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Ethni-opia: Silver-grey umbilical cord

5/21/2011

1 Comment

 
Ethni-opia 

Ethiopia: a wondrous, weird, wacky and wild country with unique, eccentric, eclectic, enigmatic people…

 Ethiopians are inextricably linked to an umbilical cord that’s never severed - an umbilical cord that binds everyone together from the biggest city to the most remote little village in the mountains or valleys. It is silver-grey with brown-red branches and it carries Ethiopian life in all its diversity; it is mega-multi-purposed: it serves as:

 Shops/stores: selling anything you can think of and not think of 
  
Warehouse: used for storage

 Workshop: to fix, weld, construct, deconstruct, transform, build, 
 
Scrapyard 

Rubbish dump 

Bedroom 

Meeting room for any kind of social gathering of all ages

 Playroom

 Bathroom 

Hang-out joint for teenagers

 Educational project-room

 Café; coffee shop; tearoom; bakery; restaurant; fast food; take-out

Farmland

 Transportation: primary intended function and is used extensively by anything and anyone that can move or be moved: humans; goats; donkeys; cows; dogs; roosters; chickens; geese; sheep; horses; cats

 Its surface was intended to help propel devices with wheels:
 
1-wheel: wheelbarrows; pushcarts, play-wheel 
2-wheels: bikes; motorcycles; carts, carriages
3-wheels: tuk-tuks; evolving motorbikes; wannabee cars 
4-wheels: skedonks, cars, trucks, lorries, tractors 
5-wheels: I’m sure there will be something I was not fortunate to see
6-wheels – 24-wheels: big, jumbo trucks 

Ethiopians have an intimate relationship with their umbilical cord: it feeds, transports, brings, takes, carries, connects: it is a lifeline – regardless of the condition; whether tar, corrugated, muddy, dusty, potholed, rock-littered, trash littered

 It became obvious, very quickly that vehicles take second place and they do not have right of way – they have right to stay or at least wait until the activity passes, crosses, rolls, rides, stops, peddles…

The word, concept ROAD has taken on a complete new meaning for me after Ethiopia…

I’ve tried to capture Ethiopian Life happening around, beside, in, on, at, over, under, by the Road from my rearview window. (some of the photos are not the best quality, because I really needed a faster reflex at times…)

Enjoy with me:

Drive-through Ethni-opia – from a distance
(See Gallery:photos: Ethni-opia
1 Comment
Paula Clutter
5/20/2011 10:35:15 pm

Thanks for sharing these parts of the world with us. Some of us will never see them in person. I know some of the travel has been hard for you but I appreciate your log and photos that give us a glimpse of daily life around the world! Thanks. Paula

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    Author

    Caren

    "There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne - bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive. One only feels really free when one can go in whatever direction one pleases over the plains, to get to the river at sundown and pitch one's camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep
    beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night." -
     Karen Blixen - Out of Africa, Kenya
    'Of course as I am reading this, I know that you DO get your visas and the container DOES get released, but oh the internal struggle we face even though we should trust (as Hugo does) that God has His hands on all things and is constantly taking care of us.'


    From a Friend:
    :) Crazy to think that we are ALL made of blood, bone and water yet we speak in so many tongues that getting along together becomes a massive task within itself.

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