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On Saturday we left to Arba Minch, which at means we first went to Yabello to eat there lunch and to pick up a becoming priest Kilimppe. Then we finally drove away towards the nice town somewhere at a lake. It was a quite bad road and instead of 4 hours driving, we took around 6, but that was mainly because we took so many pictures on our way. It looked really different to Dhadim or the way from Addis to Borana, it was really green and we saw a lot of terraces, where people build terraces all over the hills and mountains, just from the feet to the top. We also saw a lot of becks and small rivers, although it's the dry season. Also the houses where different then in Borana, some of them were like stilt houses. We had a stop in Conso where we had some soft drinks. Conso is a small ugly town somewhere in the middle of Yabello and Arba Minch.
When we went on we saw a lot of women carrying firewood and other stuff on their backs. Actually, always the women and girls are carrying firewood and water and other things on their backs and often the children looking for the cattle.
Because this route is very touristic, the people were kind of brutal, that means not violent but brutal in the sense of money and begging. So we took some pictures from a woman who was working at some terraces and after that her child came and wanted some money. We offered some Kashmir fruits but they didn't want, they only wanted money so we drove away.
We came to a huge compound in where I only saw a little bit, there were the houses for sleeping and the common house is. But even here it looked really nice, a lot of flowers and birds and somewhere high in the tree there was a marabou which had build his nest and in which there were one or two young birds.
On Sunday morning, we didn't do much at all. First we went for breakfast to a hotel somewhere in town and I ordered some rice with meat. There was not much choice in eating, but it was already quite late in the morning, so it was ok.
After that I went back to the compound and just read some pages in a book, as I got distracted by some birds. So I tried to take some pictures, till I got bored and started reading again. Then I got distracted again by some birds and took some pictures, till I got bored again. This went on the whole morning like that till we finally went for Lunch to the same hotel, where I ordered the same food again. But we had to rush because we had to go to the airport to find my sister and my father and also two British people. As we came to the airport, we first had to identify ourselves at the gate, so we all gave our driving license and drove in. But in there, we weren't allowed to get into the airport building itself, but we had to wait outside.
In the evening we only went to eat in a hotel with a really nice view on the two lakes and the mountains around it. The mountains were from the national park, but we saw only trees from up there.
The next morning, still tired, I stepped into the car with the others and we drove up to chinch (spoken sounds like ginger), a really famous place up there. It was quite cool in compare to the hot weather down in Arba Minch and on the way we saw a lot of things like their traditional cloths and children dancing for money, or at least trying to dance but mostly they only made some funny movements.
We also saw some houses that looked like elephants and we tried the traditional food there, something made out of some part of the banana trees but I think it were unreal banana trees. The food is called kocho (kojo) and tasted really funny, but it is definitely not my favorite food. So first, they scratch the green things of the banana stems with some bamboo sticks. That scratched stuff they put in the ground for 3 months, till they take it out and it smells like cheese. This one they use to make different things with it and it has a slightly sour taste. When it's just fresh, it doesn't smell that bad, but it gets worse every day.
Also we saw how they make these cloths and towels out of threads in different colors.
There are a lot of children dancing and begging for money besides the streets and we thought that there are even a lot of tourists who give them money for it.
After lunch in the mission, we went to the entrance of the national park to buy some tickets. We had two tourists, my sister and my father, 3 resident people, the two British people and myself although I have only a driving license, 2 Ethiopian people, although one of them is Kenyan but lives and works in Ethiopia and one driver. But that day we only went to the forty springs. I haven't seen any spring but therefore a lot of monkeys and some nice trees to climb in. So I climbed in a tree and had problems to come down again, then I played some Tarzan and played with some lianas. After that I climbed again in a tree and I had the same problem as before that I didn't know anymore how to come back down, so I just jumped somehow.
As we walked back, we found some warthogs sitting on the road. They let us come really close and even came to us to see who we are but suddenly it became too much for them and one rushed towards Boniface and scared him, but we all started laughing.
After just a few hours of sleep we got up to have breakfast at 6 o'clock in the morning of the 12th of February, because we started to the national park. The road was something different, because it was so bad that I feared that the car would break. I felt trough the car all the time. We saw a lot of wild animals, like zebras and antelopes, birds and other monkeys. My sister and I followed the zebras into the bush and we were able to come really close, only a few meters separated us from them.
After that nice experience we went to have lunch and after a short rest we went again to step on a boat. The boat brought us to see some hippos, nice animals to see but very dangerous and to see some crocodiles. The crocodiles were really nice, some of them lying in the sun, some of them in the water. Because my sister has the way better zoom in her camera, I took sometimes her camera to see them properly and to take some snaps. Next to the crocodiles there were a lot of Pelicans and Marabous standing.
After that, we went back to Arba Minch and didn't do anything anymore besides eating and sleeping.
So, for making Injera I'm not useful, I discovered that in the prison of Arba Minch on Wednesday. We visited the prison with some guys from Ireland called the Willow wheelers. This group are boys which ride the bike every Sunday and sometimes besides and try to collect money, which they send for example to Ethiopia, but also to other countries and every year a few boys visit one of those countries together with their fathers or mothers.
In the prison the spiritan fathers from Arba Minch build up a school with the money of the willow wheelers and that's why we visited the prison. There was also a drawing class for the prisoners and they are able to finish or even start school. Next to school the prisoners have a lot of possibilities to do something, so are there classes for sewing and the people can weave. After the prisoner can go home, he is allowed to take the sewing machine with him, because it would cost too much money for him to buy one. Also are the prisoners allowed to sell their made things like hats clothes and things and keep the money they earn, so they can get some pocket money.
