18 April, Monday – Sudan/Ethiopian border!
Hot, fitful sleep and we are ready and packed by 6:20! We break record after record or rather the Sudanese sun forces us to break them! It is another 5 hour drive to the border and the day heats up too quickly. We have our surviving rituals in place: several bottles of water and Tang in the refrigerator and a special sponge-down bottle for Sammie in the car. We bring only 1 bottle into the car and try to drink it as quickly as we can. 15 minutes in the car and it is tepid; 30 minutes and you might want to try a tea bag in it! Sammie stays wet and cool – we do sponge down shifts – every 15 – 20 minutes water is liberally splashed on him and it works so well.
All 4 of us look forward to the border, to Ethiopia… We’ve heard many reports: great food, wallet-friendly traveling, pestering, hassling children, but top of the list – cooler weather…I hope we will not be disappointed.
It is a border crossing, so a challenge for me, but I’m doing well. I have only 1 prayer and that is that the authorities will not ask for an extra letter for our car. We do not have one and should they ask then we will try the fake letter which we really do not want to do. We have a fixer as soon as we enter the border area. Willie, once bitten, twice shy, settles on a fee before he starts to fix. We really do need him…this is not border as we know borders. It is ramshackle buildings where in the first one an official lies on a bed, warding off flies and watching TV. The bed creaks when he gets up. We provide him with our passports; he goes through them and when he is ready to write something on a piece of paper he looks up and asks Willie what his nationality is!
The fixer then takes us to customs who sends us to a bigger boss in an air conditioned office who sends us back to customs who sends us to immigration where we sit in a boiling, fly infested office where we have to wait to have our passports stamped. It all goes remarkably smoothly and once done our fixer jumps onto the car and holds on as we drive to the Ethiopian side. We are ushered into an office where there is no air – all the windows and doors are closed and that is where we meet the Ethiopian official. There is a picture of Jesus on the wall which we all really like, but the heat becomes unbearable and I have to go out to get hot, but at least fresh air. From the stuffy office to the customs – this is where they will ask for the letter which we do not have. All 4 of us trample behind our fixer to the office where Willie falls into a long line. I return to the car to open the windows for Sammie and to pray. We really do not want to do anything illegal like providing authorities with a fake document, but as said yesterday, the US embassy does not write a letter like that and we felt we have some legitimacy, because everything in regards to our car is German. (that is rationalization, I know…!)
I see 2 new birds at a dripping water faucet while I wait and then suddenly Willie, the boys, the fixer and another man are at the car. They open the hood to write down the chasse number; he then checks our luggage in the back of the car, our computers, GPS and cameras, signs a form and tells Willie we are done! No letter was required…! Thank you! Our passports get stamped, Willie exchanges a few dollars into Ethiopian currency, pays the fixer who now complains about the money and we drive up to the gate barred by a rope. The guard only looks at our Carnet de Passage, lifts the rope and…we are in Ethiopia! Is that it? Is that really all we needed to do? We are disoriented for a few minutes. We’ve had such difficult experiences that it takes a few minutes to realize that it is over. No change in the temperature though!
We drive through a lane of make-shift little stores selling cold drinks, beer, clothes, souvenirs, food and more. There are people and moving objects everywhere: cars, trucks, scooters, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, donkey carts, goats, cattle, loaded donkeys, and more people…milling around. We encounter an Ethiopian first: a new greeting that people yell when they see you: quite a high-pitched call, sounding like, “you-you!” We hear, “how are you?” often and more than once, “hi, my China!”
We aim for Gondor, but run out of steam when we reach the town of Ayalek. I am happy to report that it has cooled down considerably on our way into the highlands of Ethiopia. We slowly negotiate our way through throngs of people, who seem unaware of the fact that a vehicle also has rights on the road. We pass through “you-you’s” until we find a hotel where the car will be safe. If Wadi Halfa was minus 3 primitive then this will be minus 2 ½ primitive! It is not possible to use the toilet, at least for me - I will surely not survive the smell! Bush camping becomes more and more attractive with every reeking, dirty hotel experience. Let’s be positive…we receive warm and friendly greetings – wherever we go.
