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. 

Ruinous Axum

Africa Hotel was fine and at 200 ETB (£7.20) per room per night and free airport transfer we were more than happy.  The hotel had a bar and a restaurant and an outside drinking area but we were plagued by boys who wanted to clean our shoes for an extortionate 20ETB a pair.  They weren’t allowed to cross the low chained area but it didn’t stop them calling out constantly. Because there were very few tourists they tended to sit there waiting for us so in the end we used to drink our beer inside.

The capital city of Ethiopia has moved from place to place over the centuries, I guess for different economic and political reasons, but Ethiopian history is discussed in terms of pre, post and Axumite periods.   

Axum is therefore a significant historical place and thus full of ruins!

Axum 1901 

Axum 2012

Axum  Stelae (grave stones to commemorate kinds)

Axum Stelae in pieces 

Axum – Martin and Measure

Axum – close-up of measure 

Axum landscape 1

Axum landscape 2 

Axum - Queen of Sheba's Baptism Pool

Axum Cathedral

Axum Cathedral- shrine to Mary

Axum Cathedral - Mary and Jesus 

Axum – outskirts of town

Axum – Jennifer at the Yeha Temple - Stelee

Axum – Yeha Temple 

Plane Journeys

We casually mentioned to our tour guide that we needed to sort out a bus to Axum for the next day and asked where we could get a ticket.  We had heard that the scenery was particularly wonderful from Gondar to Axum and so were happy to travel by bus rather than plane.  He threw his hands up in horror and said that even if tickets were available (we would have to buy them at 5 the next morning and it was most likely to be full anyway) the journey was very bad.  The roads were terrible and what’s more we would have to get two buses and probably would have to stay over in between the buses.  We were convinced that a one hour plane journey was a better alternative, but the problem was that the Ethiopian Airline office was now closed.  If you recall from an earlier blog entry our attempt to buy a ticket as we flew was doomed and so our tour organiser made lots of calls said that there were seats at the moment and told us to be ready at 6 in the morning in the reception area and he would make sure that seats were still available before we set off for the airport.

All went well.  The only fly in the ointment was his attempts to squeeze more money out of us by casually letting us know that he had had a bad night because of a kidney stone and he made a good job of hobbling.  I was suspicious, but you know.  However I thought it was suspect when he was still humping our bags when there was another boy doing it.  Gillian, full of heart and compassion was quite distressed about it and wanted to give him money.  In the end no more money (other than a hefty tip for getting us to the airport with flights despite us being unorganised) passed hands and when we later told Dawit from the school he raised his eyes and said yes it was a scam.  So we did the right thing.  But see what I mean?  The leeching is really hard-core.

As I passed through the personal x-ray I set off the alarm.  The male attendant looked me up and down (only as far as 12 inches under my chin) and pronounced that it was my “Breast holder”.  I was duly sent to a curtained off cubicle to be de-bleeped.  The female attendant literally came up to 12 inches below my chin which was quite amusing.  Even more amusing was that my sister, next in line, also set off the alarm.  We were all alarmed when from behind the curtain we heard those immortal and most feared words “Bend over please”.  Standing close by ready to pounce on hearing “JEN!!!!” she came out in one piece.  Our vertically challenged attendant wanted to check her flip flops.

Internal flights are quite nice.  However, no one told us that the flight went from Gondar to Lalibela and then to Axum.  It’s like going from Liverpool to London to Edinburgh. We got up to get off at Lalibela thinking we were at Axum.

Walking to our plane

Little ain’t she? 

While we were waiting for our luggage to turn up I suddenly realised I’d left my handbag under the seat on the plane.  All our money, cards, passport were in it.  I ran out of the arrivals lounge like a scalded cat onto the runway area waving my arms.  What was I thinking?  Did I really think that the plane would stop as if I was hailing down a car?  I heard shouting behind me and two guys driving the luggage carrier were waving and one of them was holding my bag in the air.  What a bloody relief!

I was kind of sure that Africa Hotel had been mentioned as a good place to stay but maybe it had been reported as not so good, I couldn’t quite remember.  So we decided that we would go there and see what it was like and find somewhere else if we didn’t like it.  Fortunately, there was a man with a sign saying “Africa Hotel” as we came through the airport and so we had free airport transfer as well.