Two things never to do in Ethiopia

We met two Peace Corps volunteers who were staying in our hotel in Axum.  Christine and Joel were in the middle of their training and had come to visit the town they would be living in for the next two years when their training was over.  They would each be teaching in a secondary school and they were very excited about the prospect of it.  Peace Corp volunteers are given an intensive 4 month training including language training as part of their two year posting.

During their training, they were told that there were two things that they must avoid; Kitfo and travelling at night on buses.  Unfortunately we received this good advice too late!  We had already experienced a very dodgy situation on our night bus ride and I had ordered Kitfor for Martin off the menu in our hotel in Gondar.

Kitfor was number 1 on the menu and when I asked the waiter “What is Kitfor?” he said “Lamb chopped”.  He missed out the bit that said it was actually raw.  When we saw it we thought it was meat in tomato sauce but after tasting it (we both did – you know how we like to share everything!) we thought that perhaps it wasn’t quite cooked.  So we sent it back and it didn’t look much different when it arrived back on our plate.  Once more we tasted it and on careful chewing we decided that it was definitely raw meat and that it probably wasn’t the best kind of thing to eat as new arrivals to the African continent.

Kitfo to be avoided at all costs 

When we told Dawit (our host and owner of the school) he said that we will need to take some kind of parasite killer as we may find that in six months time we will find a huge tapeworm resident inside our digestive system. 

Graduation Day

Gondar as well as Bahir Dar were also celebrating their graduation from university.  How unlike my own graduation where the hired gowns are grabbed off you virtually as you get off the stage!  How nice to be able to wear it all weekend as a recognition of your hard work!

Many families had come up from the country and were therefore less likely to have seen foreigners in the flesh, only on the TV and so we were objects of curiosity.  People took our photos and some even asked us to pose with us for a picture such was our celebrity status. It’s a reversal of Georgia where black people were considered strange and wonderful and particularly in the villages, people wanted to touch their hair and skin and have their photo taken.  It was actually quite nice!

Proud Family

In one of the castles Gillian told me that this cutest of all little boys, no more than 3 years old, done up to the nines for the celebration saw me as he came into one of the rooms of the castle.  He was so startled at seeing a ‘faranji’ (foreigner) that he literally jumped in fright and banged his head.  As a mother and teacher it won’t be the first or last time I will have scarred a child for life lol. 

A Graduate and his family

Proud Graduate

People were happy to pose for us and didn’t seem to feel it was intrusive.  They were basking in ‘their day’.  However when I asked permission to take his picture he mumbled something about being paid for it.  In England that would have been considered a joke but here …. Well.  I just ignored him and took a picture.

Historic Gonder

We sat and chilled in the Hotel Ambarrass for the rest of the day and made arrangements with our new found guide. His brother who was a registered guide would take us out the next day to show us the sights and with the car, entrance tickets and his fee this came to 1800 ETB (£20 each).  I haggled from the original quote of 2000 ETB. It is such a pain and exhausting to have to negotiate over everything and you always feel you have been done over no matter how successful your bartering has been!

Gonder is a lovely place, with a bunch of castles built by different generations of royalty and it was interesting to see how different they were in design to other medieval castles we had seen, not only in England, but in Spain and Portugal.  I guess we are in Africa! and its influences are distinctly un-European!

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Gondar, Ethiopia

Another Memorable Bus Journey

Our journey to Gondar was another interesting bus journey.  We were the first passengers to be picked up and of course the minibus wasn’t going to be going anywhere without being full. We stopped in the town, in a side street outside a row of small pension type hotels. 

Pension type hostel for local people

 A couple of people approached the bus itself, but after a while, as this strategy wasn’t proving to be too successful, the driver and its money collector decided to take the bull by the horns and go find customers. This meant that we trawled the streets, stopped where there were lots of people and then they ran off, found people, put them on the bus, took their money and ran off again.  Finally, the bus was full and the ‘conductor’ person did the ‘Who’s the Daddy?’ trick with the roll of money and the door and we were off.  Well almost.  We picked up another 4 passengers despite being full, who squeezed in by sitting on a small stool, a large tin and the wheel hub.  Luckily their destinations were villages en-route and so their discomfort was minimal.  As these passengers disembarked others took their places and so we travelled.

Three points about this journey.

Firstly we had a really fierce policewoman stop the bus and give the driver a real rollocking for having too many people on the bus.  We didn’t understand the actual words but the meaning was very clear from her hand gestures, tone of voice and demeanor!  She was telling them to leave the ‘faranji’ (us) in the bus but get rid of the excess passengers.  This went on for about fifteen minutes and in the end they went on without ejecting anyone.

Secondly the toilet break for the ladies was very civilized as led by an Ethiopian lady,  me and my sister went into a nice but empty hotel in one of the small towns and used the bathroom of an unoccupied room that was on the second floor along a corridor.

Thirdly, as with Georgia, stationary buses with passengers inside are sales opportunities, so at every stopping point people rushed towards us trying to sell us stuff.  People bought large bunches of garlic and bags of leaves that when chewed, apparently give you a very pleasant legal experience.  What they didn’t buy on this occasion was an un-plucked chicken with its neck wrung even though the particularly aggressive sales technique involved trying to slide open the window from the outside in case we changed our mind when it was thrown onto our laps.  Luckily they couldn’t open my window.

All in all a very interesting time for 150ETB (£5)

When we reached our destination the driver asked us which hotel we wanted to go to.  We hadn’t worked out that part yet so he rang his mate who jumped on the bus and was ready to help us make up our mind.  He walked us up a hill to a reasonable looking hotel for a reasonable sounding price.

Kidnapped by a Tuk-tuk driver in beautiful Bahir Dar

On our first afternoon we caught a tuktuk into the town centre to see if we could organize our travel to Gondar; having learned from experience that sooner than later is the best policy in Ethiopia.  He was a friendly chappie, our tuk-tuk driver, chatting away unintelligibly, but we were cool about it as it added to the atmosphere of being squashed into the back of his little vehicle.

“Just here please!” we said when we arrived into what we recognized as the kind of town centre.  Jabber-Jabber ignored us and carried on jabbering.  On we went, up this road and down this road, being thrown around all over the place as he took his corners tight.  At one point another tuk-tuk or van (we never found out which) hit us up the arse as we didn’t accelerate as expectedly.  It was like we were being kidnapped! We were taken on a tour of the town without checking with us first and then ignored all requests to stop in the town.  

By this time (after 20 minutes) it was pelting down and we had seen enough roads built by the Chinese for a lifetime.  Finally he stopped and then wanted 50Birr.  I gave him 10 and he argued like billyo.  This is all so exhausting, arguing over money at every point we look.   We walked around and found Hotel Papyrus. We had steak and chips with a dollop of no-harassment and it was great.

Inside view of the outside view from a Tuk-Tuk - stationery

Inside view of the outside view from a Tuk-Tuk – moving

Pimp my Tuk-Tuk

Inside view of the inside view of a Tuk-Tuk

There were signs up everywhere in town “Congratulations!” It was University graduation weekend and there were lots of people walking around in full graduation gowns or suits, carrying bunches of flowers.  Many people and their families had come for the weekend and it there was a very festive atmosphere.

Went back to hotel and told the reception guy about the trips we wanted to do and also asked how we could get to Gondar.  He sorted it.  For a mere 1500ETB we could all go to on boat trip across Lake Tana and visit the island monasteries and then in the afternoon go to the Blue Nile falls.  The next day we could get a minibus to Gondar – he would phone and they would come and pick us up at the hotel.  Sorted and happy we went to bed looking forward to our trips the next day.