Something very bizarre, almost, happens. One of the Ethiopian guys who helps at the hotel, Marchit, tells Hugo that he can speak Bosnian! Hugo calls Andrej and in a small rural town in Ethiopia, Andrej and Marchit communicates in Serbian/Bosnian! As we understood: Bosnians, working on a project in Ethiopia met Marchit and that resulted in him going to Bosnia for 3 years where he learned to speak the language. He latched onto Andrej and every 5 minutes one will hear him call Andrej, “Andreas”. He definitely could speak Bosnian better than English.
Something I did not know is that the Ethiopian people speak Armharic – an ancient, wonderfully sound language: nothing like I’ve ever heard before. They have a musical, lilting intonation and when I heard a few kids speak to one another the first time they sounded like little extra-terrestrials who have landed on planet earth – a beautiful and fascinating language. There is so much I do not know and the more I read and hear of Ethiopia the more intrigued I become. My perspective of Ethiopia, set in the 70’s, and never changed since, was that it is an extremely poor country with severely famished people…that’s it. That mold has been shattered during the first few kilometers after we’ve crossed the border and will continue to be rebuilt into something very different looking.
We have our first Ethiopian meal: traditional enjera which is a sourdough pancake dressed with a very tasty, but spicy sauce. The main religion of the Ethiopian people is Orthodox Christianity and they fast from meat for one month before Easter – something similar to the Lent tradition in other churches. We’ve arrived in the last week during which the fast is being observed, so most of the meals are vegetarian. We are excited that we will be here on Ascension day – Easter, one of the biggest celebrations days on the Ethiopian calendar which is something else that is very interesting.
We share a room with 2 double beds and although basic are grateful for several things: a smooth, honest border crossing; safe travels on difficult roads, because it is shared by livestock, locals, and anything else with wheels and most of all: cooler weather!
Hot, fitful sleep and we are ready and packed by 6:20! We break record after record or rather the Sudanese sun forces us to break them! It is another 5 hour drive to the border and the day heats up too quickly. We have our surviving rituals in place: several bottles of water and Tang in the refrigerator and a special sponge-down bottle for Sammie in the car. We bring only 1 bottle into the car and try to drink it as quickly as we can. 15 minutes in the car and it is tepid; 30 minutes and you might want to try a tea bag in it! Sammie stays wet and cool – we do sponge down shifts – every 15 – 20 minutes water is liberally splashed on him and it works so well.
All 4 of us look forward to the border, to Ethiopia… We’ve heard many reports: great food, wallet-friendly traveling, pestering, hassling children, but top of the list – cooler weather…I hope we will not be disappointed.
It is a border crossing, so a challenge for me, but I’m doing well. I have only 1 prayer and that is that the authorities will not ask for an extra letter for our car. We do not have one and should they ask then we will try the fake letter which we really do not want to do. We have a fixer as soon as we enter the border area. Willie, once bitten, twice shy, settles on a fee before he starts to fix. We really do need him…this is not border as we know borders. It is ramshackle buildings where in the first one an official lies on a bed, warding off flies and watching TV. The bed creaks when he gets up. We provide him with our passports; he goes through them and when he is ready to write something on a piece of paper he looks up and asks Willie what his nationality is!
The fixer then takes us to customs who sends us to a bigger boss in an air conditioned office who sends us back to customs who sends us to immigration where we sit in a boiling, fly infested office where we have to wait to have our passports stamped. It all goes remarkably smoothly and once done our fixer jumps onto the car and holds on as we drive to the Ethiopian side. We are ushered into an office where there is no air – all the windows and doors are closed and that is where we meet the Ethiopian official. There is a picture of Jesus on the wall which we all really like, but the heat becomes unbearable and I have to go out to get hot, but at least fresh air. From the stuffy office to the customs – this is where they will ask for the letter which we do not have. All 4 of us trample behind our fixer to the office where Willie falls into a long line. I return to the car to open the windows for Sammie and to pray. We really do not want to do anything illegal like providing authorities with a fake document, but as said yesterday, the US embassy does not write a letter like that and we felt we have some legitimacy, because everything in regards to our car is German. (that is rationalization, I know…!)
