Ethiopian Tidbits

Have I mentioned the shoe shine guys in Ethiopia? They are ubiquitous.
There are often in groups of three to five sometimes many more. They can
be found on just about every street corner or mid block or both. Each has
a little wooden box, a small bucket of dirty water (I'm sure it starts off
clean in the morning), a few rags, brushes and limited polish. They are
flirtatious and are fun to joke with. I walk the same route most days so
have acquired a group of 'friends' who greet me daily, many asking daily
to shine my shoes. They first wash your shoes with water to remove the
dust or mud depending on the weather. Then they use the smallest amount of
polish possible and finished the job with lots of flourishes as they shine
your shoes. You rest your shoe on the middle riser on their box. When they
want you to change feet, they tap the box with the side of the brush
handle. The cost is, of course like almost everything here, negotiable.
Ron's pays 2 birr and I pay 5 (remember I'm the one who doesn't like to
negotiate.) One birr is almost ten cents US. Negotiations start at ten
birr.

The other tidbit I wanted to be sure to mention is that Ethiopians are
generous. Everyday I see many people dig into their pockets and purses to
fish out coins for the many beggars we encounter on the street. People are
truly hungry here. Since I can't feed them all, I tend to give to those
who are 'most in need': the elderly, and the disabled. There are many in
both categories. I also give meal tickets to women with children and other
able bodied beggars.

The Ethiopian Story of Coffee

I can't tell you how many times Ron has wondered aloud, "How did anyone
ever see a bean on a bush, decide to roast it, grind it and pour hot water
over it so it could then be consumed?" Well, coffee was first created in
Ethiopia and here is their story on the birth of coffee. Kaffa is
generally regarded to be the region from where the Arabica strain of
coffee originated and it is where this plant was first cultivated. A
popular legend said to date somewhere between the 3rd and 10th centuries,
claims that a young herdsman called Kaldi first observed the stimulating
properties of wild coffee. When his goats became hyperactive after eating
the leaves and berries, Kaldi swallowed some of the berries himself, found
that he too became abnormally excited, and ran to the nearby monastery to
share his discovery.

The monks chastised Kaldi for bringing evil stimulants into their
monastery and threw the offending berries into the fire. But then seduced
by the aromatic smell of the roasting berries, the monks decided to give
them a go and found that they were unusually alert during their nocturnal
prayers. Soon it became accepted practice throughout Christian Ethiopia to
chew coffee beans before lengthy prayer sessions, a custom that persists
in some parts of the country today. Later it was discovered that the
roasted berry could be ground to powder to produce a tasty and energizing
hot drink-one that still goes by the name of the Kaffa region in most
places where it is drunk.

The drink of coffee probably remained an Ethiopian secret until the 16th
century when it was traded along the Indian Ocean spice route and
cultivated in Yemen and other parts of Arabia. The bean first arrived in
Europe via Turkey in the 17th century and it rapidly took off-more than
200 coffee shops reputedly traded in Venice alone by the early 18th
century. Today coffee exports typically account for up to 70% of
Ethiopia's annual foreign revenue. Of Ethiopia's annual crop of four
million bags, 90% or more is grown on subsistence farms and small holdings
and about 40% remains in this coffee mad country. (Brandt's Ethiopia
Guidebook) I would add that much is probably grown organically because no
one can afford chemical fertilizer!

By the way, it is the national drink. There are coffee bars everywhere,
just like Portland, every corner has one. It is consumed morning, noon and
night. The traditional way it is made in the home is the beans are first
roasted over charcoal in a flat metal dish where the women constantly stir
them. They like a very dark roast almost burnt. The beans are then ground
into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Next water is placed into a
ceramic jug and heated over charcoal. When the water is hot, using a
folded slip of paper, the grounds are put into the small opening on the
top of the ceramic vessel. I don't know how long it steeps but it is
always quite hot and strong when served in small espresso-sized cups. So I
guess you just don't rush out first thing in the morning with a process
like that. The coffee shops have those wonderful Italian espresso
machines, a much faster option.

July 12 2008
Trip to Awassa for fun, no work!

Our driver was a delighted man by the name of Mehari Messele, probably in
his early to mid thirties. He is married and has one son about 6 yrs old.
He is a professional driver. He never talks on his cell when driving. He
will either ignore the call or he will pull over to take a call. That won
points with us. He also is a very responsible driver. He came to us via
Shawaye, Ron's coworker.

