July 10 2008

We flew to Dire Dawa, a short trip of 35 minutes I think. Dire Dawa is a
beautiful town in comparison to Jijiga. Dire Dawa is the second most
populated town in the country with over 300,000. It was founded in 1902
under the named Addis Harar, New Harar, by Menelik II to service the
Franco-Ethiopian railway that connects Djibouti to Addis. Dire Dawa
experienced an economic boom with the secession of Eritrea leaving
Ethiopia without a seaport of its own. Djibouti became Ethiopia's only
link to the Indian Ocean. Set at an altitude of 1150 m. Dire Dawa is
divided into two distinct parts by the wide arc created by the wadi, a
normally dry watercourse. Kezira, a French designed city centre consists
of wide avenues that are tree lined and in neat grids with colonial style
buildings. The old Muslim quarter, Megala, by contrast is more 'organic'
in shape and mood, with all alleys leading to its colorful and vast
market. The two parts of the town are connected by a bridge in the north
and a seasonal causeway in the south.

During the rainy season, there are terrible flash floods that come right
through the center of town in the wadi. In August 2006, 250 people died as
a result of a flash flood. The area surrounding Dire Dawa is mountainous
and all of the water from the mountainous watershed heads right for Dire
Dawa during the rainy season. We spent a considerable time looking at
improvements being completed to help abate the next flood. ICMA through
their City Links program is purchasing two early warning siren systems.
Ron gave the consultant in Dire Dawa some ideas for rectifying a problem
area. There is a long and high flood wall on the banks of the wadi but
where the bridge crosses the wadi there is a huge gap in the wall so water
rushing down the mountain through the water course would be somewhat
contained until it reached the bridge then it would flow right into the
heart of the market area I mentioned above. The used clothes portion of
the market is set up in the middle of the wadi, right where the flash
flood waters will be. Not a good choice.

When we came out of the place where we had lunch a small camel caravan
passed by loaded with wood. There were three women with the four camels,
walking beside them. Not an everyday occurrence back home! I also saw men
sitting on the sidewalk at small tables with manual typewriters. These are
people you can hire to complete legal documents for you. There are many
entrepreneurs in this part of the world.

We had some spare time so headed to the old city of Harar, considered by
some Muslims to be the fourth holiest city in the world after Mecca,
Medina, and Jerusalem. We drove through an arid rocky region with cacti
and eucalyptus and with houses made from the local rocks then we passed
through a beautiful mountainous area and in one village at the top of the
mountain there were women who had platters of beautifully arranged mangoes
on their heads. They were selling the fruit and would approach vehicles
asking if you wanted any fruit. It was so colorful but no photos were
allowed. Later we saw many homes made from mud and with dirt floors. Some
had metal roofs and other had the traditional thatch roofs.

Harar is mentioned in an early 14th century manuscript and its oldest
mosque is said to have been built in the 12th century. The walls
surrounding the old city were built in 1560 and it is called Jugal. Old
Harar remains mostly Muslim with 90-odd mosques, many of them private. It
is said to be the largest concentration of such shrines in the world.
There are about 22,000 people living within the walled city in about 5,000
homes.

Harar lies at the center of a fertile agricultural area known for its
quality coffee although this crop is increasingly being replaced by chat
which is exported to Europe. It is illegal in the US. Here we saw women
chewing chat, lying on the grounds of a private museum we were visiting.
Apparently just about everyone chews chat here. There is a huge market
here for chat and there are checkpoints along the road to ensure anyone
transporting chat is paying the proper taxes. We hired a guide requiring
negotiations but fortunately Ron doesn't mind. People are funny. The guide
said it will be 250 birr for the day (it was already 2:00 pm) and we said
we would only be here a couple of hours so he said 200. We settled at 150
I think and Ron gave him a tip.

Entering the city we were hit with the smell of urine, which we have
smelled a lot here due to inadequate sanitation facilities. We see men
peeing everywhere and anywhere. The 'streets' of Harar are really narrow
passageways. We visited the home of Arthur Rimbaud, a French poet (no, I
hadn't heard of him but that is beside the point). At 21 he left France
and had decided to turn his back on poetry due to the not so great
reception with which his work was met. He was the first white man to enter
the Ogaden region of southeastern Ethiopia. He ran guns for King Menelik
II. His interest in the Ethiopian culture, people and languages made him
popular with the locals and his plain speaking and integrity won the trust
of the chiefs and local governor. In 1891 he developed a tumor on his knee
and traveled for a week by stretcher to the coast. Treatment in Yemen was
not successful and he traveled to Marseilles where his leg was amputated.
By the time of his return to France, his poetry was becoming known but he
was indifferent. He died later that year at the age of 37.

The house was a beautiful, double storey, somewhat Oriental looking, wood
structure. The museum keeper was nowhere to be found so we only got to see
the first floor exhibit then visited some basket makers on the property.
The keeper of the keys never returned so we headed to a private museum,
that was formerly Ras Tafari's (Haile Selassie) house. The museum had
displays of various items such as clothes, weapons, and cookware. We
visited a coffee roaster and bought a kilo of freshly roasted and ground
coffee. Then we visited each of the five gates in the walled city.

Saying goodbye to our guide, our driver went to various places trying to
get fuel for the car. There is a fuel shortage in Ethiopia and
consequently there are long lines to buy fuel with many stations having
none. One driver said it is a false shortage created by the government so
that they can then 'fix it' and make themselves look good. Gas is about
$1. a liter.(3.8 liters to a gallon.) Our driver was young and reckless,
literally. He drove way too fast, used his cell phone constantly and waved
to friends along the way. At one point Ron asked him to slow down and he
did for about 20 seconds.

Our driver took us to dinner later in the evening and said to call him
when we were ready to go back to the hotel. He gave us a card with three
numbers on it. After dinner Ron tried numerous times but couldn't get
through so he asked the restaurant cashier to call and she couldn't get
through so after waiting, hoping he would come by or call, we walked to
the intersection and took a three wheeler back to the hotel. Back at the
hotel, our room was hot, but we had cold showers as there is no hot water
at our hotel. As this is a malaria area we were under the mosquito net for
the night but we had a fan, thank god because the room never cooled off.

The next morning there were meetings with various folks at the municipal
offices that were close by. These offices are three years old and a big
improvement over Jijiga. I noticed the same desk formation; artificial
flower arrangements and the carpet on the floors had been laid but not
finished. The edges were run up the wall for 3-6 inches and the edges were
not finished.

Everywhere we go in Ethiopia we see big murals on the side of buildings
with the new Coke logo "Live on the Coke side of life". What a joke here.
Most people are scratching out a living, many go hungry every day. Somehow
living on the coke side has zero appeal in this setting. If anything it is
offensive.

That's it for Dire Dawa. Our plane was to leave around 5:00 p.m. and it
was four hours late. We sat in the hot airport all that time but were
treated to a bad dinner thanks to Ethiopian Airline. We got back to the
hotel around 11:00 p.m. and were up past midnight trying to unpack all of
the luggage that we had stored with the hotel, do some hand laundry and
pack for Awassa. We left Saturday morning at 9:30.