Ethiopia 3 – Onwards to Sodo

Phew, mission over!

The brand new hotel we stayed in Misan Tefari 3 years ago is now completely dilapidated – Mark slept with Gabriel in a room down the corridor and I slept in a bed with Jemima and Millie – actually it was more like I was in the middle of the deep valley and Millie and Jemima perched on the precipice on one side – of course they both ended up sliding on top of me! Our tap in our bathroom (sounds posh having an ensuite …. posh it ain’t, think again)…. the tap in the bathroom ran all night, and the sink leaked a river, which snaked its way, culminating in a lake in the middle of the room. Both Mark and I got locked in our rooms and had to be let out. The children notice none of this, they have that wonderful ability to see through squalor and jump on the mattress as if it was the finest of trampolines!

It has rained every day without fail… the heavens open up and you get completely soaked and in a matter of minutes it’s all over and that’s it for the day – over and done with, leaving mud streams and rivers everywhere from the Streets of Addis to the isolated villages. It’s extraordinary how when the majority of Ethiopian people live in rural areas in mud huts with earth floors wearing white blankets around their shoulders and squelching bare foot in the mud,  manage to maintain levels of hygiene at all, let alone keep their clothes so white! I wish we had bought welly boots and warmer clothes generally. I wasn’t expecting to wear my thermals and tights and silk liners in bed, those were reserved for Nepal…. maybe I need to rethink.

The onward journey – bac-tracking to Jimma, then to Sodo, back on the bumpy roads again… this means that we spend  a day driving in very unexplored areas on un-paved roads. We got out of the car at one point to see a market, momentarily forgetting in a flash of a moment what this might mean – I don’t suppose they had ever seen white faces and blond hair. The children were a complete novelty and Millie speaking English just added to that novelty. We were surrounded on all sides, the local elder had to crack his whip, whereupon children scurried away in fits of laughter, only to creep back seconds later. Jemima said she felt like a celebrity!

FOOD……. A few little creature comforts

How lucky for us that it was the Italians who tried but failed to colonise Ethiopia, though they were only here for 6 years they managed to  introduce pizza and pasta – REALLY, this isn’t just for feranji (or foreigners) it’s genuine, everywhere, though the Ethiopian variations we haven’t yet sampled and apparently ice cream though we haven’t been brave enough to try it. The traditional Ethiopian injera and Shiro (spongy crepe-like pancakes eaten with lots of different sauces, lentils, raw meat (really? Is this wise?) cabbage, hard boiled egg, doro wat or spicy chicken etcccc …..) is a very acquired taste… even Mark who is much more adventurous than me is favouring more Western dishes.

Millie: “Anyway I  don’t want to travel the world, I want to go back to St Margaret’s and have mummy cook my favourite food.”

Gleaming espresso machines introduced by the Italians can be found in the most surprising places, anyway. GOOD coffee or Buna is everywhere and delicious – dark and comes in tiny cups .  I can only drink with lots of sugar . All you need to say to your driver is buna? And your fix can be had within seconds… however remote you may be, though you slightly take your life into your hands when you consider where the cups have been washed.

The long car journeys from St Margaret’s to Mull and back, and the South of France, have clearly stood us in good stead – the children seem disappointed to be back on tarmacked roads – they enjoyed calling out Salamno and waving to kids as they greet the kids from the side of the road

We get out of the car and Millie has lost a pink croc – she only has one pair of shoes and there no shoe shops to speak of, so it is a big deal. So we stop at this road side shack and buy some bright pink crocs made out of rubber tyres, hey-ho if it’s good enough for the locals, it’s good enough for Millie!