We left the hotel at 9:30 Saturday morning, very tired from our travels to
the east and the late night return Friday night from Dire Dawa. However,
we are determined to see what we can in the time we are here. Ron has
three categories of vacations:
1. Vacations of obligation: visit family
2. Tourists on speed: I may never come here again so I will see and do
everything I can to maximize the experience
3. PMB: park my butt-sleep in, stroll along the beach, read a novel under
a palm tree, take a nap, etc

Well we were in the second mode: tourists on speed. So getting out of
Addis is a pain in the ass. It took two hours and forty minutes to go 70
km (43 miles). But once out of Addis our speed increased. Remember though
we are in Africa so there are still a myriad of animals to avoid in the
middle of the road, each requiring a complete stop. Even though we had
good roads to travel on, we were in the car until 5:00 p.m. to travel 275
km (170 miles) south of Addis. Along the way we saw horrendously long
lines of every kind of vehicle (trucks, cars, buses) waiting for gas. I am
sure some were in line for one-two hours. It rained the entire day. As we
were driving out of Addis, I noticed people selling vegetables that were
spread out on a small croaker sack on the ground with the vendor sitting
on the cold ground and holding an umbrella to keep the rain off. Lord, I
don't know how people do it day in and day out. Be grateful for your life!

Along the way we saw fabulous farm land. We spied men with a simple plow,
a thin piece of wood with a single metal blade, behind a cow plowing his
field. We were in the Rift Valley which is the single largest geological
feature on the African continent and was the only such feature visible to
the first astronauts to reach the moon (or so the travel book says). The
process of rifting started some 20 million years ago along a 4,000 km long
fault line that stretches from the Red Sea south to Mozambique's Zambezi
Valley. The gradual expansion of the valley has been accompanied by a
large amount of volcanic activity. The Ethiopian portion of the Rift
Valley runs from the Red Sea to Lake Turkana on the Kenyan border. In
northern Ethiopia, it forms the Danakil Depression, an inaccessible and
inhospitable desert that dips to an altitude of 116 m below sea level, one
of the lowest points on the earth's surface.

The southern part of the Ethiopian Rift Valley is lower, warmer and drier
than the other densely populated parts of the country. Covered in acacia
woodland and studded with lakes it is also one of the few parts of
Ethiopia that feels unequivocally African. The six main lakes of the
Ethiopian Rift Valley formed during the last Ice Age. (Brandt's Ethiopia
Guidebook)

Eighty-five percent of Ethiopia's population is rural. Almost all the
homes we saw were made of wood stick frame and mud with either thatch
roofs or corrugated metal roofs. In Ethiopia both men and women wear
'shawls' to keep warm or the keep the rain off their bodies. Again we
spied very young children perhaps six years old or younger caring for
livestock. If the herds were larger we saw groups of children caring for
the herds as none of these animals are restrained in any way, making
travel by car a unique and at times dangerous adventure.

I had read that Ethiopia anticipated developing a floraculture industry
when Kenya went off the developing nation list. Sure enough we saw the
largest greenhouse operation I ever imagined. Row after row of huge
greenhouses in width that are row after row in depth that grow cut flowers
for the European markets. These are foreign firms (The Netherlands and
India) we were told. Buses take the workers to and from the site which is
a ways out of town. The Rift Valley is a rich agriculture area. We saw
fields of maize, tomatoes, potatoes, papaya, strawberries, and tef. In one
town there were many tractor trailer trucks idled on the street. Mehari
explained that this town has lots of sand used for construction but when
it rains the trucks cannot get to the sand so they sit until they can.
What blew our minds was that they are loaded by hand. A crew of 20 men
chew chat, which makes them a bit hyper then they sing as they shovel. Oy!
Not exactly how it is done back home.

We also saw many small children under the age of six I would guess who
wore shirts but nothing else: no underpants, no shorts, no pants. Poverty
reigns here. We stopped for lunch at Lake Langano, one of the Rift Valley
Lakes. It is the color of tea with a little milk, sort of orange brown. It
is 150 ft deep and covers an area of 305 sq. km. There were birds
everywhere at the resort where we stopped, even in the dining room. Window
screens are not used in this part of the world. This resort is popular and
there was a group of young women, probably college students, frolicking on
the water's edge in the rain. This is an older Ethiopian resort, to
clarify. Nothing like the resorts we are used to.

We passed more fuel stations with incredibly long lines. One smart woman
was entrepreneurial and was walking along the line selling hot coffee or
tea from a large thermos to those who had to wait. Smart cookie! We
passed through the Rastafarian community. I believe I wrote about them
before. They have never been granted citizenship, even their Ethiopian
born children. When we were stopped I noted one young man with a Bob
Marley t-shirt. Marley was smoking a reefer the size of a cigar and the
caption said Free Your Mind. Rastafarians consider marijuana a sacrament.
Pork, milk and coffee are strictly forbidden. They are still patiently
waiting for the restoration of the Ethiopian monarchy and view the war
with Eritrea as punishment to the country for having killed its king,
Haile Selassie.

