Written on September 9th

The last three weeks of school break have looked like this: Zambia.Tanzania.ETHIOPIA.Tanzania…ZAMBIA!!

Mid August Ricardo and I boarded a train to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The train ride goes from Kasama to Dar takes two nights and one full day and passes through a big game park. It was really nice and beautiful…saw giraffes, water buffalo, and lots of impalas. Dar is a busy city with a heavily Muslim influence. The streets are full of people, taxis, mosques, motorbikes, and every kind of fruit cart you can imagine. Overall the buildings and vibe of the place reminded me a lot of Old Jerusalem. It was cool to be here during Ramadan and here the calls to prayer throughout the day and eat lots of dates (they often use the fruit to break their fast at night.) Ric and I did a bit of exploring, found a bar with dancing and a beach with cool bluffs.

Then it was off on to the next adventure… I boarded my flight the next day to Ethiopia! The airport is always a bit stressful for me, I find I never am sure exactly where I’m suppose to be, and the staff in Dar’s airport made it worse by continuing to give me the wrong information and not printing me a boarding pass for my connection in Kenya which led to another crazed/stressful experience in Nairobi… but I made it Addis Ababa as planned. Almost didn’t make it out of the airport because if didn’t have 20 USD for the VISA and they refused to exchange any of my other currency…but a good Samaritan lent me some and I found Sarah was there waiting for me! Sarah and I were friends and roommates in college and she is doing Peace Corps in Ethiopia.

Addis is an interesting capital. Its big, busy and heavily populated. It feels like way more of a legitimate city then Lusaka for sure…but the funny thing is there’s all these cars and buses and bikes cluttering the road and there be a donkey or cow just chillin in the middle of the road.

The 2^nd night in Addis I got elevation sickness… which is basically terrible migraines to the point of nausea and is treated by drinking excess amounts of water. Thankfully Sarah was on my ass about drinking and the sickness only last that one night!

From there we traveled 3 hours and spent a night in Ambo where Sarah’s fiancé lives and got to eat some good Ehtiopian food and see a Peace Corps run camp for some OVC’s (Orphan and Vulnerable Children).

The rest of the 1^st week was spent at Sarah’s site in a town in the West called Bako.

In Ethiopia right now its rainy season. Rainy season in Ethiopia is really really beautiful because there are many mountain ranges and rolling hills and they are all so green!!! The bus ride to Bako curled up up up a winding mountain road and was really beautiful. Sarah’s site was really fun. I got to meet her friends and counterparts and see the work that she is doing. She is in the process of training a group of 10-orphaned 12 year olds in Life Skills and will be opening a bread bakery that they’ll run to support themselves. I got to help out with some of the trainings…but mostly Sarah’s friend who translates everything into Amharic runs them.

For lunch everyday we’d get injera and tea. Injera, the staple Ehtiopia food, is kind of like a spongy fermented pancake. It may not sound delicious, but we ate it everydays with all the different watts (relishes) and it was DELICIOUS! As much as I love nshima… Ethiopians deff know what they’re doing with relishes more than Zambians. They use spices other than salt!! I feel like everything was equally nutritious and tasty. Dinners were elaborate… one night we made perogies!

While in Bako I also got my hair braided. I’ve been wanting to for a while in Zambia…but never found any blonde extensions or anyone who knew what to do with white people hair! Ethiopian women have beautiful long curly hair. Its so different from hair in most African countries. They love to braid there hair and have many different and elaborate ways of doing it. My corn rows were pretty simple but there girl knew what she was doing… and although me getting them was a bit of a joke I ended up liking the way they looked a lot! They lasted about 4 days before they started to itch and drive me crazy.

After Bako we headed back to Addis for a night then journeyed north with Nebeyou, Sarah’s fiancé. We stayed with his family in Bahir Dar for a night. They have two really adorable children and they took us out to a cultural café where I got my first taste of Ethiopian dancing… picture a lot of head bobbing and shoulder shrugging! Very different from the way Southern African Nations dance. Someone told me that on the continent of African the dancing moves from top to bottom… so North uses the top half, Southern uses the bottom! I also got to try some Ethiopian coffee and beer. There coffee is thick and but doesn’t make you feel jittery (which is usually my dilemma—I didn’t drink coffee before I moved to this continent!) The coffee ceremonies they have each day remind me of the Bedouins… they roast and pound the beans right in front of you. Its smells and tastes so good!

We went up even more north for a night and stayed in Gondar… which was not quite what we expected it to be. We had hoped to visit whatever was left of the Jewish community…but its pretty much non-existent now and even though we found the synagogue it was all guarded and fenced off and we weren’t allowed to go in. Gondar was also filled with some interesting characters that included a bewildered tour guide, a 18-yr old boy who really wanted us to come to his party, and a hotel concierge who professed his love for me at my door… Oh, brother! We did get to explore some ancient castles that were pretty cool. And when we got back to Bahir Dar the next night we got to go out onto Lake Shana on a private boat and visit one island… a much needed relaxing day before traveling back to Addis. We stayed with more of Nebeyou’s family in Addis…and they too had adorable children! We went out to his Aunt’s cultural restaurant where we were treated to an all you can eat Ethiopian buffet and honey wine on the house. The dancing, costumes, décor, and singing there were really cool too!

My last day was spent bargaining at the market. Mom, you would be proud. I did my fair amount of shopping and then we got a great Indian dinner before I had to go home and pack for my flight. 12:30am flight to Djibuti, to Nairobi, to Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. I touched ground in 4 countries before 10am! Back here again after two quick jam-packed weeks! Met up with Stevie and eventually Ric. Did loooooots of jewelry and chitenge shopping. Revisited to beach and the club scene… Celebrated Rosh Hashanah by casting my sins into to Indian Ocean and having some guy on the street blow a vuvuzela for me!!!!

Life is good. Boarding the train back to Zambia tomorrow. I couldn’t be happier or luckier.

L’Shana Tov!! Happy New Year! May the days continue to be full and sweet!

A funny/gross/entertaining anecdote from the trip:

*Women on buses in Ethiopia have terrible car-sickness...the person behind you, next to you, and across the isle might be puking into a bag for the entirety of a bus ride. This is by far my least favorite thing about Ethiopia. One bus ride I was sitting next to a women with two kids her lap... 30mins into the ride the baby starts spitting up on her. So I give her some tissue to whipe it up... but she began to fan herself with it instead...I knew then I was in trouble. Once she started puking I convinced the gentleman behind me to switch seats! Blach!!!

Corresponding Pictures to follow soooooooon!