Hi there!
After a short night at the United Pension in Addis Abeba (we
arrived at 2 a.m.) we had breakfast at the restaurant next to the guesthouse.
If you ever go to Ethiopia, try Fetira with honey for breakfast – it’s simply delicious!
Ehtiopians are tough when it comes to the choice of meal for breakfast. One
ordered Firfir – a national dish with Injera, vegetables and meat which we
Swiss often eat for lunch or dinner (as generally our stomachs are not geared
for spicy stuff and that’s why, Immodium and Carboleveur (yeast tablets) become
your best friends during such a trip) and another one ate a pizza at 9 o clock
in the morning. Really impressive (really).
Then it was time for me and the YEEP committee to head to
Hawassa where the start-up week takes place. The others stayed another night in
Addis to visit the Merkato (good luck with that guys ;) ) and do some
sightseeing. It took about 6 hours to get to Hawassa and it was definitely an
adventure. We weren’t alone on the street. Not at all. We shared the street not
only with other cars, trucks and walkers, but also with dogs, donkeys, horses,
cows and goats and whatever felt like crossing the street. The thing is, I
would drive rather slowly in order to avoid hitting anyone or anything but not
so our driver. He drove up to 120 km/h – even through villages. No mercy. My
suggestion: Don’t look at the street, enjoy the beautiful nature because
otherwise you get terrified of what happens outside your car. Let me introduce
Rachel at this point. She’s in the YEEP team too and was with us on the trip
last August when we first visited Ethiopia. Unfortunately, she’s not here this
year. She loves animals (really all kind of animals). For her, the trip from
Addis to Hawassa equalled a descent into hell. She was screaming whenever a
puppy or a goat or whatever crossed the street and almost “met” our car.
Sometimes the space between an animal on the street and the side of our car was
– lets say – rather tight. But we never hit any animal (our driver was extremely
talented). When we drove the road to Hawassa this year we had again those
so-called “Rachel-moments” where we almost hit a donkey or a goat standing on
the street like it would be the most normal thing in the world. Imagine: you are
sitting in the back of a minibus, staring at the street where a goat is
approaching faster and faster. You start estimating the space between the
approaching animal and your car. You realize that – if the animal survives
- then by a hair. In the last moment you
close your eyes in order to avoid seeing the inescapable. You expect to hear a
“booom” and then some other not very nice sounds from the animal spinning
around the left car wheel. But nothing happens and you feel happy for the next
few minutes (actually seconds) until another animal appears on the street…
We had both shocking and surprising moments, but also a lot
of “wow moments” for example the second we caught sight of the sunset at 6 p.m.
It was breath-taking. There is something with Ethiopia and sunsets – it looks
much more impressive than in Switzerland. Last year I took a photo from the
sunset at the Lake Hawassa. Simply amazing:
Watching the sunset let us forget all the troubles and “Rachel
moments” for a while and we just enjoyed the beautiful view while we were
approaching the Campus of the Hawassa University.
A huge “thank you” to the driver – in my view it’s god-given
to drive on such crowded streets without killing something…
Cheers,
Ari
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