4/28/19
Easter in Ethiopia! The end of meat/dairy fasting! As we drove through Addis Ababa in the morning, there were incredibly long lines at the butcher shops. And also we drove past random butcherings just happening on the side of the roads.
Today we drove to Harar. The drive took us through some mountainous areas and the great rift valley. We went through some heavy rain at one point that caused some mudslides and made the road interesting.
4/29/19
Today we had a tour of the old and walled city of Old Harar. It's the 4th most important muslim city in the world. There are 5 entrance gates into it and lots of very narrow, winding streets. We toured some of the traditional Harar houses (made with limestone) that have nice little courtyards. We also toured some fancy wooden houses constructed by Indians. We had a meal of fresh-cooked camel for lunch.
We toured the Harar market and also did this activity where we put camel meat on our heads and a hawk swoops down and grabs it off your head. Within Hara, many girls wanted to touch our white skin and several reached out to squeeze my biceps as I walked by. As we walk along, where ever we go, lots of people call out "Farengi" (foreigner), but not in a disparaging way (Harar, though, has traditionally been xenophobic). We stopped by a school where our Harar guide and school director really got into it (she slammed the gate in his face) b/c we would give candy to the kids. Our guide said giving candy is bad for their teeth and that probably it was the school director who was going to eat it, not the kids. haha. We visited a nice courtyard with a curio shop run by "big mama", who was aptly named.
We watched the sunset and read with a coke from the top of our tall hotel, which afforded a nice high perspective of the city below. In the early evening we got some juice and ate a nice Ethiopian meal.
At night we went to watch the "hyena men" outside the wall of the city. These men have historically fed the hyenas to keep them placated so that they don't attack people within the city. It's like a truce the humans and hyenas have. Still, the hyenas do go through the walled city at night and pick through the garbage and on occasion have attacked a human, but this is very rare. Tonight, the hyena men were feeding about 20 hyenas, and we were very close, within 10-20 feet of most of them. Us tourists also go to feed them, including "mouth to mouth" (I held a short stick in my mouth and on the other end was camel meat that a hyena came up and grabbed). It was so cool to see the hyenas up close! (spotlighted by the headlights of the tourist vans)
That night Elisha and I had beers on the roof of our hotel with Norbert and Katya to watch the stars and the city below.
4/30
We hiked up some little mountain outside of town, a bit through the bush that had nice views. On the hike, we caught a glimpse of a hyena. We had juice and Doro Wat for lunch.
After lunch, Elisha and I went out to walk the walled city by ourselves as we wanted to get lost within the narrow, winding streets of the walled city. A guy, Abdullah, attached onto us. This is what tends to happen. You have a guy start talking friendly to you, maybe show you a couple of things, then all of a sudden is leading you around and at the end demands a high fee. We usually give them an appropriate tip, but they will act hurt as if it's not enough. We always tell them that they should have made an arrangement beforehand about how much it would cost if they wanted to show us around. We now know to shoe them off; however, this guy, Abdullah, was deaf, so we thought it was a bit different. He was very sweet and showed us around the market. He had us taste various things in the market, showed us some nice courtyards within the walled city, and also showed us various working areas within the city, such as metal working.
Abdullah could understand English and read our lips! And he could write english words on his black skin with a small stick. He communicated well with his hand, but could only grunt and make incoherent noises. In the end, of course, he asked for a lot of money. We gave him what we thought was fair, but he acted hurt, and it was sad b/c before all of that, we had had such a good time with him.
In the late afternoon we had beers on the hotel roof with Katya, Norbert, and Will. Will flew his drone, and as soon as it was in the air, SO many birds (kites) appeared (hundreds of them), and some tried to attack the drone. It was pretty funny and quite the site to see.
We had post dinner beers on the roof as well. Our hotel had a super cold fridge in the room, so the beers were extra good.
Easter in Ethiopia! The end of meat/dairy fasting! As we drove through Addis Ababa in the morning, there were incredibly long lines at the butcher shops. And also we drove past random butcherings just happening on the side of the roads.
Today we drove to Harar. The drive took us through some mountainous areas and the great rift valley. We went through some heavy rain at one point that caused some mudslides and made the road interesting.
4/29/19
Today we had a tour of the old and walled city of Old Harar. It's the 4th most important muslim city in the world. There are 5 entrance gates into it and lots of very narrow, winding streets. We toured some of the traditional Harar houses (made with limestone) that have nice little courtyards. We also toured some fancy wooden houses constructed by Indians. We had a meal of fresh-cooked camel for lunch.
We toured the Harar market and also did this activity where we put camel meat on our heads and a hawk swoops down and grabs it off your head. Within Hara, many girls wanted to touch our white skin and several reached out to squeeze my biceps as I walked by. As we walk along, where ever we go, lots of people call out "Farengi" (foreigner), but not in a disparaging way (Harar, though, has traditionally been xenophobic). We stopped by a school where our Harar guide and school director really got into it (she slammed the gate in his face) b/c we would give candy to the kids. Our guide said giving candy is bad for their teeth and that probably it was the school director who was going to eat it, not the kids. haha. We visited a nice courtyard with a curio shop run by "big mama", who was aptly named.
We watched the sunset and read with a coke from the top of our tall hotel, which afforded a nice high perspective of the city below. In the early evening we got some juice and ate a nice Ethiopian meal.
At night we went to watch the "hyena men" outside the wall of the city. These men have historically fed the hyenas to keep them placated so that they don't attack people within the city. It's like a truce the humans and hyenas have. Still, the hyenas do go through the walled city at night and pick through the garbage and on occasion have attacked a human, but this is very rare. Tonight, the hyena men were feeding about 20 hyenas, and we were very close, within 10-20 feet of most of them. Us tourists also go to feed them, including "mouth to mouth" (I held a short stick in my mouth and on the other end was camel meat that a hyena came up and grabbed). It was so cool to see the hyenas up close! (spotlighted by the headlights of the tourist vans)
That night Elisha and I had beers on the roof of our hotel with Norbert and Katya to watch the stars and the city below.
4/30
We hiked up some little mountain outside of town, a bit through the bush that had nice views. On the hike, we caught a glimpse of a hyena. We had juice and Doro Wat for lunch.
After lunch, Elisha and I went out to walk the walled city by ourselves as we wanted to get lost within the narrow, winding streets of the walled city. A guy, Abdullah, attached onto us. This is what tends to happen. You have a guy start talking friendly to you, maybe show you a couple of things, then all of a sudden is leading you around and at the end demands a high fee. We usually give them an appropriate tip, but they will act hurt as if it's not enough. We always tell them that they should have made an arrangement beforehand about how much it would cost if they wanted to show us around. We now know to shoe them off; however, this guy, Abdullah, was deaf, so we thought it was a bit different. He was very sweet and showed us around the market. He had us taste various things in the market, showed us some nice courtyards within the walled city, and also showed us various working areas within the city, such as metal working.
Abdullah could understand English and read our lips! And he could write english words on his black skin with a small stick. He communicated well with his hand, but could only grunt and make incoherent noises. In the end, of course, he asked for a lot of money. We gave him what we thought was fair, but he acted hurt, and it was sad b/c before all of that, we had had such a good time with him.
In the late afternoon we had beers on the hotel roof with Katya, Norbert, and Will. Will flew his drone, and as soon as it was in the air, SO many birds (kites) appeared (hundreds of them), and some tried to attack the drone. It was pretty funny and quite the site to see.
We had post dinner beers on the roof as well. Our hotel had a super cold fridge in the room, so the beers were extra good.
1 comment:
funny about the hyenas!
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