July 9 2008 written July 14

I have five days of blog to catch up so I will do this in stages. I forgot
to mention one other item about Gambella. On one of our trips into the
town area, we spied about 8-10 people, mostly men, who were sitting in
little stalls , one after another, with treadle sewing machines, making
repairs on clothing and I assume making clothing. Also there were men with
the old fashioned irons that are filled with charcoal for heat. Forget
electricity. Life is not easy here, folks.

We left the hotel on July 9th at 6:00 a.m. and discovered many people
sleeping on the sidewalks on the way to the airport. We are never out late
so we have not witnessed this other than the one I described in a previous
blog: the nest of children. There is a very new, very large Orthodox
Christian church on the way and there were many people sleeping outside
the fence/gates of the church.

As we were flying to Jijiga, I looked out the window and saw a desert
landscape with lots of dry river beds, camels and little vegetation. It is
what I usually think of when I think of Ethiopia. It looked arid, flat and
hazy. I have seen very little of clear skies here. Then we flew over a
hilly area that was terraced and green. There were small villages in this
region as well as isolated rural homes and farms.

As we flew into Jijiga which is quite near the Somalia border there were
what looked like huge tracts of farmland but no crops, no houses. I was
told it has been a bad year for rain. There is very little irrigation
here. Too expensive. The airport was out of town about 20 km. We alit from
the plane, walked across the tarmac, over a gravel then dirt path and
waited for our bags. Three men pushed a wagon of all the bags to where we
retrieved them. Jijiga is on a flat plain and it was sunny but quiet
windy. We were met by the local ICMA rep and a hired driver. In order to
put our bags in the back of the 4x4, the driver had to crawl across the
back seat to unlock the hatch, and then go around to the back of the
vehicle to open it. Life is not easy here and money is in short supply.
People make do with what they have. We had a decent asphalt road into
town, I think it was new. Along the way there were donkeys, sheep, goats
and camels. In this part of the world, the animals are everywhere, not
restrained and drivers must be alert as they have to repay the owner if
they hit one of these animals. So anytime we travel there are frequent
stops as one or more animals cross the road or moves out of the way, or
not.

Once we got into town, it was a different story. The road surfaces were
completely worn away in many areas so that huge rocks, road base material,
the size of a softball or larger poked through the asphalt surface, making
for a very uncomfortable ride. I joked with Elsa who is Shalwaye's
fiancée, that we were the only women in town in pants. All the women I saw
wore long dresses/skirts, and a head covering that covered three-fourths
of their bodies. This is a Somali region of Ethiopia so there are many
Muslims here. Did I mention that this is a very poor region? The clothing
worn is colorful but mismatched by our standards. A woman might have on a
bright polyester print dress that covers her ankles with a completely
different color scheme print head covering that extends to her mid calf.
It was sort of like the tile floors in our hotel. There were 12-18 inch
floor tiles with ornate patterns but in places you would have no fewer
than three or four different tiles with completely different patterns and
colors. Nothing goes to waste, every scrap is used.

Jijiga is known for growing chat. Chat (Catha edulis Forskal) is chewed by
Muslims who are forbidden to drink alcohol. Chat is a small evergreen
shrub about 2 m high and the branches are picked and the tender leaves are
chewed for 1 ½ -2 hours for effect. It is a mildly intoxicating stimulant.
I was astounded to see so many men sprawled on the ground with their hand
full of branches, pulling off leaves and stuffing them into their mouths.
It is acceptable to chew chat throughout Ethiopia and has been around for
centuries. The best chat is grown near Harar, a Muslim town. The growing
area for chat is at an altitude of 1500-2800m. It is picked and shipped
the same day to Somaliland or Djibouti, both of which are near Jijiga. In
Somaliland and Djibouti it has become a national addiction with serious
socio-economic consequences. I would say from what we saw that Jijiga
isn't far behind. Chat costs money and the poverty in this area was
overwhelming. As poor as the region is I didn't see any beggars. Shawalye
explained that the Somali community is a clan culture and is good about
taking care of their community.

