6 May, Friday
Lake Langano to Arba Minch
It is interesting how much the few days of rest helped to
invigorate us: we feel excited again about the second half of the trip:
crawling on potholed roads, gritting our teeth on dust; drinking tepid water;
sweating through roads carrying everything you can think of that can move;
enduring yelling, screaming kids asking for money; pens; water bottles; being
patient with crowds of staring, onlookers when we
stop…
We say goodbye to Tim and Miriam and their 6 months old orphan,
Griffin, a Tawny Eagle who they rescued from someone who tried to sell him by
the side of the road. We reach Hawassa, a bigger city, by noon and we have 2
missions, no 3: to refill or replace the gas bottle; draw money (ATM’s are a
scarce commodity in Ethiopia) and the third to find food!
We have to replace our gas bottle – the Syrian bottle is not
compatible and also not the right color, but it is an upgrade in that we now
have a regulator! Willie draws money although not without problems – the first
bank’s ATM is not functioning; they send us to another bank whose ATM does not
work either. He finally gets his money from a very unfriendly assistant – not
happy to help us. Now, food…Hugo saw a restaurant that boasted Mexican food and
that is where he wants to go. He puts in quite an admirable lobbying stunt, but
is not very successful, because we end up at Salam Burger Restaurant. They do
not have any Burgers, though – traditional Ethiopian food and an egg sandwich
is the closest to normal they have.
Willie orders an egg sandwich; he does not like the traditional
sour ‘enjera’ pancake which the 3 of us order. Hugo has ‘tibs’(small, tough
pieces of meat) and Andrej and I have Tegabino – a very spicy, hot paste made
with Berbera – the traditional Ethiopian spice mix. All 4 of us have an
Avocado-Mango juice mix that has become our favorite.
Now the last stretch to Arba Minch. The road is
extremely bad, busy and congested with non-motorized activity. Andrej and I sit
in the back and Hugo in the front. We’ve reached the point in the day where it
is quiet in the car – each one busy: reading, writing, sleeping (except for
Willie, of course) or processing something that we’ve seen or that happened.
I’ve noticed that Andrej puts his head back, but I thought he was trying to
sleep when the next moment he rolled down the window and violently started to
throw up. It takes a minute to
stop the car and almost immediately we are surrounded with curious onlookers –
shamelessly watching with intent how a ‘farangi’ (white man) throws
up.
Andrej is ash pale and we try to make him as comfortable as we can. We are literally in the middle of nothing and all we can do now is try to reach our destination. What can it be? We ate the same food, but as Hugo says – you never know when you’ve touched something soiled or contaminated…The road is extremely bad – potholed with construction, people and
activity as far as we go. 45 minutes later and Andrej rolls down his window
again. We are in the town center…he half hangs out the open door and again
quickly gathers an audience around him…not to be envied…I feel so sorry for him.
Hugo stands by the door trying to shield him somehow… He suddenly gets angry and
it looks as if he is going to hit someone with his fist. Once he gets back into
the car he tells us that someone was laughing at Andrej! We are very worried
about Andrej. It is not possible for him to even take a sip of water. We met a
couple from England at Lake Tana and the guy got deathly sick with food
poisoning; had to go to the hospital and was on an I-V for 2 days. I know how
quickly one can dehydrate. Our progress is so slow – 40 km/hour and it feels as
if there is no end to our journey. The GPS keeps on recalculating and our
destination time becomes later every time. We drive 1 ½ hours before Andrej had
his next bout of violent throwing up. There is nothing left inside of him and by
this time and it is just dry, labored heaves coming from him. It is getting dark
and more dangerous and difficult to drive – with no warning a cow, goat or human
being will cross the road.
Finally lights of the town in the distance. Andrej has not thrown
up and has managed to take a few sips of water. We find the hotel/camping and
have to decide whether we should take him to the hospital. He definitely has a
little more color and he feels we should wait a couple of hours to see what
happens.
We have a guest that causes excitement at the campsite…a‘tame’
warthog wandering around on the grass! It was a long, stressful day and all of
us are happy to go to bed. I pray that Andrej will be better in the
morning.
