Easter in Dilla

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The minibus from Awassa to Dilla took about 2 hours, but seemed a lot longer with it seeming to stop every 10 minutes loading people on and off. The conductor didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing and tried to charge me double, saying I had to pay for my bag. This had been tried on me before and after calling him a thief enough times he gave me the correct change back.

Matt met me off the minibus in Dilla, where he is working for the Peace Corps. Dilla is a town of about 80,000 people and he is about the only faranji living there. He was certainly something of a local celebrity as everywhere we walked there were people shouting his name.

It was Ethiopian Easter today, which, I am told, is the biggest festival in their calendar. It is also the end of a 55 day fasting period, where they are not allowed to meat. Therefore, it is a bad day for the sheep, goat and ox of Ethiopia as most people engage in an orgy of meat eating. Matt had several invitations to go eat meat in peoples' houses and he brought me along. The hospitality we were shown was absolutely humbling as we were fed meat, tej (a home brewed honey wine) and beer until we could not consume anymore.

It is a big night for the Ethiopians as well and we went along to a few bars that were fairly jammed. I also had the pleasure of watching Villa get hammered 4-0 by Man Utd, with each goal being met by rapturous celebrations, which I didn't enjoy too much.

The next day, I didn't feel too great and didn't really do a whole lot except take some pills I had and drink water. I was going towards Kenya the next day.

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