Woman and Man live separated, woman can even have their children with them in the compound, but only until they reach a certain age.
The man sleeping rooms were extremely small, there was some ventilation but not much and no windows as far as I saw and about 150 prisoners in one room, so some of them had to sleep on the ground. They were looked in at 5 o'clock in the evening and the door went open again around 6 in the morning, during that time no one is allowed to go in or out. So if someone gets sick during that time like with diarrhea or something else, he has to sit in an edge and wait till the morning.
We walked trough almost the whole compound, first to see the school, then from there strait to the woman side then to the kitchen, where they prepare injera for the prisoners. We went on to the sewing classes and to the places where they cook, wash and weave to see the clinic they have where they can be treated for not so complicated things and where they can be tested for HIV. The prisoners are allowed to say that they do not want anyone except the head of the prison to know, if they are HIV-positive or if they don't care and everyone is allowed to know it.
As we finished walking through the clinic we saw the man sleeping rooms and as we finished that, we went to an open place where we sat down and got something to drink. Some of the people from different tribes showed us their traditional dances.
On our way out a lot of people bought some stuff like hats and clothes and things like that.
From the people in the prison, only around 2 percent has to go again. At least that was what one of the spiritan fathers told me.
After a really short lunch break for about half an hour, we drove to a small village up in the mountains where they build up a development mission and a school. After a presentation of the work they do there, the woman showed us some traditional dances, where the women were standing in a circle and singing and clapping and always two women went inside and danced.
After an exhausting driving back, because the road was so bad, the evening came and it turned dark.
As the sun came out again it was the 14th of February and we drove about 4 or 5 hours up to Dimeka. During that ride on Thursday it became extremely hot and even the air coming into the windows of the car were just hot. So as one bus of the willow wheelers had a flat tire, we had to go out of the car, otherwise we would have been boiled. But I am already kind of used to the heat, so it was ok for me.
In Dimeka, they had already set up the tents, so at least we didn't have to do that anymore. After everyone found his tent we walked down to an empty riverbed, where a lot of children wanted to play with me. Just before the riverbed there was a pump for water and there were a lot of people having a meeting. It looked really nice because they all had their traditional clothes.
In the riverbed itself some people had made a whole, because there was water underneath, so they washed their clothes and themselves and also gave water to the cattle.
In the evening we had some goat meat roasted besides fire and some local people came to show us their dance. A lot of people joined them and I did to. They really liked me, but most probably also because I was the only white girl in my age, besides my sister who really at least tried to dance their way. My sister was a bit shy. The men were standing in half a circle and clapping and singing and the women were on the opposite standing in a row holding each other. The women started, they had to choose the men, so they walked towards some of them and kind of jumped in front of their choice. After that, they went backwards again and the men jumped into the middle and tried to jump as high as possible. At the same time, the women were slightly jumping or walking back. This went on the whole time till suddenly the men started dancing with just one women and tried to dance face to face, where the women had the choice to jump away or to dance face to face. Afterwards someone told me that if the woman dances face to face, it means that she wants to sleep with that guy and in that night they would sleep together. I didn't really know, but I automatically jumped away, so I did the right thing. But after that, there was a different thing again and that one I didn't understand at all, but I still tried. In the end I think I would have had to sleep with a few men, but lucky me, I'm foreigner and don't know the rules of the dances.
On Friday we went to visit another station somewhere in some other mountains or it was just a clinic and a school. On the way up I was sitting more or less on the ground because there was no space and it wasn't really cozy, but I managed somehow.
But first we had a short visit to see the ambulance, which was sponsored by the willow wheelers.
The school up was just three classrooms, with three different levels. In Level one and two there were 9 students that day but in level three only one showed up.
Before we drove back, we had some lunch in one of the classrooms. Just bread, tuna fish and jam, not really special.
Somewhere next to the road at another school some girls and boys were dancing the same way as in the evening in our mission compound, but here the youngest girls were between 9 and 14. If one of the girls gets pregnant, she has to say it and do an abortion, but that is no problem. The married women are as far as I know only allowed to dance, but not to sleep with a man who is not their husband. They wear a metal thing around their neck to show that they belong to someone.
After we came home, Boniface and I went again down to the riverbed. A lot of girls liked to play with me and showed me some games. Boniface was just sitting somewhere in the shadow, watching us or using his phone. One of the girls braided my whole hair.
Just that particularly moment as we wanted to go back, the Irish people came and started a soccer game and Boniface joined them, but he played with the local people, which means against the Irish boys.
There were two boys coming to me and told me that I danced well the evening. One of them gave me a bracelet and Boniface said he was totally drunk but nor my sister nor I saw that.
In front of the compound, some women were selling some bracelets and necklaces. I found some and the woman wanted to sell me each for 40 Birr, later for 20 and then we agreed that I picked three for 50 Birr, but as I had three she said, one of them alone was 50 Birr so in the very end, I bought two for 30 Birr. I don't think she recognized that we went down with the price every time.
The following day we visited again the market and then we finally drove back to Arba Minch. In our car two men and a small boy joined us. The two men went out before but the small boy stayed with us till Arba Minch. I think he was the son of one of the other drivers but he was very funny and nice.
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sylvia By the way, 2 of the classrooms of the prison were sponsored by us and also the money for the ambulance came for 50% from The Netherlands... don't let the Willow Wheelers think they did it all! hihihi have fun!
Laurens Hoi Sylvia There was so much going on that I did not get all the details of who has sponsored which projects. It was just good to see the different projects and the every-day problems that these people (both the missionaries and the local population) have to cope with. I am preparing a personal contribution of my impressions to Lisa's blog. Stay tuned...