Most housing here is what is called Somali traditional houses: a structure
made of wood branches, grasses and cloth. There must be close to airless
inside with only a small opening for a door. They are mostly in the shape
of a loaf of bread. Muslins here have large families so according to our
driver, 10-12 people are sleeping inside. Sometimes there is a smaller hut
that is used for cooking. No electricity, no water and much worse, no
sanitation facilities, no public toilets. When we get back to the US we
will post photos of the area.

We spent the day in meetings with the mayor, revenue officer and
sanitation officer. We met the mayor in the office of the ICMA rep in
Jijiga. The mayor was accompanied by an armed guard who stood outside the
door with his automatic rifle. I do so hate guns! Four of the seven chairs
in the office were broken: arm rests missing, backs gone, etc. His
furniture that ICMA is providing is supposed to arrive at the end of the
week from Addis. The tired curtain on the window covered about ¾ of the
window. In the hallways, there was trash on the floor by the stairway.
The tiles on the steps were broken. The desk of the revenue officer had a
huge bashed-in area on the surface as though something heavy had fallen on
it. The interior of the building was desperate for paint. We guessed it
had been 15-20 years since the walls had been painted and they were
filthy, black with grime. When I asked to use the toilet, I was taken back
to our hotel. If Americans saw how the rest of the world lives, I think
they would complain less and be more grateful for what they have. There is
NO comparison! Most of the meetings were conducted in Somali I think so we
had the local rep serve as interpreter. He speaks Somali, Amharic and
English.

Elsa and I sat in on the meetings; otherwise we would have been sitting in
our hotel rooms with no power. I noticed that in Gambella and here, the
city employee will have an office desk and tied into it will be a small
conference table so that when you meet with the official, you sit at the
conference table but that prohibits you from facing the person directly.
Some offices can't afford the small conference table so they substitute a
coffee table. Artificial flower arrangements are big here. I counted six
on one office. When meeting with one person, there was a woman who must
have been his assistant who sat in the back of the room. A couple of times
she left the room and locked us in as a way to limit interruptions. Not
what we would consider a safety practice in the US.

Like Sri Lanka, residential waste collection is handled by someone walking
down the street and announcing the lorry is coming and to put your solid
waste out by the front door. The trash collectors here make 10 birr a day
(that's about a dollar a day, not a living wage). Consequently they have a
turnover rate of over 100% a year. A lot of time was spent clarifying
revenue collection. We ate lunch at the hotel and took a break as
Ethiopians rest from 12-2 or 2:30. Shops close and apparently so do city
offices. After lunch we went on a tour of facilities. The city owns a
slaughter house and it is one of the things they requested help with from
ICMA. I didn't realize that was where we were going, thinking we were on
our way to the city dump or temporary collection site for solid waste. We
drove into a gated, huge walled area and got out of the car. There were
hundreds of flies. I then noticed the horrid odor of dead flesh. Yuck! I
saw a herd of camels in the corner of this compound, ready for slaughter
tomorrow. Somalis eat camel. I looked at Ron and said I was getting back
into the car. Shawalye and Elsa had stayed at the hotel as she had a
migraine and he had been on this tour. Ron talked to the city employees
about the issues and took photos. What a guy! He never complains and just
works to get the job done. I talked to the driver and we swatted flies the
entire time. He talked about the Somalis who chew chat, don't work and
have large families. I listened but gathered he was less than approving of
the Somalis lifestyle. He is graying and has one son who is about 2 yrs
old. I think many people here marry late. The city charges 12 Birr (about
$1.20) to use the facility to slaughter an animal (for butchers) and sees
this function as a social service. They are operating at a deficient
obviously. Other cities charge 80-120 birr. There were three slaughter
houses. One was for the Christian butchers and two were for the Muslim
butchers (each used for different kinds of meat). We saw men with donkey
carts with a 50 gal. drum on the cart. These are filled with water at town
taps then taken around neighborhoods where they sell the water, none of
which is drinkable. We also observed the main transportation in town which
was donkey or horse carts with little canopies on tops made from old car
axe . There were a few tri-wheel taxis, what we called trishaws in Sri
Lanka and tuktuks in Thailand.

