We started out early this morning from the farm and headed south to Ginir but only went about 3 or 4 kilometers before we had to turn back because of the bad road conditions. So went back to the farm and then decided that we could take an alternative route that went North up to Beltu and then southwest to Sheik Husein and then back down to Ginir over to Robe Shashamene and then upto Addis. We knew there was a more direct route from Sheik Husein to Addis which would cut off about 4-5 hours but we heard that it was perilous and there would be no place to get help if we needed it. We decided that when we got to Sheik Husein we would ask the local people about it, and if they said it was passable, then we would take that route in order to shorten our trip and make it to Addis is one day. The driver did not want to take the direct route, but we settled between us Americans that we would make it happen if we could. So we set out once again from the farm. I saw hut after hut, camel after camel, donkey after donkey, and one little dirty urchin after another, everything that I’m used to after living here for a month. We made the ride in a filthy van that had a driver and his assistant who looked like he was about 14. The assistant’s job was to hang out the window periodically and look to see how the tires were holding up. I felt sorry for him and as the day went along, I gave him cookies, chocolate, watermelon gum, and pepsi. The driver stole my orange soda pop and so I was mad and gave his assistant treats and him nothing. The driver would only go about 30 kilometers/hour and so we knew it was going to be a long arduous journey.
We bounced along for about two hours when we came to a truck at the side of the road. To our surprise it was one of our loader drivers on his way back to the farm from Ginir with a loader tire. The truck he was traveling in had a flat tire and so they had stayed on the side of the road over night. He told us that during the night, two lions had come and walked around the area and scared him. He did not want to stay overnight there again and wanted us to turn around and take him to Beltu. We said no because we had to make it to Addis tonight to catch flights to America. So we left him there with the lions nearby and we went on to Sheik Hussein. This town is a pilgrimage town for the Muslims here in Ethiopia. I believe it is important because 100s of years ago this Sheik Husein man was instrumental in converting many of the southern tribes of people to Islam. So they honored him by building an all white mosque in his little town where he lived.
Many people during the months of May and September make the journey to Sheik Husein and I don’t know what they do there once they get there. Probably they face Mecca and pray. After driving there, I don’t know why anyone would want to make the trip. It is absolutely NOT worth the torture. I got some pics of the mosque, and it was interesting in a very muslim Ethiopian kind of way. The town itself was made of rocks. Really, the houses, fences, roads were all rocks, and I know why; because I have never seen a rockier place in my life. I thought Utah was rocky, but it is not close to Sheik Husein and the surrounding area. The area was dry and arid with lots of cactus like plants covering the terrain.
We talked to the people in Sheik Husein and asked them if the route north to Addis Ababa was a good route and if there were bridges across the rivers at the bottom of the canyons. We were assured that it was a very good route, but it would be very steep and scary for the driver who was already getting to be a pain because of his tortoise like pace. We picked up a man there who said he would guide us, if we would take him to another village on the way. At this point Bracken took over driving and we headed out of Sheik Husein. I don’t have the desire to go back to that flea bitten town.
We soon came to the first of the deep canyons that we had to travel. Our little road wound down the sides of the canyons farther and father. I took some pictures, but I know they won’t do it justice. It was probably 45 minutes down to the bottom where there was a large dirty river churning through some farmland and immense green canopy-like trees covering the banks. It wasn’t like a rain forest, but it was very green considering what we had left up on top. We soon came to the first of the bridges and then we were climbing up the canyon back to the top. The views were spectacular and the road was narrow, rocky, and without any guardrails. If you lost your brakes going down you would be toast. However, there were copious amounts of huge boulders in the road, that had obviously fallen from the cliffs overhead into the road that could be used to stop a truck from plummeting over the side of the cliff, but a smashed grill and radiator would be the very least of the damage.
So we went up and down two more times adding on three more hours and finally came out on top into a very dry area with many people herding cattle on the road. I had to ask myself, where in the heck are these people going? It just didn’t look like they could be headed anywhere except off into the rocks and dirt. And they did not look too friendly. I realized, because they were a little different looking that these were Somali people. They wore different clothes, have a different language and were not used at all to a vehicle traveling through their dusty land. They really stared at us. I enjoyed looking out the window and trying to get some good pictures of the endless trail of women and children driving the cattle along the sides of the road.
After a while we came to a place with a little more fertile ground and we saw some small fields and some gardens next to the huts. I saw squash plants, yams, something that looked like radishes and some corn. And all of the people have to haul water from the local watering hole. There is no such thing as a well out there. I saw watering holes by the side of the road and women and children dunking there containers in the murky dirty water to haul it home again. I believe that these women have to spend most of their time hauling water and firewood to sustain their families. Then we came to an area where they were building a lot of cell towers. Ethiopia has contracted with some Chinese company to build cell towers all over the country. Not very many of them work. There is even a phone tower being built in Beltu, but it isn’t finished either. The land started looking a little greener and more fertile as we traveled northwest.
The driver's assistant saw that one of the tires was getting low so we had to stop and change it here in a very beautiful spot. So picturesque.
We stopped in a very raucous looking town, because the assistant had spied one of the tires was getting low. We found a tire changing business and Nadi and the driver ran to get some lunch. There was no way I was going to get any good food in that town, but we did buy some very dry hard bread, and a box of nasty Ethiopian cookies to munch on. This town, out of all the towns I’ve traveled through here in this country absolutely shocked me. So many chat chewers, naughty boys, and filthy children; more than usual. Bracken said it was much nicer than Ginir. If that is the case, I never want to go to Ginir.
Looking down a side road off the main road. 
Bracken can always entertain the locals. Here he is with a crowd of rowdy boys in a chat-chewing town.
