Advertisement
Published: April 18th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Here is a special guest blog from Dave!
Dave and Dee (Sara's mum and husband) have arrived and we have just spent a great week in Assosa. Today we are off to Addis for two days before heading out in our hired car & driver to Wondo Genet springs, Awassa, Arba Minch, back to Addis then Wenchi Crater.
We will not be back in Assosa now for 10 days and then may well be immediately off to the Metekel Zone for training - Sara with the Shinasha Development Association and myself with computer maintenence training...
Could go quiet for a while 😊
And cross your fingers. Sara's 200,000 euro European Union proposal for the region's Development Associations was finished yesterday and will be handed in, hot off the press, on Monday!
So Happy Ethiopian Easter for tomorrow and on with the main event --->
Dave’s Ethiopia Blog We glide down into Addis Airport escorted by falcons and eagles, like some presidential military escort. The airport is huge, the officials welcome us with smiles. Cleaners dressed in pink sway over the huge marble mezzanine floor with mops, like tropical flamingos at ‘come dancing’.
Our
little Fokker 50 bounces down on jungle cleared landing strips, en-route to Assosa, Western Ethiopia, where we are to meet up with my wife, Dee’s daughter, Sara and hub Al, on their 2nd year with V.S.O. Meanwhile back at the strip, a sylph- like women, who could grace any Paris catwalk, places her radio-coms to her turbaned head, and clears us for take-off.
We arrive in Assosa at the end of market day. Streams of people, laden with bundles, baskets, balanced on heads, donkey backs or dragged by toddlers fill the incredibly wide red dirt roads. Bamboo and eucalyptus are piled high, mango skins slip underfoot while goats graze on central reservations. The road surface changes to asphalt and still, incredibly there are no cars. In Assosa you walk or if hard pushed share a 3 wheeled Bajaj taxi, where for 1 Birr (that’s very little) rock and roll home.
Our first meal out is a candle lit supper. The electricity has been off all day as part of an economical strategy. Shadowy figures whisper and strangers walk carefully. Not from any threat other than stumbling into the deep flood water gulleys or skidding on mango skins. The
mangos are literally dropping from the trees often helped by a pole wheeling youth all eager to catch this manna from heaven. Our supper arrives on a huge tray covered in an edible table cloth heaped high with chillied lentils, bites and nibbles.
The idea is you tear off a piece of cloth, sorry tef, a pancake like cereal and smother an edible delight before popping it in your mouth. All this washed down by an ice cold bottle of St George’s beer makes for a fine feast. I’m not too sure of the dragon fighting history in this part of the world and after 3 beers don’t really care. We wander home past the president’s palace where a sleepy guard accepts the gift of a mango from Al. I wonder is this a security risk handling a gun, a radio and eating a mango. The night stays quiet and all is well.
It’s Sunday today and our plan today is to visit the Assosa footballers. It’s the final of the under 13’s(Quick boys) and under 15’s(strikers), kick-off 10-30. We are invited guests. We arrive 15 minutes late, expecting play to be underway but no, every player, supporter,
coach and a couple of wild goats are lined up to receive us.
After a warm welcoming speech I decide to take on the presidential roll and a bit like Prince Harry give each player a warm hand-shake and good luck mumble. The match’s are 6 a side and goals hard fought for on the rough terrain. Eagles circle on thermals and a lone heron floats by. The game runs to extra time, then penalties. I loose count, but I think the green day-glo bib-tops win. A lot of their kit has been supplied by Al’s friends, and we, as ambassadors are given incredible respect. We both felt incredibly humbled and moved.
My first introduction to Ethiopian dancing reminds me of the 60’s rockers shaking their greasy locks and shoulders to Status Quo only more colourful and a bit of a Reggae beat. It’s a surprise birthday party for me and includes a coffee making creamy on a leaf covered floor.
During our visit we visited Mr Happy’s Language school and shared the VIP honours with George, an incredible ambassador for World Health, from Kenya. Mr Happy meanwhile reprimands giggling students, not part of the curriculum. Our
other school visit was winding down for the huge Easter celebrations about to begin. The majority of Christian people here have been fasting for 55 days and it all ends in a goat fest on Sunday. Fair play that the free range goats get to enjoy freshly fallen mangoes prior to Sunday lunch! The staff of the school take tea beneath the boughs of a giant mango tree and laugh and joke at the free hanging fruit bonanza, life and the universe.
We visited wonderful villages, were greeted and heralded as honoured guests and felt humbled by incredible hospitality. My visit to Assosa ends with an early morning training session with Taekwondo Master Teddy , a collegue of Al’s, and Dee. We’d visited his club earlier in the week. Part of my life is Karate, and we shared the rising of the sun, the fall of the moon through our knowledge of ancient martial art and meditation. The peace and harmony of this beautiful country were brought together in this peaceful setting and will stay with us forever.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.192s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 5; qc: 86; dbt: 0.1029s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Jan
non-member comment
You made it!
Hi Dee and Dave, Sara and Al. Sounds like you are all having a wonderful time. I hope you have a great time travelling round the other areas and I am looking forward to seeing some more photos and hearing all about it. Love to you all. Jan and Al xxxx