As for our hotel, it is considered the best place to stay and to eat in
town. Our room was dark with one small window. No overhead fan, no power
until dark, and the small table where our travel bag had been put had a
top that fell off. We moved it aside. The toilet seat was leaning against
the wall, not attached in any way to the toilet. One towel, and a mattress
that I thought may have been made of ceramic tile it was so hard, no give
to it. We had a TV and a refrigerator but neither is of much use until
nightfall. We slept with the window closed as this is a malaria are. We
used the mosquito net over us which always makes for a hot night as very
little air can penetrate the net.

At lunch we were given one menu for the table. Like I said people make do
here. The items included a section for beef, lamb and chicken and each
section had 3-5 choices. For example there was fried chicken, breaded
chicken and grilled chicken. Then there was a salad section and soup
section with multiple offerings. I ordered minestrone soup. Nope, they
only had vegetable soup so I ordered it. It was a gray, lumpy gross
looking soup with a speck of carrots and I assume potatoes and it was
tasteless. I ate a few bites of Ron's macaroni with meat sauce. I always
eat with trepidation when we are in these little towns with such limited
facilities, worry that I will get sick. So far so good but it makes for a
nervous meal.

Our last activity of the day was to visit the city dump site. I know this
isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but we actually enjoy seeing how
cities manage their solid waste as there is usually room for improvement
and ICMA has technical advice to help make those improvements. Let me say
it was devastating. Everywhere we looked as we approached there were
plastic bags. They were hanging on every bush like a Christmas tree
decorated with trash. They were in trees, on rocks, etc. It was awful. On
the way to the site, our guide pointed out one of the city's water wells
where they get their drinking water. We also saw the traditional Somali
huts on the way and at the dump. The people who live here are scratching
through the garbage hoping to find usable items to sell or trade. The
landscape was stark: flat, windy and strewn with trash. The guide pointed
out how they dump the garbage and then burn it. Ron noticed a ravine right
next to the dump and the ravine goes right by the city well that had been
pointed out to us on our way to the site. Ron pointed out how when it
rains all the materials from the garbage that has leached out will go into
the ravine and right into the well, poisoning the water. The guide argued
that they burn the garbage so 'no problem'. Ron assured him there was
still leaching going on and it was a huge problem. After seeing all the
Somali huts in town and at the dump, the utter poverty then discovering
this horror, I was totally undone, bordering on depression.

We went to dinner and discovered although the menu lists numerous items we
could order macaroni or lamb cutlets or roasted lamb. They were 'out' of
everything else on the menu. It reminded me of Henry Ford who said you
could have any color car you wanted as long as it was black. We opted for
lamb and were pleasantly surprised. The best part was we didn't get sick.
So much for my worrying. When will I learn?

The next day we headed for the airport. Along the way we saw lots of
donkeys hauling yellow jugs about 5 gallons carrying water. We saw them
about 5 km out of town. Imagine hauling your water everyday, 5 km into
town and 5 km back out of town, on foot. Near the airport we saw a
community of Somali homes, about 10-12. Once at the airport, we got to a
'station' outdoors where there are guards who searched our bags then did a
body search. There is a little area for privacy where a woman pats my
breasts, waist, thighs, etc. There is a male guard for the men. Then we
got into the metal shed for our boarding passes and checked our bags. Then
we were told to go to another area of the shed that requires us to go back
outside into another door and small room. All passengers wait here until
called. There are metal benches and a few upholstered chairs. There is a
woman who serves coffee, and snacks using the tiniest space to prepare the
items to be consumed. There is a constant wind here. The shed is held
together with small trees branches 4-6 inches in diameter and branches 2-3
inches in diameter. The only lumber is was the frame for the sheet metal
door. Even the roof trusses were trees, not sawn lumber. Electrical
conduit was in a rubber garden hose not metal conduit. Guess code hasn't
reached Ethiopia. I don't remember how late the plane was but we have yet
to take a trip that the plane was on time. Next installment will be Dire
Dawa.