As we were departing I saw a naked man walking down the road. I yelled, “Hey, hey, hey, there’s a naked man over there! I need to get a picture!” But Alan laughed and just kept driving. He explained that he had seen some too while here and that it is OK. There are some tribes here that do not wear clothing, and so they just go naked. Everyone understands that it is OK and they don’t get worked up about it. Only white forenjee women get worked up about a naked man strolling through town frequenting the local businesses. I just really thought it would have been cool if I had got a picture of him.
Next we came into an area that had lots of fields of coffee beans, chat, and corn. It was a very busy area and almost every field was being worked by women weeding and men plowing with oxen and a wooden plow. I got some pictures of all this agricultural display. It was pretty cool. Alan kept saying that we needed to cross some mountains that were to our left in order to get up to Addis. Remember, there are no road signs or maps of this area out here. For that fact, there are no road signs in Addis Ababa which is the capital. You just have to know they way to get there. We stopped when we came to a T in the road which led off to the left. We stopped and asked the locals and they said we should take that road to get to Addis and I thought they said about 56 kilometers to the paved road. Hello! They must have said 256 kilometers and I just didn’t pick up on the first part. At the T in the road, Alan took his turn driving and I swear we drove and drove and drove with me thinking we were going to get on the paved road any minute. This was the most interesting part of the drive, but because I was a nervous wreck from thinking we had taken the wrong road, I couldn’t enjoy it. I was convinced that Alan and Bracken were taking us off into western Ethiopia and I kept asking, “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Alan and Bracken weren’t worried at all and just kept talking and laughing and bumping along in our crazy van.
Every once in awhile, Bracken or Nadi would look back at me and ask if I was alright and I just kept praying that we were not headed off into some no man’s land. The area was amazing because we were in some beautiful highlands which were green and wet looking. Even as we would climb up and around the mountains we would look down and there would be clouds below us and off to the side. Half naked children would run down to the road to shout at us as we went by, jumping up and down and waving their hands, screaming and laughing. You know how in the states there are dogs that chase cars down the roads; here the cars get chased by naked dirty children. It’s funny to see little children without pants running toward you because their little bare bottoms are just out there for all to see. I think they go without pants because they’re easier to potty train. It was the longest part of the ride for me. We saw men farming on the sides of mountains growing their meager amounts of coffee and whatever else. The people looked like they were just worn out, but they did have a beautiful view. I wonder if it comforts them to know that they can wake up every morning and see that amazing view from their dung caked hut. Somehow I doubt it.
It started getting dark as we were winding our way down out of the highlands, and we could see off in the distance some lights of a community, which is an extraordinary sight here in Ethiopia.into a city called Mechara or something like that. And then we came to Awash which was where we finally got onto the paved road that comes from the northeast area of Somalia and Djbouti. The roads are not nearly as good as you would expect them to be because they are rutted and crowded with large trucks coming and going to the ports. There are no highway weight limits here, hence you get badly rutted roads from the heavy overloaded trucks driving in the heat. Alan says that the road is possibly worse in the daylight, because people are walking on the sides of the road with animals, carts, children, etc., and you have to slow down to a crawl.
The driver wanted to drive at this point but he was terrible. He would not go faster than about 30 kilometers/ hour and he would almost pull off the side of the road when a truck passed us going the opposite direction. . Our driver decided to announce at this time that he would not drive us to Addis. He told us that he could not drive in the dark, because his van was not insured to drive after 6:00 p.m. or darkness. Holy cow! We had been driving a couple of hours in the dark. He said he would only drive as far as Nazaret, which is about 150 kilometers from Addis. Nadi had to translate all of this to us and I could tell he felt bad telling us what our crazy driver said. We had a while to get to Nazaret still, and so Alan said, “Stop this van now! We’re not going any farther until we get some things straight.” Alan was really ticked and he told him that we weren’t going to go any farther in his van unless Bracken drove. He told him that he was a terrible driver and that we didn’t trust him to get us to Nazaret. The driver was ticked off and told us that he and his van would not go past Nazaret because it was broken. So Bracken drove, while Alan made arrangements to get us from Nazret to Addis. Alan called Marty from the office and told him our predicament; Marty recommended that we call Joe for help, and Joe recommended Ashabur to us to get some help. Ashabur to the rescue! (BTW Ashabur is the branch president of a one of the branches here in Ethiopia) Ashabur arranged with a friend of his to meet us in Nazaret with a van and then to convey us to Addis. By the time we met Ashabur and his friend in Nazret, we were exhausted from our trip. In Nazret we left our van driver, his assistant, and Nadi. Nadi is from Nazret and was going to see his mom and dad whome he hadn’t seen for over a year. He was very happy and so were they. His mom jumped in the van and kissed us all because she was so happy to see Nadi.
It was about 9:30 and we still had to get to Addis. The ride was uneventful because I couldn’t see anything because of darkness. I just want to say now at this time that I really dislike Ethiopian music. When I was in Argentina, I developed a dislike for Argentinian music. It’s just a thing that happens to me. As we were traveling, the new van driver turned up the volume on his radio and Alan, Bracken and I endured blaring, beating music that eventually gave me a terrific headache. And now I dislike Ethiopian music. We dropped Ashabur off in Debra Ziet and continued on to Addis and got here about 10:30 – 11:00 p.m. We were so relieved to have made it safely. It is the most adventurous ride I’ve ever undertaken. Half the time I didn’t know what was happening, so if we were in danger or peril, I didn’t know about it. I just tried to sit back and take it all in. We were taken to one of the guest houses – very nice – and I had a hot shower, Bracken made ramen noodles, and Alan just sat back looking stunned and exhausted. We had run the gamut of terrain and emotions and lived to tell about it.
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