Blogs from Harar, Harari Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 2

Harar Again This morning Lishan joins us again for another walking tour of Harar. We walk around the city walls for a while and take in a traditional Harari house and the house of the famous poet, Arthur Rimbaud - OK. I actually know nothing about poetry but I've vaguely heard of Rimbaud from a reference in a Van Morrison song Rimbaud never actually lived in Arthur Rimbaud's House! The house is built on the site of the house he used to live in. It does, however, have a good collection of old black and white photographs of Harar - I'm a big fan of old black and white photographs. We are really taken with the Traditional Harari House, it is really cool inside and we could relax there all day. The main room of the ... read more

(Kovas writing…) In the dry rural parts of Ethiopia we have seen many different cacti. They are diverse and interesting plants! Some looked and grew as tall as trees because they had one main stem and many branches that grew up. Others had big thorns and were dark green in color. The ones that we mostly saw driving to the eastern city of Harar grew to waist height, were light green, and had groups of many small thorns. Unfortunately, I accidently touched these little groups of thorns. If this happens to you, you will find three or four small, yellowish thorns stuck on your finger. You will feel a small sting, look at your finger and take out the thorns. Then, the place where the thorns had been will start to itch and feel very uncomfortable. ... read more

The Abyssinian Abyss! Wow! Sorry it’s been so long - I haven’t been avoiding the blog - I just simply haven’t had any internet access for almost a fortnight! Anyhow, I will try to give a quick overview of my trip since I left Bahir Dar on October 26th… Well first I headed to Gonder for a day. And a day well spent it was too! I watched Liverpool beat Chelsea in Gonder Cinema. Oh yes! It is difficult for one to exaggerate the popularity of the English Premier League out here in Ethiopia. Every young man, and most young women, appear to own one fake shirt or another, and can rattle off a surprising about of details and stats about most of the teams in the top flight. I’d say Arsenal are the favorites out ... read more

Plea note things might be abit hazey, it has been 9 months. Argh Its Raining I hauled myself out of bed at 4ish and couldn’t help but notice the rain thumping down outside. Begrudgingly I showered packed a day bag and put my main pack, that I was leaving behind into its pack safe. Renee knocked on my door just too make sure that I was actually awake an d still going as they thought that the whether would have made me change my mind. Natalie even confessed that as soon as she heard the rain she thought I would be staying behind. Bags in the main office we went down to see if the taxi we had arranged was there. It wasn’t! Instead we did find another taxi driver sleeping in his car. He ... read more