Debre Ziet, Ziway, Awassa, Dilla, Gedem, Hagre Maryam, Yabello, Mega & Moyale
I spent almost three weeks in Addis waiting for some replacement parts to arrive from the UK. It was a little frustrating as Addis isn't one of the worlds great cities, but it gave me plenty of time to have a look around and get to talk more with the locals.
The Taitu hotel, my home in Addis
Most of the talking with the locals was done here at the Wegagen Hotel. It was one of the few places that you could sit outside and see what was happening on the street. I spent a number of evenings here with a fellow tourist talking about Ethiopia, Africa and the madness that was happening around us. From our seats here we witnessed fights, khat chewing, drug deals, prostitutes, arrests, police brutality and glue sniffing every evening.
Then there were the locals.
The Frenchman I meet Germany who had spent a year in Ethiopia said there were 2 things I needed to know. Firstly its beautiful and hilly, and the second was that you must be a man.
What he meant was that you have to stand up for yourself because the Ethiopians will constantly test you. They will come over and talk to you demanding beer, money, peanuts or anything you have that they might want. Sometimes this was good natured but most of the time it was anything but. Every evening at the bar there would be an altercation and an argument with someone. It was almost like a compulsion on the part of the locals. They had to have a go at the ferengi (foreigner) at some stage during the evening.
The other odd thing was people who would walk up and just stare at you. They wouldn't say anything but just stare at you until you tell them to go away. Some left quietly, other times there would be an exchange of insults and they would leave.
There were many other random incidents that occurred but its not appropriate to write about here. I did try but it was just too crazy. What I can say is that it is without doubt the maddest city I have ever been to, and no I don't want to go back.
On the last stage of my journey from Gonder to Addis I had been getting a puncture in the same place every day. I thought this was because of the rim tape on the wheel melting during my time in Sudan. So I added extra tape and set off for Moyale, hoping that the punctures would stop.
I made it 90km from Addis before I got another puncture and while changing the tube the wheel changed shape. What I think happened was that in Sudan I hit a large pothole at 35kph. This caused the rim to crack and it slowly worked its way around until there was a split in the rim almost the entire way around.
With the wheel broken it was on a bus to go back to Addis. I was starting to wonder if I would ever get to leave Ethiopia.
I got back to Addis and took the wheel to a cycle shop to get a new rim fitted. There aren't many cycle store's in Addis and they are more like shed's than a shop, but with a new Chinese rim installed the wheel worked again. I did have to go back a few times to get it changed slightly but after another few days I was ready to depart again.
It was back down the same road I had biked a few days earlier and I was more than a little worried about the quality of my new rim but it was good for the rest of my journey.
The shores of Lake Ziway
The 7000k mark also in Lake Ziway
I had been expecting some further hassles from the locals in the South but it was all pretty good until I left Awassa. It got very hilly very quickly and in the hills there are many people with small plots of land and many children that would cause me problems.
It was more of the same that I had experienced before but worse. I was chased by children wanting money, footballs were again kicked in my path and people grabbed at my arms as I want past to try and make me fall off. There was the constant yelling of ferengi and almost everyone asking where are you go? There was also something new and it was the game of chicken. This is apparently popular in Southern Ethiopia so I had cars, vans and motorcycles drive on the wrong side of the road at me in an attempt to scare me and make me fall of the bike. I played this game a few times and never deviated from the line I was taking. It was just the locals having a little fun with ferengi.
All this lead to a change in how I would deal with the locals.
I would continue to ignore the ferengi comments but when the children started running after me I had to turn the bike around yell at them and chase them until they scattered off into the fields. Where are you go comments again I would ignore unless I was parked on the side of the road. If I stationary I would tell them that it had nothing to do with them where i was going and ask them where are they going. This seemed to confuse them and that would be the end of the conversation. People who came up to look at me while I was eating/drinking would be quickly told to move on and a number of times I had to physically push the people away after some heated words were exchanged.
All this seems a little extreme now I am in Kenya but it was the only way I could be left in some kind of peace. I spent a long time in the bike thinking about my reactions to the locals and if it was the best way to deal with it but I don't think I could have done it any other way.
The best analogy I can come up with is this.
You are walking around a shopping mall pushing an empty Pak n Save shopping cart. Then every person from the age of 2 to 12 you see screamed ferengi at you Then 20% of them started following you asking for money as you calmly walked around. You are unable to go faster than them so all you hear as you walk is ferengi, money, money,money. While that's going on another 30% of the adult population is asking/yelling where are you go? when it clear you are going to Pak n Save. When you stop for a coffee people come and stare at you. They don't say anything they just stand 2m from you looking at you. Then more people start to come because a crowd has developed and finally that are 50 people who have stopped and are staring at you as you drink your coffee. You leave your coffee because of the crowd and then the whole thing starts again and it last all day every day.
When I stayed in the towns it didn't get much better. There were often ferengi insults from people I walked past and even from the police. I wasn't going to tolerate that anymore after what I had experienced on the bike so there were arguments and yelling every day. It only happened a few times in each town but after the insults were exchanged I was usually left alone for the rest of my time in the town. It seemed like the people of each town wanted to test the ferengi.
This lasted from Awasa until I left Ethiopia, so it was for six days. Aside from that it was constant hills and some wonderful scenery. The strange thing about it was that aside from all the bad things that were happening I meet some wonderful people but the overall experience was very, very difficult.
The rock throwing, the sticks people swung at me, the roads, the driving and the hills were all tough but it was the racism of Ethiopia that will stay with me far longer that any of these. I have never experienced anything like it and I cant understand it all.
Maybe it's because as so many Ethiopians love to point out Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonised. Because of this there seems to be an arrogance and a total disrespect of any foreigner by most Ethiopians. This exists while they rely on foreign aid for food, hospitals, schools, roads, ambulances, water and other essential services.
I really don't understand the people of Ethiopia, their reaction to me on the bike and their actions. It makes no sense at all. I am just a person riding past on a bicycle but my very presence seemed to offend them.
The relief I felt when crossing the border into Kenya was incredible. I was close to tears and I was just so happy that it was over. I had encountered all kind of difficulties in Ethiopia but I had made it to Moyale, Kenya and I didn't have to go back to that country again. There was the hills, the altitude, the roads, the driving but most of all it was the people that made it so incredibly difficult.
Its very sad because it is such a beautiful country but the whole experience was ruined by its people.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.