I am safely home in Canada

Today, I finally feel well enough to write a blog about my travels in Ethiopia.  Like many travellers who go to foreign lands, I’ve been sick since the last week of my trip from something I ate or drank. My doctor has put me on antibiotics to rid my body of what she thinks may be a parasite.

Technology is an intermittent reality in Ethiopia, as is electricity. It was difficult to post blogs from Ethiopia due to a lack of wi-fi access in my travels in rural and remote towns. Amazingly, cell phone access was available in many parts of the country where electricity is yet to be established. A world of contrasts of old vs. new in the world of utilities and technology.



Riding the Roads of Ethiopia


Let me start off by saying that I could not drive in Ethiopia!

Having been behind a Canadian steering wheel for nearly 40 years, driving in Ethiopia is chaos.  Most foreigners elect to hire drivers to go from place to place than risk driving either because of congested traffic or difficult rocky and mountainous roads.

Here, it is the thousands of donkeys, goats, and cattle that are kings of the roads in rural areas, highways, and yes even in places like the capital city, Addis Ababa. Car horns are amongst the most used parts of vehicles maneuvering through traffic.

Sprinkle this mayhem with pedestrians that come at you from all directions—front, sides, behind, and cars that zigzag into your lane from either side and it all adds up to an ever present accident waiting to happen.  Here two lane roadways do become streets for four vehicles!

Miraculously, I saw few accidents, nor stricken pedestrians or animals on the roadsides. On the national highway there is no speed limit; drivers decide what they feel is a safe rate of travel.  The exception is when the highway passes through local towns where a lowered speed limit is posted. One of the NGO’s that we work with has chosen to limit their highway travel to 80 kms per hour. Their motto:  “Reduce Speed, Increase Longevity.”

In the time I spent travelling here, it was always with a driver who was either a work colleague who lives here, or an NGO partner who was native to the land.  With the latter, it felt sometimes like the movie “Driving Miss Daisy,” except that this Miss Daisy was younger than the movie version and the drivers insisted that I sit on the front seat for better picture taking.  They were great at stopping their vehicles to enable me to capture the countless spectacular scenes of Ethiopia with my camera.

Toyota should think about doing a television commercial here.  The majority of  vehicles driven in Ethiopia are Toyota Land Cruisers. Many of them are white, signifying NGO’s who are also given orange license plates identifying them as aid vehicles. This is done so that locals can quickly identify them as assistance vehicles should they be in trouble.

Interestingly, many of the NGO drivers are also fully trained mechanics, as garages are hard to find, and the roads travelled can create problems for vehicles.  One of the drivers I spent several days with noted that he spent seven years learning his trade in how to fix and maintain Toyota Land Cruisers.

The white vehicles are also “magnets” which attract the attention of local people—especially children.  NGO trucks and those who are inside them represent money in one form or another to the locals.

As you pass by them, hands extend for money, while others frantically wave to see a rare sighting of a white person.  Vehicles are swarmed if you stop, and you can expect that some of them will want to shake your hand or have their photo taken as something novel to do. Children wait for vehicles to stop and stand ready to pose for cameras. Others come by wanting to sell you things.

The children will call to vehicles carrying white passengers yelling  “You, you, you”, or “Money, money, money”, or “Firenje” (Ethiopian for French white people who came here many years ago to build the railway).

White people in these parts strike up a lot of curiosity, especially in the countryside. In some of the rural remote mountain villages that we visited, we were the first white people that residents in the community had ever encountered.  One elderly woman said that her mother told her as a child that there were white people in other parts of the world, but our Canadian NGO contingent were the first Caucasians she had ever seen.

Fuel for vehicles comes here either from Libya or Sudan. It will cost you $1.09 (20 Ethiopian Birr) Canadian per litre to fill your tank.  As with other parts of life in Ethiopia, it is not uncommon to see contrasts in modes of transportation.  At one gas bar, the owner of two donkeys sidled up to a gas pump, tied them to the pump, and then went inside the store to get supplies. Old transportation meets new transportation everywhere in Ethiopia.

Motorcycles driven by young men (without helmets) are everywhere in city and rural areas.  Some even use the motorbikes to carry grass for animals on their backs, a chore that would have been done previously by donkeys.

For 20,000-70,000 Birr one can buy a motorbike in one of the larger centres. Cars—mostly Asian imports like Toyota, Nissan, Huyundai, Suzuki, and Isuzu --- can be had for 200,000-300,000 Birr.  North American vehicles are non-existent. Countless thousands move from place to place by foot or public transport, as the price of motorized travel is not affordable for many in Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, a city of 4 million has few traffic lights. In the many trips made throughout the city I only saw traffic lights four times, and only once were they working. Traffic is managed by street police who stand in the middle of the mayhem and give out driving instructions by blowing whistles and gesturing with their arms.

When travelling the streets of Addis Ababa, you won’t find multinational businesses that dot streets of major cities elsewhere in the world. There are no McDonald’s restaurants, no Starbucks coffee cafes, no Walmarts or Pizza Huts.  These companies have been denied business entry into the country by the government.  You may find signage for Asian electronics companies, but local businesses will sell you their products.  What you will find is a wide assortment of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products, with flavors locally adapted to the African marketplace.

Anywhere one travels in rural Ethiopia, you can expect spectacular sights.   Surrounded by mountains in many areas, the vistas envelop you with beautiful scenery and vegetation not seen in Canada.

Although the African wildlife is better seen in Kenya where there are more forests, in our travels we did manage to see a herd of camels grazing in grasslands, antelope in the distance, congoni (an African animal similar to deer), a vulture, guinea fowl, a baboon on the roadside, and a jackal darting across the road as we approached.

Ethiopia is a land that stimulates all of your senses.  Every day I resolved to experience all of it with Strength, Courage, and Determination.