Monday, August 26, 2013

There's No Place Like Home


There’s No Place Like Home


I know that I have written quite a bit about driving here and how crazy it can be but I just can’t help writing one more post on the subject. This time I AM the driver! That is right friends and family my vehicle arrived in Addis Ababa in one piece. I’ve actually had the car since the end of June I’ve just been neglecting my blog and so this is the first that you get to hear about it.

Before we left the states we purchased a year 2000, 4 wheel drive Nissan Pathfinder for about $4,000.00. We put about $1,000.00 into fixing her up a little bit and then sent her on the long journey to Djibouti where she sat for an ungodly amount of time. By the end of May our precious little SUV arrived in Ethiopia but it took a good bit more time to register the car and get the insurance and license plates and the other things needed to make it legal to drive the vehicle in Ethiopia.

Here is our car.  Before we moved...obviously! 


Days after we returned from our big adventure up north the Hubs got on a jet plane and headed out on his big solo trip of about 2 months and 4 countries in Southern Africa. Leaving me and the three monsters….I mean darling children, here in Addis. Now don’t feel too sorry for me. This is not my first rodeo; I’ve lived sans the Hubs more times than I can count and for much longer than a measly 8 weeks. However to say that it was not challenging at times would be a lie. 

Anyway, one reason it was terrible to be here alone was that my boss (yes I have a job here, more on that at another time) allowed me to borrow her car and driver while she was on vacation back in the States. Everyday or so Abay would pick me up and take me where I needed to go as well as take me to work.

Since the Hubs has been away, things like checking the mail, putting in work orders (see broke down palace) and buying food from the commissary are all annoyingly challenging! The Embassy is not close by at all! Driving to the Embassy takes a minimum of 30-40 minutes! The work must be done however and someone’s got to do it! I asked Abay to take me to the Embassy to check the mail and put in a few work orders. While I was at the Embassy I decided to check on the status of my car. I knew that it was in the country; "maybe it will be ready at the end of the week." I thought. I stopped by the appropriate office, gave my name and asked about my vehicle. The man immediately pulled a file off of his desk and handed it to me. Inside the file I found my keys and insurance information. “Your car is ready to go mam, you can take it home today”. Yay……can I really? No I mean, Can I? Like, can I actually find my way back home? Where do I live? Awe, shoot!

I collected the mail and took Jake outside with me (yes Jacob was with me). I found Abay waiting for me in the parking lot. I explained the situation and told him that I’d like to follow him back to my house so that I didn't get lost. I also told Abay that I’d like to take the “Ring Road”. The Ring Road is the closest thing to a highway in Addis Ababa. People still jump the median and run across the road, sometimes they sit on the medians and have deep intellectual conversation in the middle of two way traffic, sometimes livestock share the road with the on-coming vehicles, but compared to the rest of the city the Ring Road is clear driving AND my house is extremely close to the Ring Road.

Abay agreed to let me follow him back to my house. I loaded Jake into Abay’s car (I don’t have a car seat in my car) and headed back inside the embassy to procure my vehicle. As I pulled up to the front gate, Abay pulled in front of me and we began our journey home. One thing that must be understood about driving in Ethiopia is the many unwritten rules that are here, take honking the horn for instance. In the USA honking is reserved for road rage and near death experiences, in Addis honking is a way of saying “Hey I’m behind you, passing you, please move over” and is used so frequently that it is hardly worth noting. Also, there are no stop signs or lights. As a driver you just sort of float out into the intersection and hopefully the traffic stops for you.  

Apparently, “Please take the Ring Road” instruction was lost in translation. Ethiopians don’t understand the American idea of traveling more miles but driving faster. Looking at a map the Ring road is completely out of the way however, there is hardly any traffic and you can actually drive 40-50 miles per hour. The route that Abay led me on is more direct but goes through an area called Piazza. All of the buildings in the Piazza area were built during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. There are people and cars and animals everywhere and lots and lots of shops! It is terrifying to be a passenger at times and it was horrifying to be the driver in the Piazza. 
The fear was magnified since I had no idea where I was going and the terrible traffic made it challenging to keep up with Abay. I cut people off and pounded on the horn at even the slightest attempt of another vehicle to approach my car. I gave it a valiant effort but about half way through the drive home, Abay abandoned me.  He LEFT ME, to fend for myself right as we exited the Piazza area. Honestly, I began to panic a little bit, some serious language, that would make a sailor blush, came unbidden from my mouth. 