I see 2 new birds at a dripping water faucet while I wait and then suddenly Willie, the boys, the fixer and another man are at the car. They open the hood to write down the chasse number; he then checks our luggage in the back of the car, our computers, GPS and cameras, signs a form and tells Willie we are done! No letter was required…! Thank you! Our passports get stamped, Willie exchanges a few dollars into Ethiopian currency, pays the fixer who now complains about the money and we drive up to the gate barred by a rope. The guard only looks at our Carnet de Passage, lifts the rope and…we are in Ethiopia! Is that it? Is that really all we needed to do? We are disoriented for a few minutes. We’ve had such difficult experiences that it takes a few minutes to realize that it is over. No change in the temperature though!
We drive through a lane of make-shift little stores selling cold drinks, beer, clothes, souvenirs, food and more. There are people and moving objects everywhere: cars, trucks, scooters, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, donkey carts, goats, cattle, loaded donkeys, and more people…milling around. We encounter an Ethiopian first: a new greeting that people yell when they see you: quite a high-pitched call, sounding like, “you-you!” We hear, “how are you?” often and more than once, “hi, my China!”
We aim for Gondor, but run out of steam when we reach the town of Ayalek. I am happy to report that it has cooled down considerably on our way into the highlands of Ethiopia. We slowly negotiate our way through throngs of people, who seem unaware of the fact that a vehicle also has rights on the road. We pass through “you-you’s” until we find a hotel where the car will be safe. If Wadi Halfa was minus 3 primitive then this will be minus 2 ½ primitive! It is not possible to use the toilet, at least for me - I will surely not survive the smell! Bush camping becomes more and more attractive with every reeking, dirty hotel experience. Let’s be positive…we receive warm and friendly greetings – wherever we go.
Something very bizarre, almost, happens. One of the Ethiopian guys who helps at the hotel, Marchit, tells Hugo that he can speak Bosnian! Hugo calls Andrej and in a small rural town in Ethiopia, Andrej and Marchit communicates in Serbian/Bosnian! As we understood: Bosnians, working on a project in Ethiopia met Marchit and that resulted in him going to Bosnia for 3 years where he learned to speak the language. He latched onto Andrej and every 5 minutes one will hear him call Andrej, “Andreas”. He definitely could speak Bosnian better than English.
Something I did not know is that the Ethiopian people speak Armharic – an ancient, wonderfully sound language: nothing like I’ve ever heard before. They have a musical, lilting intonation and when I heard a few kids speak to one another the first time they sounded like little extra-terrestrials who have landed on planet earth – a beautiful and fascinating language. There is so much I do not know and the more I read and hear of Ethiopia the more intrigued I become. My perspective of Ethiopia, set in the 70’s, and never changed since, was that it is an extremely poor country with severely famished people…that’s it. That mold has been shattered during the first few kilometers after we’ve crossed the border and will continue to be rebuilt into something very different looking.
We have our first Ethiopian meal: traditional enjera which is a sourdough pancake dressed with a very tasty, but spicy sauce. The main religion of the Ethiopian people is Orthodox Christianity and they fast from meat for one month before Easter – something similar to the Lent tradition in other churches. We’ve arrived in the last week during which the fast is being observed, so most of the meals are vegetarian. We are excited that we will be here on Ascension day – Easter, one of the biggest celebrations days on the Ethiopian calendar which is something else that is very interesting.
We share a room with 2 double beds and although basic are grateful for several things: a smooth, honest border crossing; safe travels on difficult roads, because it is shared by livestock, locals, and anything else with wheels and most of all: cooler weather!