Ethiopia Day 7

We are now in Woldiya a little past Dese heading North but not as far as Lalibela. We have surveyed the potential sites for our new hotel, which will include our Digital Village and an Alchemy World school as well as a bar and restaurant, having chosen a nice one on the road between Woldia and Bahiothr-Dar; but far enough from the traffic that a nice fresh breeze sweeps across the land as it slopes gently down towards the river bed (during the rainy season there is water but it's mostly mud and stones now).

As you can see the setting is spectacular, Africa at its finest!! The grain is Teff, an ancient grain endemic to Ethiopia, the first grain to be cultivated, the grain that is used in making Enjera.

This evening I sat down to write the proposal to present to the mayor of Woldia, a really nice, wise 40ish man who is really pleased at what we want to do: in his words, "he will not let this opportunity pass him by." This sitting ended up being on a white plastic patio chair I pulled out of the Internet Café to sit on the Marble walkway alongside the Hotel and Café, tapping away at the laptop in my lap. Within minutes an enterprising 10 year old boy had me agreeing to let him shine my shoes for 10 Birr ($1 CDN). As he worked away others walked by, stopped to stand behind me and watch for a bit, or tried to find some way to engage me beyond the smile and nod I'd give. Then a large truck carrying a load of sheep pulled up and 20 or so were loaded off the top section of this truck into the waiting hands of the a catcher who then passed them along a chain of people into the bowels of the restaurant. They believe in fresh meat! Later as I was sitting with some of my colleagues and new associates in the quadrangle restaurant of this 2 year old hotel, (2 years going on 50) they were released from where they had been penned up and ended up pouring into the restaurant section before they were finally herded outside. In Ethiopia there is a marked tendency to do everything yourself from scratch and so just as this hotel restaurant clearly butchers its own meat, so too, the building contractor we visited today has his own cement blocks made on site, his own gravel crushed, etc.

This hotel is as good an example of developing world as compared with what I'm used to. It is cheap we've got rooms for 5 of us averaging out to $4 each per evening. It has a nice design with an open quadrangle and three stories, but despite being only two years old, well designed and built with nice materials, everywhere you look the actual construction, finishing and maintenance are very poor. The stairs are not all the same size and have a slope downwards so that slipping is easy; the water is not working in much of the building and in my room where there is supposed to be a wall outlet there are only wires protruding. The window to the outside in the bathroom is permanently open with the result I killed 4 mosquitoes, three of whom got me first. There is a TV running permanently in the open quadrangle which resounds effectively into all the rooms whether the door is open or not, which has been going since 6 am this morning! J

Day 8

Having finished the letter of intent, in the late morning we headed up one of Woldiya's mountains to see the Church on top. These drives up the mountains in a good strong 4x4 are nonetheless often hair-raising as we repeatedly seem to come within inches of the edge, and even just looking out my passenger front seat window, I experience some vertigo looking down the sheer drop into the valley below. We went past many subsistence farms where they've managed to create a plot of corn or teff and/or keep a few head of goats or cattle. These are certainly highland peasants: according to Zinabu highlanders share more cultural commonalities across the tribes with other highlanders than they do with the lowlanders of their own tribe. So we made it to the top without incident, were greeted by a couple of young men in their early teens who at Zinabu's request brought us leafy twigs (Olive tree) with which to brush our teeth. We simply peeled back the bark, crushed the wood with our teeth and ended up with a nice set of bristles for brushing: very effective! We were not allowed into the Church because it turns out that western visitors used to talk their guides into selling them the holy hardware so to speak, so that valuable ancient cultural items of great significance to the local community ended up gracing someone's wall or desk with the guide pocketing the equivalent of perhaps $100.00! We each did the available obeisance, respectfully leaving a 10 Birr note in the collection box.

Zinabu then suggested we walk down the mountain rather than driving back down!! What a great suggestion that turned out to be as Greg, Zinabu, our young guide and myself took the next 2 hours walking down the mountain in the bright early afternoon sunshine (no sun-stroke or sun-burn to speak of and I was not wearing sun glasses a hat or any other special protection. We enjoyed the most spectacular views and increasingly were convinced of what a wonderful tourist experience hiking in these mountains could be. Oh, and part way down we shared the path with a small herd of 15 goats ably managed by a 10 or 11 year old boy. He had a makeshift bullwhip – a wooden handle about a foot long to which a 2 metre length of rope had been attached. Could he ever make that thing crack. Zinabu cracked it not far from my head almost deafening me with the gun shot! Greg got pretty close to a good snapping sound but I gave it up realizing I was to used to snapping towels, which it turns out is a different motion. I also made friends with one of the goats who started nibbling on my olive branch, in the end, he got the whole thing but there were first several familiar, comfortable interactions as we made our way down the mountain together. We said goodbye to our guide sending him off with 30 Birr and the encouragement to pick up his schooling again – he had yet to finish grade 10 but was not in school. He is a potential student for our Alchemy World Projects school – but more about that in another post.

We then headed over to meet with the mayor, handed him our letter of intent and were sent back to make a detailed proposal, and that's what I'll be doing all afternoon and evening of Day 8. Over and out for now!