Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 8
The land of big hair beauties!
Published: May 17th 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
May 17th 2011
In case you’re wondering, dear reader, I can report from Addis Ababa that Ethiopian women are beautiful indeed. The local ladies are famed throughout the world for their otherworldly beauty, and strolling through the streets of the capital leaves one in no doubt the ladies are stunning! It seems having your hair done is an absolute must before venturing out onto the streets of Addis, and every day elegant big hair beauties with stunning facial features grace the sidewalks. Let’s bring you briefly up to speed, where the journal left off in Kigali at the end of an excellent fortnight in Rwanda. I took a midnight taxi to the airport, and we had to pull over during the trip as the President roared past in his Mercedes with a blaring police escort. The Ethiopian airlines flight ... read more
May 1st 2011
Hi everyone, Well, this will be our last blog for this trip. We are sitting in a hotel in Addis Ababa and the rains have finally caught up with us. Since our last blog, we visited Victoria Falls in Zambia. We booked into a lovely hostel and chilled out for a few days to recover from the safari. However, we did go and see the falls each day while from Livingstone. Record rainfall upstream meant that the falls were in full force and we got soaked by the mist each day. After seeing the falls from the Zambian side, we went over to the Zimbabwe side to see them as well and the views were much better. The falls themselves run almost a kilometer and a half and the mist that is caused by the mass ... read more
April 29th 2011
Most days, like most people, the routine of life doesn’t warrant a lot of notice: get up. eat cold toast. drink coffee. talk to carly. talk to cat. read. take bus to work. work. take bus home. eat dinner. talk to carly. talk to cat. read. sleep. Repeat ad nauseam and ad infinitum. By and large, life isn’t much different in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia than Santiago, Chile or Kansas City, MO. Nine months in, or whatever we are at, the new, the bewildering, the wondrous, and the uncomfortable - all that makes one viscerally aware of the fleeting present - has become banal, routine, and mundane. The epistemological crisis of confronting the so-called ‘other’ has faded into habit. Undoubtedly, this is somehow beneficial for the business of living, but it makes life inherently less interesting. Luckily, ... read more
February 14th 2011
We were lost. We had come down from the caldera of the Fentale Volcano but were now zigzagging across the surrounding foothills looking for the road. Our ‘guide’ was a random kid we had picked up out of a nameless village about 10km west. What was clear is that he knew the difference between up and down, so he had figured out how to get to the top of the mountain. Getting back to where we had left the car, however, was proving more challenging. We needed to go north and west, and the kid had again put his back to the rapidly setting sun. Given present company, this predicament wasn’t all that surprising. Ben, Nick and I were good at getting lost. We had had lots of practice in the Andes. At least this time, ... read more
Lalibela: The New Jerusalem
Published: September 15th 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Amhara Region » Lalibela
February 8th 2011
(I found this while cleaning the computer. Apparently I was not impressed with it 8 months ago. This may still be the case, but if I ever reread any of these things in my dotage, it should be with the rest. good or bad.) Disentangling mythology from history is a tricky business. Perhaps one that is not even possible. Napolean said that history was only “the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon”. So, what is history, and consequently, what is true, depends on who you ask. What outsiders might consider myth or apocrypha is for Ethiopians, indisputably, historical fact. They have resoundingly agreed, and for a couple millennium have been fleshing out the story, working out the kinks, and tying up loose ends. For Ethiopians, the legitimacy and foundation of the ... read more
February 8th 2011
Od tygodnia jestesmy w Etiopii. Dotarlismy wczoraj do Bahir Dar, skad do Was pisze. Jest to pierwsze miejsce z internetem , nastepne za 600km w stolicy. Wrazenia poki co mieszane - od euforii i zachwytu nad wspanialymi widokami, rdzennymi mieszkancami zyjacymi w slomianych chatach , swietnym jedzeniam, po totalna nienawisc i zniechecenie do zyjacego tu narodu.... Niezwykle jest to, ze dorosli sa niezwykle mili i gdyby zyli tu sami dorosli, bylby to wspanialy kraj. Niestety nasza zmora sa wstretne dzieciaki!!!! Na podjazdach biegna za rowerem (a kondycje maja) i krzycza "money.money, give me money", "give me a pen", "give me t-shirt" probuja otwierac sakw, zeby cos ukrasc. Na zjazdach wrzeszcza "give me money" z jakas tylko sobie znana wizja ze rowerzysta pedzacy 60km na h zatrzyma sie i zacznie rozdawac pieniadze! Na prostych rzucaja w nas ... read more
It was just incredible luck
Published: February 14th 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Amhara Region » Simien Mountains
January 30th 2011
The hike was only a dozen steps old and already, William the Scot and I realised that we don’t have any water left for the rest of the first day. We were hiking the Simeon Mountains for 3 days so we packed enough water but our reserve stocks were with the mules taking another route. How could it be that we would be out of water after only 12 steps? Simeon is 5 hours along a dusty bumpy bus north of Gondor. You can book a tour or just rock up and hope to join some others. We managed to join up with 6 - 4 Russians and a Belgium couple. By skipping the tour and doing it ourselves it worked out very cheap for African hiking in a National Park. Getting a bargain would be ... read more
January 29th 2011
22:23 Today was sooooooo sad. I had to say goodbye to everyone and the family I stayed with. I couldn’t bear to see their faces. I gave the family the last few bottles of safe water I had and the leftover food in my backpack. They said I should take the food but I wanted them to keep it! It was painful and a trip I will never forget. I hope the family survive and that their crops grow again. At the moment I am in the car with my driver on the way back to Addis Ababa. I will arrive sometime in the morning and then I will sleep, catch my plane to Lusaka and then the bus to Livingstone!... read more
The 11 Farts of Christmas the good lord gave to me…
Published: February 7th 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Amhara Region » Lalibela
January 29th 2011
I felt like I was cheating flying into Lalibela. From Addis it can take 2 days by bus, most locals walk here or arrive on donkey but that generally is for one special day on January 7. Laddet or as we know it, Christmas. I booked this flight months ago after tackling some hellish bus rides in Malawi so I got it for a bargain price of $60 and the aerial reward for showing some initiative was one of the best decisions I made in Ethiopia. Aerially Ethiopia is spectacular, the rigid hills just seem impenetrable and you can understand why buses are just a torturously long process. The flight went via 2 other airports, Bahir Dar and Gondor. Bahir Dar is on Lake Tana and the view was impressive, after seeing a dry yellow desert ... read more
January 28th 2011
11:51 This morning we got up and dressed and helped out in the refugee camp. I helped…well played with some of the children in the camp, There were some adults but mostly children that only had a few days left. It was heartbreaking watching those mothers watch their children slowly get weaker and weaker, skinnier and skinnier and ever so far away from survival. Most people were from Somalia who had travelled up here across the border to find help. This afternoon, we (Me and the family) are going to look after and feed the crops because yesterday the few cattle left died, leaving us with only the crops as food. They still aren’t ready from when we last checked them but we are very hungry so we might pick them anyway and cook them for ... read more
