. So I drank some wine to try and calm myself down. It kind of worked but I still sat their most of the game grinding my teeth. No more of that Chad for me. I think I ate about twice as much as Santi and Bahilu and that’s why I was so affected by it. They said they were hipper but not like me. Oh well.
Bahilu said he was going to take us to a place to eat. It ended up being a really nice place. Really nice for Ethiopia. Even though everything looked really nice and thought about the bathrooms didn’t have toilet paper and the toilets had no seats. UUUURRGGH this country and the toilets. For sure they win the award for the nastiest toilets in the world hands down. Man that can be so frustrating. It would be like going to the Palmer and there is no toilet paper and no seat cover. It was that nice for that area. Oh well I got to just let it go.
Anyway we headed back and crashed for the night. I was really feeling tired.
Day 160 We woke up around 8:00 and headed to the local fish market. This was me and Ana’s first anniversary so we were pretty happy about that. It’s been a great year with her and I’m so happy we got married. I’m really a lucky guy.
No more mushy stuff for now. –--So we headed down to the fish market on the edge of the lake and checked it out. We first went and saw a flock or huge birds. By huge I mean they were about 4 ft tall and could fly. Then we saw a few local monkeys and were able to feed them. They were really beautiful and I’ve never seen that species of monkey before.
After the animals we went to the official fish market on the edge of the lake. There were tons of fishermen in their little boat and all of them were displaying their catch of the morning. Most were little silver fish about 5-8 inches long and the other common fish was a catfish usually about 12-15 inches long. We walked around and took some really nice photos.
On our way back we saw an unusual site. Their were kids peeling the skin off the smaller silver fish with their teeth. There had to be a pile of at least 500 fish and someone had taken the meat off. Then it was the kids job to grab the raw fish fillet and bite onto the skin and pull it off. It was pretty nasty and I felt bad for the kids. They didn’t seem to mind it that much and were fast as lightning doing it. I guess those fish were for the local restaurant to use. Wow.
After that we sat down and Bahilu had his lunch of raw cut up fish with bread and a hot sauce. I tried a cube of raw fish despite the obvious diarrhea potential. I’m crazy like that. The fish tasted pretty good but one piece was good enough for me. I’m crazy but not stupid.
While Bahilu was eating we sat and started to draw a crowd like we always do. So I pulled out the old “Disappearing Finger Trick” and showed the small group of younger kids. They all looked at me with that glazed look. They were wondering how I did it and talking to each other in their native tongue. It was really funny and they proceeded to tell a bunch of other people around and soon enough I had a mix of kids and adults wanted to see me pull off my finger. Ana was cracking up and the whole thing was pretty funny. So right before I left I showed them one more time and they all gasp with wonder. One girl even screamed. It was really funny and about 30 of them fallen for it. They keep asking me to do it again but if I did they might figure out the trick and the magic would be gone. So I left them with just the magic. Was pretty fun. Cheesy but fun.
After the market we went to the hot springs. It was a disappointment since there were really just local pools with tons of locals swimming in it. The water was hot but it wasn’t what I thought of when he said were going swimming in the hot springs. So we skipped the swim and did a short hike to the top of the local mountain instead. It was a pretty good little hike to an unimpressive outlook. But none the less it was fun. We had a small group of local boys as our guides. I told Ana isn’t this what you wanted to do on your 1st Anniversary. She said oh well it could be worse we could be working. That was true.
We drove for another few hours toward Addis and stopped for lunch at a really nice little place. Had a burger which was ok. What made it great wasn’t the taste but that it was a burger and not local Ethiopia food.
We drove the rest of the evening back to Addis. Santi and Bahilu got more Chad but I was done. Didn’t want to feel like the day before and we had been a little bit crazy with the Chad over the last 10 days.
On the way back we saw a funny site. It was a small van crowded with way too many people and then in the back trunk was a goat with it’s head poking up. Took me by surprise. Was pretty funny site. Crazy Ethiopians and poor goat. It was really jammed in their.
It was nice to finally get back to Addis Ababa. The last 10 days were amazing but also very wearing with no real breaks. We got a room and showered really quickly.
We then headed to the local Sheraton to have a fancy nice dinner for our Anniversary. The local Sheraton was amazingly nice even for American standards. We decided to eat the buffet and the food was ok. It was a little old and had sat out for too long but who was I too complain it wasn’t Ethiopian food. Luckily the deserts were amazing and we ended the dinner on a great note. And for a while we got to fell like we were back home. Everything was clean. Even the toilets were nice. They had toilet paper and seat! Man what is Ethiopia coming too?
The dinner was really nice and it was great to talk and reflect on the last year. The funny things was that outside the perfectly clean large windows the orange glow of the city looked like any other city. It was beautiful but in my head I knew that it was dirty sheds and crocked homes that were making the light. But at night it looked just as magical as Beverly Hills. Pretty funny.
We spent about 3 hours eating and enjoying the feeling that we weren’t in Ethiopia anymore. It was really nice and we didn’t want to leave. But at the end of the night we had too. We took a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed. We were exausted.
Day 161Woke up and took a hot shower. It was wonderful. The water actually worked and it was great. We headed over to the local resturaunt and had eggs for breckfast. It was really good and nice to be back in Addis and in a somewhat civilized town.
I needed a hair cut really bad so we met up with Santi to go get our hair cut together. I was pretty sure I’d probably walk out with a fully shaved head. That’s the cut that no one can mess up. I would try a normal cut but when they screwed it up I’d say get the clippers and mow this nasty dew down. But we’ll see I said. Ana just keep laughing.
We were recommended a place to get our hair cut. After wandering around for a while we found it. We went in and Santi was called to the butchers chair first. No more than 2 minutes after that is was my turn. I sat down and hoped for the best. Good thing was they had an electronic hair clipper. The go too dew when the chips are down.