We arrived at our destination, Awassa around 5:00 p.m. We checked into the
hotel and headed for the lake a few blocks away. That day was graduation
day from a local university and all the graduates were at the lake to take
photos with their families. It was a zoo but what a wonderful occasion. We
were a rarity we soon discovered. We got lots of friendly looks. As soon
as we entered the park, a small child about three or four years old came
right up to us and stuck out his hand for us to shake. His parents loved
it and so did we. The next thing we knew we were having our photo taken
with family members. One of the adult women in the group acted like I was
her long lost sister or mother. She insisted that there be of photo of
just the two of us and she put her head next to mine. She hugged me and
made a big fuss over me. Well this happened many times as we walked along.
I was looking at birds with the binoculars and one child tried to look
through them backwards. While looking through the binoculars, I spied many
colorful birds including an eagle. All the graduates held huge bouquets
of very brightly colored artificial flowers wrapped in clear cellophane.
All were wearing their robes. There were many proud families: parents,
spouses and children. A college education used to be free here but now the
cost is shared between the student and the government. One family asked us
to send the photos we took of them via email which Ron has since done. I
must say going to the lake was one of the highlights of the trip. It is
very humbling to have so many people appreciate our presence in their
country. It is one of those events that makes this kind of travel so
special and makes us aware that we are one big family here on the planet.

While we were walking along, our driver pointed out a wood box attached to
a tree with writing on it. The box was painted white. It contained
condoms, in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and USAID was one
of the sponsors. A good use of our tax dollars, I'd say. We went back to
the hotel as the mosquitoes were starting to come out and this is a
malaria region.

We dined at the hotel and had a good meal of fish for which the area is
noted. The next morning I was delighted to have a hot shower only to
discover that it wouldn't drain so the shower pan quickly filled up and
never drained during the time we were in the room, during breakfast and
after. Poor Ron was denied a shower as the water would have flowed all
over the place had he tried to shower. He had to do a sponge bath with
the wash cloth we always bring with us. The breakfast was good and after
we finished we noticed a woman filling the bakery case with fresh
croissants. Ron ordered one with his second cup of coffee but I was too
full from breakfast. They were delicious so I bought three for the road
trip home.

We stopped at the Lake Abiata-Shala National Park on the way home. This is
a 887 sq. km. park. Lake Shala's 410 sq. km. surface sits within the
collapsed volcanic caldera and depths exceed 260 m. in some areas, while
Abiata's highly alkaline waters rest in a shallow pan no more than 14 m.
in depth. The last decade has seen Lake Abiata suffer greatly at the hands
of humans. We saw many people living within the boundary of the park. They
are illegal settlers who had chopped down the acacia trees to make
charcoal to sell. We saw so many stumps. Commercial farms and a government
owned soda ash factory have caused pollution and a substantial drop in the
water level. The lakes increased salinity has killed the fish and
therefore the resident bird population has deserted their former nesting
grounds. The government is doing nothing to stop the destruction of the
park. It is a sad story indeed. The roads within the park are only
passable with a 4 wheel drive vehicle and even then it scared the heck out
of me. If nothing else hire those illegal residents to maintain the roads
and then they wouldn't have to chop down all those trees. Of course, we
all know if I were in charge things would be different!!

On the shore of Lake Shala there is a sulphurous hot spring which we
visited. Here the residents bathe, wash clothes, and cook maize and
potatoes in the hot water. One spring was littered with maize cobs. Yuck!
The locals drink the water from the spring but not the lake. As we drove
into the park and through the areas where there were homes (mud huts)
children came up to the car or in some cases ran after us along side the
car, trying to get us to buy clay objects that someone had made. The look
on one child's face undid me. He looked so desperate. I just get
overwhelmed at times with the poverty here. As we drove through we saw
wart hogs, deer, plover, ostrich (there was a farm in the park) and
flamingoes. From the park we headed home, stopping for a bad lunch at a
local hotel. Both going to Awassa and returning to Addis we saw no fewer
than six or seven overturned Isuzu trucks. Mehair calls them Al Qaida
because the drivers always take someone out with them when the wreck. We
got home around 4:00 in the afternoon, very tired but happy to have seen
part of the gorgeous Rift Valley.