A PERFECT DAY!
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 01/Nov/2009 09:21, 34 days ago
Saturday 31stOctoberIt started off slightly earlier that I might have wished as I got up at 5.30 to make sure I had time to make breakfast before meeting the rest of the group at 7am on campus. As it was a Saturday (and I had bananas that needed eating up) I treated myself to banana pancakes with maple syrup and butter– yum! I was told to get to the car park for 6.45 so that we could leave prompt at 7am but when I arrived late at 6.55am I was the first one there. We finally set off from campus at about 8am (classic example of‘habasha’ time). This was a trip to celebrate the completion of the 3 week intensive induction to teaching for new university staff and the atmosphere was quite festive! The bus was packed to the brim with about 40 people (30 candidates, the course organisers and few other staff from the education department that had managed to wangle their way onto the trip) plus food, drink and cooking equipment to feed us all when we got there. We were off to Wenchi Lake. It is one of the most talked about tourist destinations within a day’s drive of Addis and is only 30km from Ambo. However, most of the candidates had never taken the trip before (even those who had lived in Ambo for the last 5+ years) and so it was a real treat!    We arrived around 10am and I was pleased to find the none of the guidebooks had done the view from the top of the crater justice. It was stunning. Especially on such a glorious sunny day (as many in Ethiopia are) the blue of the lake and the green of the rolling hills within the crater were breathtaking. It took us about an hour to walk down to the lake and as we descended into the crater if felt like we were entering another world. I think what makes this place so special is that no cars are allowed further than the top of the crater and so the area feels so untouched and peaceful. It is not necessarily the most beautiful lake or green landscape I have ever seen in my life but fact that the only mode of transport was foot or horseback made this place seem more special than any other lake I have been to. It was like a little hidden unspoilt paradise! The other thing I enjoyed on the decent down was that the local children all stopped to say hello and good morning. Unlike Ambo where they haven’t got past saying‘ you you’ the local people here are obviously much more affected by tourism. And although this isn’t necessarily a good thing it was much more pleasant to be greeted by‘Hello’ than‘You You’ (which can often feel quite aggressive). It was also interesting to see that they greeted all the Ethiopians with‘Hello’ just as they did me and so didn’t make any real distinction. I guess to them a tourist is a tourist (whether local or not) and it felt really nice not be singled out like normal.   Once we reached the lake we relaxed a little while some of the candidates made a start preparing our lunch then we took a boat across to an island in the middle of the lake. Here we set up camp and continued to prepare lunch. It was an Ethiopian version of a BBQ and involved 2 very large metal circular dishes (one was about 1m diameter) being placed over a wood fire. The meat was then fried on these dishes and they added onions, chillies and the magic ingredient–red wine! It was delicious! They served it with Ingera and bread and we all ate silly amounts. The food was washed down with beer and soft drinks and then we settled down to some entertainment prepared by the social committee. Although most of it was in Amharic so I was more than a bit lost at times it was very entertaining. Several candidates had shared poems they had written about the training which were clearly very funny (based on the laughs rather than my understanding). I did get a bit nervous whenever I heard my name mentioned within the poems followed by laughing but from what I could tell at least as many jokes were at the other leaders expense.  They also performed a very funny play about HIV and AIDs (perhaps not a laughing matter but they did it in a very clever way that also got a point across). The entertainment concluded with some anecdotes and and finally an inspirational speech by Fekadu about their future roles as teachers. Fekadu ended it by saying‘ if you want to plant something that will last a year plant corn, if you want to plant something that will last a decade plant a tree, if you want to plant something that will last forever educate someone.’   At about 3.30pm we headed back to the mainland by boat. We almost capsized at one point because of a water fight that broke out between our boat and the other one and it was interesting to see how frightened some of them were. I was very relieved to find that the rest of the group were not up to walking back up to the craters edge and so instead we paid 50p each to ride a horse to the top. It was a fun experience riding the horse but it was also very entertaining watching the male candidates showing off to one another on their horses. They suddenly became quite competitive.   We left Wenchi Crater at about 5.30 and enjoyed a lovely sunset from our bus over some spectacular scenery. Henok then led the bus in a number of Ethiopian songs. And so our happy group bumped its way down the dirt track towards Ambo and arrived in the dark. Solomon, Ali and I decided to grab a quick macchiato in a cafe and I was quite content to go home with the thought that this had been the best day in Ethiopia so far. But it was to get even better... It turned out that it was Biranu’s Birthday. He is the colleague that has been helping me put together the bid for the BandAid grant. Biranu’s house is just behind the cafe and we were invited to join the birthday celebrations. We arrived to find a candle lit picnic in the garden. His wife performed a coffee ceremony as we ate popcorn. We then sang Happy Birthday as he cut his birthday cake. This is all a clear example of Ethiopian’s adopting western traditions. A few years ago no one bothered to celebrate birthdays (even for young children), birthdays just weren’t seen as something important. So much so that Solomon doesn’t even know his birthday. When he had to put his birthday on his passport application a few years ago he asked his Mum when he was born. She could only vaguely remember the month. So Solomon decided to chose a day that he would hopefully not forget (for the sake of the passport application) and put down the 11thSeptember (Ethiopian New Year)! After eating the birthday cake and drinking the Buna (coffee) Biranu blasted some classic Ethiopian tunes from his laptop and we all danced. I love Ethiopian Dancing! It is hilarious... the more dramatic and ridiculous you make your moves the better it seems! I really impressed them by doing the‘spinning head dance’ (as I like to call it) where you spin your head round and round at dangerous speeds! I really hope I don’t have whiplash tomorrow like I did the last time I got carried away with that dance! Every region of Ethiopia has particular dances that are typical of that area and all Ethiopians seem to know all the dances and enjoy working their way through the full range. There is something quite special about the way they are all so proud of their traditional dances and it is certainly much more entertaining watching them than the average disco dancing in the UK.   I left the party at about 8.30pm. Although early by UK standards this was the latest I have been out so far in Ambo and I didn’t want to push my luck. Plus I was super tired from an extremely busy week at work (I taught about 20 hours of lessons– most of the lecturers here teach about 12- and worked on the BandAid application) and the early get up this morning. Cherinet walked me home as I was a little nervous about walking  by myself (especially with no street lights). It turns out I needn’t have worried about the lack of lights as the full moon was so bright tonight. As we reached my door we both found out that we were in fact next door neighbours but hadn’t realised before! Soon after I got in the door my parents rang for a chat which was the perfect end to a perfect day. I was able to share my happy day with them and they were able to tell me about the trick-or-treaters that were knocking at their door.   So now... I intend to go to bed. My mind buzzing with all the events of today. I’m sure I should just be thinking about all the fun I had but instead my final thoughts are about the impacts of globalisation and cultures blending. 15 years ago Halloween was not much of an event in the UK and now it is catching up with the USA. Ethiopians never used to celebrate birthdays and now birthdays and many other celebrations (such as valentine’s day) are making their way here. Even unspoilt Wenchi Crater with no vehicles and no mobile network is seeing big changes as all the children are picking up more and more English. Thankfully not all is lost and in some ways perhaps globalisation is encouraging some identities to become stronger. Ethiopian traditional dancing is HUGE and as I write this the local Orthodox Church is marking its territory with its megaphone and getting ready for another all-nighter. I think I may just about be tired enough to sleep through this one!