Thursday, November 10, 2011

The contrast

I'm cold. I haven't been cold in months, at least not this cold....it's pleasant. I'm not sweating. I'm in Addis, the capital city, and compared to Mattar, chaos rules here. I am on my 3 month break from work and I got a massage yesterday and will get another one today....she said, "I am doing this place (my shoulders and neck) hard because it is very thick" .....I think she meant tight...and yeah.
Tomorrow I go to Lalibela, where there are churches carved out of stone. Apparently about 1000 years ago a man who was poisoned was taken to, not one but three (who knew?) heavens by angels and shown a city of rock hewn churches. He was then instructed by God to return to earth and duplicate what he had seen...building a new Jerusalem. This vision of heaven still exists today, however, someone cut out the pages of the guidebook description, so I am going to see for myself.

The boat ride and drive to Gambella from Mattar took 5 hours....we hit a huge rainstorm, thunder and lightening and torrential rain. The road turned into a river....literally and quite impressive. But the boat ride and the drive are the best. That area is teeming with so many birds, pelicans, egrets,storks,herons,hawks, eagles,doves,bee-eaters....aaannnddd we saw baboons, monkeys, some kind of antelope and a serval cat. then a two day drive from Gambella to Addis along zigzag roads through eucalyptus forests, across open high valleys blanketed with soft,waving fields of teff...the grain used to make injera (traditional and delicious) huge flat spongy bread, a staple in Ethiopians diet.
The trip could have easily been made in one day but for the fact that vehicles are not the only occupants of the roadways.....people...walking, standing visiting, sitting, with little regard for traffic, horse drawn carts, sheep,goats,donkeys, cattle, dogs, all view the road as theirs.
Addis is a mass of cars, minibuses,trucks, with people everywhere. With the road washed out to Mattar, we have one of the few vehicles, but on any given day there, there might be 10 total.
Right now I am heading out to go shopping for a pair of pants. I only brought three and one pair is scrubs, which I wear every day working and refuse to wear while on break. Next mission I will disregard the "advice" given by an "experienced" MSF person who said they only brought one pair of scrubs and three T-shirts on their mission. I thought I was being extravagant bring 4 T-shirts and 3pairs of pants! Thankfully I didn't pay any attention to the number of underwear they suggested:)

Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post pictures....soon.

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