Journal Entry 9-16-07

Sunday 9/16/07 – 6:30AM

We are on our way down to Hosanna at this time. There are four of us in our vehicle, a Toyota Landcruiser. Our driver speaks four languages, including English. He is very interesting and we are having a great conversation. I am sitting up front with him. In the back is Michele and a social worker from CHSFS who is located in Hosanna and he specifically remembers Mehandis. He has worked with CHSFS for one year.

The weather is rainy and very cool this morning. The landscape reminds us of Ireland, it is very green with rolling rocky hills. The road is paved but a bit bumby. There are small villages that we drive through with lots of dogs on the side of the road. We see many thatched roof houses and numerous aluminum houses in the small towns, which are very small. There are so many small storefronts that line all of the towns, it seems like everyone sells something here. There are no national chain stores, just a lot of small proprietors. We have hardly seen another car since getting out of the city.

Last night we enjoyed pizza for dinner with cookies and tomato soup. We visited the other guest house to see what it looks like as it is only one block away. It is smaller and less modern but is nice. We went over with Greg and Jarusha and when we got back, everyone else was asleep already. The four of us stayed up until 8:30 talking, having a nice conversation.

We went to bed at 9PM and woke up at 11PM with the buzzer ringing. I thought it was the buzzer to wake all of us up for the trip, since they were going to wake us up around 5AM. I looked down at my watch in the dark and saw it said 5AM. So we got up, turned out our lights, looked to unlock the front door to let Massi in and get ready for the trip. I went to put my watch on and looked at it again and it read 11PM. I looked at it some more, making sure I was not reading it wrong. I had Michele get her watch and we confirmed it, is was actually 11PM, not 5AM. We were both convinced it was time to get up. So after a good laugh, we locked the front door, turned off the light and went to bed. What happened was it was shift change for the security guards, and the replacement was ringing the bell to be let in. We were glad that we did not wake anyone else up in the commotion that we created.

Our driver has worked for a travel agency for the last 10 years and before that, was in the army for 17 years. He served in the army when Ethiopia was under communist rule and was let go when the regime changed. We are continuing to have a great conversation, talking politics, race and the status of the world. He does not have a good feeling about the current state of affairs in Ethiopia, he does not think they are going down a good road. He is worried about the Chinese influence and how they are becoming more and more involved in the country. With a communist past, he is worried that may rise again. He thinks that the US constitution is a great document and is really in favor of our two term limit of president. He feels that the freedom of the mind is extremely valuable and hopes that there is a better future for his country.

As we drive along, we continue to see how people live and get around. There are constantly people walking on the sides of the streets, extremely few cars are seen on the roads. There are mass transit buses that all look extremely old and well used. The driver tends to drive in the middle of the road with the horn going to alert the walkers and animals. There are a lot of cows, donkeys, lamb and dogs on the road. The scenery on the drive is terrific. There are mountains, green pastures and beautiful landscapes. The drive down was rainy and it was early in the day, so we did not see many people on the roads. On the way back, it was a nice afternoon and the towns and roads were busy with people.


We have seen so much on this trip, it is hard to describe. We see ladies walking with huge stacks of sticks on their backs along the road, some beautiful and colorful clothing, we saw some apes crossing the road, donkeys carrying water and sticks and not one white person. On the way down, as we would drive through towns, kids would run out towards the road and wave at us. On the way back, we saw many kids doing work in the fields and the kids seem to be very much on their own, keeping track of each other. A lot of people carry umbrellas because the chance of rain during the rainy season is always prevalent. I saw some signs for some really nice buildings to be built in the future in some of the villages, but it hardly seemed possible that these building would exist so nicely in these desperately poor villages. Everything seems dirty here, with the dirt roads and no lawns and sidewalks, it is hard to see how a pristine building would exist in this world. I was very tired on the way home, but there was so much to see, I did not want to miss a minute of it.
Q: What animal do you see here? Kudos to the first one correct, given that our camera was on the wrong setting for all of the photos!

We just got a flat tire on the way home. We are near Addis Ababa and heard a loud pop and hiss and a four letter word from our driver (we understood this word). I did not mention that we had to switch drivers on the way back due to some people were going to take longer in Hosanna and our driver volunteered to stay late. He liked me and said “Mike, I will miss you” a number of times. He was going to tell me about the Somalia conflict on the way back, I would have enjoyed hearing his story. Our new drivers did not speak English, drove really fast and ate the plant that gets you a bit high. When we got the flat, he dumped the rest of the plant on the side of the road, since it is illegal to have in Addis Ababa (but legal in the rest of the country). We did not have a spare tire, so we had to wait until the rest of the caravan caught up to us. We waited outside the car and people began to come around and see what was going on. As usual, Michele and I really stood out. Soon one of the cars drove up and the guys switched the tire in about 10 minutes and we were quickly back on our way home.

We made it back to the guest house around 3PM after Michele nearly pulled all of her hair out as we narrowly missed car after car driving back through Addis.

8:15PM – Sunday

After we got back to the guesthouse, Michele and I decided to walk over to the care center to see Mehandis. We were joined by Harrison, Gretchen, Kim and Eric. The walk took about 15 minutes and when we got there, Mehandis was up and in a great mood. We stayed with him for about 30 minutes, there was a different nanny there and she was great with him.

On our walk back, we saw the pizza place that we have been told about by previous travelers through CHSFS, we saw the beer that they serve and it called our name. So the six of us stopped in and enjoyed the St. George beers (the oldest beer in Ethiopia). The beer was great, it was nice to relax outside over a tasty refreshment. For sever beers, the total came to about $8. After the beers we went back to the guest house for dinner, which was a good chicken stew, rice, spaghetti and sauce.

During dinner the last people from the group to Hosanna finally arrived back. It turns out that there was a car accident on the way back, two of the Land Cruisers collided going over a bridge when one of them stopped when a donkey walked in front of the car. The other was driving too close and could not stop in time. The car in front got pushed to the side of the bridge and bounced off the railing and back into the road. Luckily no one was injured in the accident (including the donkey, who somehow missed getting hit). They had to go to the police station and the whole ordeal took about 2-3 hours before they could get back on the road. They had to get rides from other people who were still coming back from Hosanna. They were a bit shook up but had some good stories from the adventure.

After dinner we sat in the main room for a while, talking and watching English Premier League Soccer (well I was watching this after I convinced everyone else that this was the best thing on). Greg Kenyon and I later on played a game of cribbage (I won) and were the last ones up. We went to bed around 9PM.