I don’t know if the barber has ever cut a white persons hair. He seemed to comb it in a way that seemed awkward and unnatural. I was getting a little worried. Then he proceeded to start cutting free with the electronic clippers only? Oh man I was in for it. I keep telling Ana watch this fool. If it starts looking funny give him some pointers. He was smart to turn the chair away from the mirror before he started cutting. But Ana just laughed as my golden locks fell to the floor. I just squinted and let him work.
In the end the cut didn’t come out too bad. I was surprised. It was actually ok. It was only $1.25 for the cut and that was cheap. My first hair cute in Africa went pretty good.
Santi on the other hand got the old bad barber. He was looking pretty funny when he walked out. He was pretty much shaven except for the front patch of hair. But Santi thought it was ok. Whatever. I was happy I dot the second barber and he went first.
After the mow job we headed burn our photos. That took a while but it was cheap so I didn’t care. After burning we ate lunch with Santi. Pizza as usual. When me and Ana find a place with good food we eat there several times a day if possible.
We went back to the hotel after lunch and I was really tired. I wanted to lay down. I did so and proceeded to take an couple hour nap. Ana was going crazy with all the time on her hands. She didn’t want to sit around and was bouncing off the walls when I woke up.
It was close to dinner and we had made plans to eat with Bahilu. We met up with him and went to a local nice place to eat what else? Traditional Ethiopian food. We all shared a large plate with a bunch of different food. All of it was bad and we ate enough not to be hungry later. It was nice hanging out with Bahilu, Ana, and Santi. I knew that probably would be our last time hanging out together. It was fun but a little sad. When your on the road you can get really connected with other people really fast. Leaving them kind of feels like your leaving a girlfriend. Funny but true.
We got back and crashed. I fell asleep easily despite the nap earlier. I just had to put the earplugs in because we had a disco right outside our window.
Day 162Woke up in the morning on the wrong side of the bed. I felt like someone ran me over. I told Ana be aware I’m not in a good frame of mind today. We went to the local place to get some eggs and bread and some coffee to wake me up. It helped a little but I was still really sluggish and pissed off at the world.
We headed out to find the post office. It took about 6 hours and 500 people to find it. Man what a day I was having. That made me even more frustrated. We were able to send the cd’s of our photos back home and also we dropped off a cd of images to print. We wanted to take the photos and send them as postcards.
Later we wanted to meet up with Santi to go to the local Markato but we couldn’t find him. So me and Ana took off to go check it out ourselves. Supposedly this market was the largest in Africa and I wanted to see it. Sure enough after walking for miles I agreed the market was massive. They sold everything you could imagine. Thousands of vendors. I’m not sure who bought all the stuff but they were there.
We were weaving through the dirty, crazy, packed market when we spotted Santi. It was good to see him. We tagged along together and walked probably another 2 miles through the sea of merchandise. I was starting to get tired of it as well as starting to feel weak. I think the lack of food the last 2 weeks was catching up to me. Ana felt the same way. We decided to head back. We were lucky to catch a mini van back to the city for next to nothing. Gave me a chance to save up some strength as well.
When we got back we split up again and me and Ana went to the Ethiopian Airline office to confirm our flight for the next day. I must say I felt a little funny in that office. Just around the block was another Ethiopian Airlines office that had been bombed 2 weeks before. They did a pretty good job as well. The bomb had pretty much destroyed the whole face and removed huge chunks of wall and stone. The government blamed the opposition for bombing the place. But who knows.
In fact the bombing was supposedly in response to the recent elections the UN helped hold in Ethiopia. The opposition had a land slide win over the current government. But the government just said we don’t care and the opposition lost. Pretty hairy politics but you can see why the country is the way it is.
So sitting in the same airline offices just right down the street wasn’t the place I wanted to be. I don’t know if they were targeting specifically the airline but I didn’t want to find out. I wasn’t happy when we had to wait about half an hour to talk to one of the representatives.
Finally when we did get up to one of the representatives we found out that we couldn’t get our visa in Tanzania when we arrived at the airport that we had to get it there in Ethiopia. Shoot! What a day I was having.
So we ran back to our hotel got our passports and headed to the Tanzanian embassy to see if we could get a visa in a rush otherwise we would have to miss our flight and stay more days in Ethiopia. I was pretty pissed at this point. Lucky Ana was in an unusually good mood to counteract me.
When we got to the Tanzanian embassy they said we needed photos and 100 American dollars in cash. Luckily that morning I took all the American dollars we had in my pocket. Exactly 100 of them. But we left the photos at the hotel. Damn! I was so upset. The lady said we could quick run around the corner and pay to get our photos taken.
We ran around the corner and tried to rush the Tanzanian people to take and process our photos quickly. But when you try to push anyone in Africa you just get that mindless dead look and they do it at the same speed as always. Got to love this country. We got our photos and my smile showed how good the day was going. But they worked and we were able to submit our paperwork for a visa at 4:30 and get it by 5:30. We were lucky. Fastest government process I’ve ever seen.
We were out of money so on the way back we decided to stop over to the Sheraton and get another 300 in cash advance. We found out they have an ATM but it only works sometimes and only takes VISA. Double Damn! So we did the cash advance and got enough money to survive a few days in Tanzania.
Let me tell you this. I hate trying to get money out in Africa!!!! Ok I feel better.
We got back to the hotel with enough time to pick up our photos. We ran over there and picked them up. They looked great. At around 8:00 we ate dinner (Pizza once again of course) and started filling out the 16 photo post cards we were going to send out.
It took a couple hours but we finally got the postcards finished. What a long day that was. I knew it was going to be a bad day the minute I woke up. We headed off to bed to get some more sleep. I was tired and cranky and needed some “nighty night” time.