Lake Langano to Arba Minch
It is interesting how much the few days of rest helped to
invigorate us: we feel excited again about the second half of the trip:
crawling on potholed roads, gritting our teeth on dust; drinking tepid water;
sweating through roads carrying everything you can think of that can move;
enduring yelling, screaming kids asking for money; pens; water bottles; being
patient with crowds of staring, onlookers when we
stop…
We say goodbye to Tim and Miriam and their 6 months old orphan,
Griffin, a Tawny Eagle who they rescued from someone who tried to sell him by
the side of the road. We reach Hawassa, a bigger city, by noon and we have 2
missions, no 3: to refill or replace the gas bottle; draw money (ATM’s are a
scarce commodity in Ethiopia) and the third to find food!
We have to replace our gas bottle – the Syrian bottle is not
compatible and also not the right color, but it is an upgrade in that we now
have a regulator! Willie draws money although not without problems – the first
bank’s ATM is not functioning; they send us to another bank whose ATM does not
work either. He finally gets his money from a very unfriendly assistant – not
happy to help us. Now, food…Hugo saw a restaurant that boasted Mexican food and
that is where he wants to go. He puts in quite an admirable lobbying stunt, but
is not very successful, because we end up at Salam Burger Restaurant. They do
not have any Burgers, though – traditional Ethiopian food and an egg sandwich
is the closest to normal they have.
Willie orders an egg sandwich; he does not like the traditional
sour ‘enjera’ pancake which the 3 of us order. Hugo has ‘tibs’(small, tough
pieces of meat) and Andrej and I have Tegabino – a very spicy, hot paste made
with Berbera – the traditional Ethiopian spice mix. All 4 of us have an
Avocado-Mango juice mix that has become our favorite.
Now the last stretch to Arba Minch. The road is
extremely bad, busy and congested with non-motorized activity. Andrej and I sit
in the back and Hugo in the front. We’ve reached the point in the day where it
is quiet in the car – each one busy: reading, writing, sleeping (except for
Willie, of course) or processing something that we’ve seen or that happened.
I’ve noticed that Andrej puts his head back, but I thought he was trying to
sleep when the next moment he rolled down the window and violently started to
throw up. It takes a minute to
stop the car and almost immediately we are surrounded with curious onlookers –
shamelessly watching with intent how a ‘farangi’ (white man) throws
up.
Andrej is ash pale and we try to make him as comfortable as we can. We are literally in the middle of nothing and all we can do now is try to reach our destination. What can it be? We ate the same food, but as Hugo says – you never know when you’ve touched something soiled or contaminated…The road is extremely bad – potholed with construction, people and
activity as far as we go. 45 minutes later and Andrej rolls down his window
again. We are in the town center…he half hangs out the open door and again
quickly gathers an audience around him…not to be envied…I feel so sorry for him.
Hugo stands by the door trying to shield him somehow… He suddenly gets angry and
it looks as if he is going to hit someone with his fist. Once he gets back into
the car he tells us that someone was laughing at Andrej! We are very worried
about Andrej. It is not possible for him to even take a sip of water. We met a
couple from England at Lake Tana and the guy got deathly sick with food
poisoning; had to go to the hospital and was on an I-V for 2 days. I know how
quickly one can dehydrate. Our progress is so slow – 40 km/hour and it feels as
if there is no end to our journey. The GPS keeps on recalculating and our
destination time becomes later every time. We drive 1 ½ hours before Andrej had
his next bout of violent throwing up. There is nothing left inside of him and by
this time and it is just dry, labored heaves coming from him. It is getting dark
and more dangerous and difficult to drive – with no warning a cow, goat or human
being will cross the road.
Finally lights of the town in the distance. Andrej has not thrown
up and has managed to take a few sips of water. We find the hotel/camping and
have to decide whether we should take him to the hospital. He definitely has a
little more color and he feels we should wait a couple of hours to see what
happens.
We have a guest that causes excitement at the campsite…a‘tame’
warthog wandering around on the grass! It was a long, stressful day and all of
us are happy to go to bed. I pray that Andrej will be better in the
morning.
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