Abay lost me at one of the thousand traffic circles in Addis. I felt that my best course of action in that moment was to drive around the circle I had been abandoned in about 5 times. Eventually I took a guess on the road I should take out of the circle. I came to another circle and drove it at least twice before making a second guess. I drove down a hill toward a large intersection and realized that I might be really lost in a city of over 3 million people. I’m lost and I can’t ask for directions! I have no GPS (it probably wouldn’t work anyway) and maps are basically non-existent in this country.  I needed to cry, figure out where I was,  and call Abay and ask him where he was and why he left me!!!

I pulled over to the side of the road and called Abay, man was I going to let him have it! Not only did he abandon me he had my kid with him. I dial his number and of course the phone network wasn’t working, so much for that plan. Plan B: figure out where the heck I am! I took some deep breaths to calm myself and looked around, I really looked. As I began to relax, just a bit, I noticed a land mark, the brewery. 
I’d seen that before, I vaguely remembered seeing the brewery on the right on the way home before. I turned the car back on, and it was good timing, people were starting to notice the panicking terrified foreigner.  Just as I was becoming concerned again, my thoughts growing darker, “I’m lost and I’ll probably die in Addis somewhere”. 
I saw it! My traffic circle! The circle right near my house! I’d never been happier to see that crowded, stinky, dirty circle in my life! As I drove to my gate, I triumphantly beeped my horn to let the guard know that I was there. As he opened the gate I saw Abay and Jake waiting for me. I stepped out of the car and Abay said to me, “Why you call me”? Really Abay, you are asking me why I called you? 
I told him I got lost and was trying to get help, but I was too proud of myself to be mad! I did it! Made it home, alone, for the most part. After that I didn’t drive again for about 3 days. It was rather traumatic but I knew that if I had to drive, I canmanage it.

This is the spot where I park the car!!! It keeps is safe-ish from the rain and hail!


Since then I’ve become surer of myself. That is not to say other funky weird stuff hasn’t happened on the road. I actually drove through the Merkato one day by accident. I was taking my neighbors family back from the Embassy and we decided to try to take the Ring Rd (I know that it can be done!) but we turned in the wrong direction and before we knew it my neighbor said, “We are in the Merkato”. Lucky for me he is Ethiopian and easily got us back to our neighborhood however, as an American Embassy family member it is against the rules for me to go to the Merkato period. The Merkato is a HUGE outdoor market, the largest in Africa, there are lots of thieves and unsavory characters that hang out there. We were also there during rush hour, which made for very slow going. People shouted things at us “America, America” but aside from that it wasn’t all that scary, just really, really crazy! Like a Where’s Waldo book, weird stuff happening all around you. As we left the Merkato behind us Dereje said to me, “Now you can drive anywhere in the world because you successfully drove through the heart of Merkato”! Yeah! Go ME! So next time that you are stuck in your American traffic jam think of me! And remember it’s ok, there are no Donkeys, sheep, goats or packs of wild dogs to worry about on top of the cars. You have streetlights and stop signs. You have lanes and people stay in them, you have your boring, straight, well maintained roads. You will never need to use your 4wheel drive inside of a major city (I did yesterday on the way home from church). It will be OK! Until next time friends and family.

Survival Tips: Driving a car in Addis

1.    Pay attention when driving as a passenger
2.    Have a good attitude in stressful situations
3.    Be sure to have no less than half a tank of gas (you could be driving around lost for a while)
4.    Watch out for the donkey’s they go where ever they want

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Road Trip - The Rest of the Story....Sort Of



                                                   The Rest of the Story....Sort of

I have been seriously lacking in my blogging responsibilities! So much has happened since my last post that I can hardly remember back to the trip!!!! So here is my solution, since you all want to see the pictures I will post them and just caption what is happening in sequential order. Hopefully that will spark some memories and stories from the trip!!!! 




With out a doubt, the best hotel we stayed in the entire trip!



These next couple of shots are the Tigre region. I took these as we were driving. This part of Ethiopia is beautiful!!!









The temple of Yeha is the oldest standing structure in Ethiopia. As you can see my children did not really care to investigate. Hanging out with the driver was more fun than visiting ancient buildings...Come on kids!! We are like Indiana Jones here!!! Lets GO! Yeha Temple


Not even sure how ancient this Bible is but I can tell you its OLD!!!! 


























Jake pretending that he is an Ethiopian Orthodox Priest.













The inside of the Yeha Temple












Welcome to Aksum!!! This place was amazing!!!! I can not believe that I had never heard of the Stella in Aksum. These rival the pyramids for coolness. The stella are carved from one SINGLE rock!!!! It is believed that these enormous stella mark the graves of ancient kings. Yes we got to go inside of the tombs! 












Tombs under the stella








This is like the rosetta stone of Ethiopia. It is called the  Ezana inscription and has three languages carved into it. Sabaean, Geez (pronounced guh-ez) and Greek. Geez is the language of the Ethiopian Church and all masses are conducted in Geez. Sabaean is the original language of the Aksumite kingdom, Geez comes from Sabaean and Ahmaric from Geez.







Our Hotel in Aksum. It was ok except that it only had 3 twin sized beds for 5 people and the beds were wall to wall.  The bed touching the outside wall was next to a window that was 5 stories up and had no bars or screens. As you can imagine I was freaked out the entire time that Jake would fling himself from the window! 


Add caption






The church of St. Mary's. This was built to give the women a place to worship. Most of the churches in Aksum have a no girls allowed rule!!!! The above pictures are art work from inside of this church. 

Indiana Jones Wanna be's here it is! This is where the Ark of the Covenant is located! According to the Orthodox church anyway, no one is actually aloud to look at it except for one priest who is never allowed to leave the compound. Mike took the boys over to have a better look at the building (no girls allowed rule) and was chased off by said priest. No he was not an aging night templar! 



Next we stayed at an eco-lodge that is on the way to Gonder. This place was beautiful but it was FREEZING! 9,000 ft elevation located in the Simian mountains! Absolutely breath taking!

The inside of the Tukul that we stayed in, no space heater, very cold!

Not too shabby, seen and used worse!

Those are bee boxes that the owner of the lodge purchased to help re-forestation. 

Our guide Bahaptou.

Funny story about this place. The Hubs decides to take Jake for a walk on a trail that hugs the side of the mountain. They have a great time and the Hubs sits Jake down in a beautiful spot to watch the sun rise and to see the Baboons playing on a hill a little ways off. As they are sitting Jake kicks his shoe off and down the side of the mountain it tumbles. Meanwhile I'm enjoying a moment to myself taking in the scenery and enjoying breakfast. I receive a phone call with a frantic husband on the other end telling me to hurry up and run down the trail towards him. I dash out the door, our guide notices my distress and follows me. We walk about 10 minutes before finding the Hubs, James and Jake. The Hubs explains the situation, hands the shoeless toddler to me and begins descending down the side of the mountain! Then I hear a loud rustling a shout and a thud. I yelled down the mountain "are you ok"? He responded that he lost his footing and fell about 15 feet! But, "I found the shoe"! During his struggles he discovers a well used trail and follows the trail all the way up to the top of the mountain! REALLY? Why did we not discover this trail BEFORE the heart attack that I had as he tumbled nearly to his death!!! Holy COW!?! Luckily, besides a few bumps and bruises he was entirely unharmed!





Next stop, Gondar!!! This is a really neat city with some cool history that you can look at by following the link. The hotel here was really nice. We actually had 2 rooms!!!! It was amazing!!! Jake only nearly died one time. He found some stairs that were not blocked in anyway and followed the stairs to the ROOF! He just climbed on up and then peered over the edge to his near death! I about DIED!! Seriously! What is with this kid?! 


Ambo! Discovered this drink on our trip to Harar and fell in love! It's just sparkling water but it makes me happy! 

Gondar Castle! 



Lion cages at Gondar Castle, yes we put Jake inside! 

The inside of our rooms in Gondar



Our Hotel in Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar was our last stop! Bahir Dar is very warm and wet! It is the resort town of Ethiopia. They actually have working street lights here and the roads are well kept and straight! It was a little shocking to tell you the truth.





The head waters of the Blue Nile river are in Bahir Dar. The name of the lake that feeds the river is lake Tana. We took a boat across the lake to visit some Monasteries there. 



Every Orthodox church has a Holy of Holies which houses a replica of the Ark of the Covenant




Walking across the Blue Nile River! AMAZING! I never would have guessed that I'd visit the head waters of the famous Nile River! 

Lake Tana



Jake is behind that bar hanging out with all of the wait staff! 



Coffee

Ethiopian Church Bells

Future Visitor's Center

Monastery in Bahir Dar 







Ok let me explain this one. I knew that we'd be visiting a church, so I thought "I don't want to wear shoes that are hard to take off, so flip flops are a great option". Ok BAD IDEA!!! I had to stop every 15 ft and scrape the mud off of my shoes! On my way back while carrying Jake I slipped and fell flat on my butt into the mud!!!! shudder.... 

Hippo!!! There were about 4 of them on the lake that day! 




Water taxi...no really that is what that is! 



 We went to a market in Bahir Dar. I always love visiting the markets here. Really neat experience.














Our market guide



Sugar Cane


Blue Nile River

Okay friends and Family I know that was a whirl wind blog post but if I didn't just get it done I would never do it! The next post will be back to the normal funny craziness that you have come to expect! Until next time!!!

Survival Tips 

  1. Wear apropriate foot wear!!!
  2. Keep a close eye on crazy baby boys!
  3. Watch out for the wild life
  4. Post on your blog very soon after a big trip!