Lakes and Debre Zeit

I am actually in the UK right now (only for three weeks) but I am taking the opportunity to catch up on posting blogs. I’m sorry for how crap I have been - all emails of complaint have been noted!

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I am woefully behind on these blogs! However, it is for the best possible reason - I am out and about doing interesting things! Last weekend, I went with some friends to Debre Zeit (also known as Bishoftu) to see the crater lakes that are there and to do some walking. I went with U, my Austrian friend, J who is working for UNICEF, J’s friend R and her husband G.



I’ve been to Debre Zeit before, but E and M drove me so I have never made my way there on public transport. Luckily, U was on hand to guide us all! Minibuses in Ethiopia are brilliant – they’re cheap, quite quick, reasonably safe (certainly safer than tubes after pub-closing!) and rarely overcrowded. However, it’s rare that I can work out quite where they are going – boys hang out of the window and call out the destination, but I can never tell what it is. This one was fairly easy though, and we found a minibus to take us there without too much trouble.

A brief interlude here to illustrate the fact that nothing we do in Ethiopia as Westerners goes unnoticed: R and G were running late, so we were debating whether to get on a minibus anyway, or wait for them. Sods law, of course, meant as soon as we got on one, R and G arrived. They spent a frantic few minutes at the minibus station, trying to work out which of the 100s of minibuses we were on, until they decided to ask a few people. Every single person in the bus station could tell them exactly which minibus we’d got on, where we were going and that we were about to come back to the bus station to pick up more passengers. Who needs mobile phones and GPS tracking devices in Ethiopia!

It was about an hour’s drive to Debre Zeit, and we arrived without a problem. The five of us had lunch in a hotel overlooking Lake Bishoftu, and we spent the afternoon walking around the small town and down to Lake Hora. The sun was hot, the road was dusty, small children were pointing and shouting ‘you, money, give!’ … it was definitely Ethiopia!

The crater lakes that surround the town of Debre Zeit are beautiful and peaceful. Lake Hora is probably the most accessible one, with a ‘recreation centre’ on its banks which basically means there’s a café and some rugs and pillows you can hire to lie on. However, it’s a great way to spend an hour or so; have a seat, a chai (tea) and stare out onto the water, or if you’re braver than me, you can go out on the boat for a while. Ethiopians come to the lakes to relax and chew khat, which you can also do if you would like to. We chose not to, as we think it tastes disgusting!

At around 5pm, J, R and G went back to Addis, and U and I watched the sun set over Bishoftu, deciding not to tackle any more lakes that day. We stayed at the noisiest hotel in the known world in a bed which, judging by the depression in it, had recently been vacated by a horse, and were in bed by about 8.30pm. Rock and roll!

The next day we took a gari (horse and cart) to Lake Kuriftu and Lake Bishoftu Guada (I think …). The journey was a little like a white knuckle roller coaster (although a great way to see the surrounding countryside) and I ended up having an argument with the gari driver when he suddenly changed the price half way through the journey. It’s the first time I’ve been in Ethiopia where I’ve felt ripped off and completely unable to do anything about it. So that annoyed me a bit, but the sight of Lake Kuriftu and the Kuriftu Resort and Spa soon sorted that out!

Kuriftu Spa is a frequent topic in my rant of ‘Why Ethiopia Should be a Holiday Destination’. I first visited it with S, and I almost cried when I saw it - I have honestly never been somewhere so beautiful. The rooms are like little Ethiopian cottages, and are filled with traditional furniture and paintings - but also with a flat screen TV and power-showers! – and each room has a terrace where you can sit overlooking the lake or the gardens. There is a great restaurant hovering on the lake, a swimming pool, a spa providing every treatment you can think of, and a private cinema. You can also go out on the lake in a canoe, or hire a bike and cycle around the nearby hills. The best thing is the price – when I first went, we paid £70 for the two of us, and that included one night’s stay, breakfast, free use of all the facilities, a full body massage and a facial, use of the cinema, bike hire, and a trip round the lake on a canoe.

I will post some photos of it soon, but it’s a genuinely gorgeous place, and I would quite happily fly the 9 hour flight from the UK to Ethiopia to spend a week there … and so why isn’t it being advertised in all travel agents?! Who knows. Maybe tourists simply can’t see past the media’s portrayal of Ethiopia as a famine stricken country?

So. Rant over. Maybe one day it will get the recognition it deserves – and until then I should take advantage of the fact it’s not that busy!



http://www.kurifturesortspa.com/ for any of you who want to book a holiday!!

19th September 2008

A blog actually about the orphanage!! That makes a change, doesn't it?!

You will probably have seen on the TV – and experienced yourself – the economic situation: the rise in inflation and the rise in food prices and other day to day items. I don't pretend to totally understand the situation (despite being glued to BBC World most evenings!) but I do know that the price increase has really affected the orphanage. Due to cautious use of resources over the last few years, they are not in dire straits yet, but they are starting to struggle to find money to pay the increasing costs.

Because of this, we have decided that the rest of the money we raised in the last year (around £1500) will be put towards paying rent. It leaves the Hanna's Orphanage bank account rather depleted, but we have decided that it's best that the money is helping the orphanage rather than simply sitting in our bank account 'just in case'.

So the money you've generously given will ensure that 25 children have stable homes for at least a year by paying the rent on 3 houses for the orphanage. This ensures the children have a safe place to live, and don't have to keep moving around while the orphanage looks to find cheaper places for them to stay. Also, money people have raised by running half marathons (rather them than us!) will be used to pay the rent on one house which will house children who are HIV+.

Paying rent is not exciting and it doesn't make a good picture, but it's really what the orphanage desperately needs right now. So that is what we will provide. Of course, we have brought some fun stuff too (particularly a 'swing ball set' which Colin Mckenna donated … a lot of fun putting that up at Shiro Meda!!) – for a full breakdown of what we have bought, you can see our newsletter, coming to an inbox near you soon …!!

On a happier note, plans for 'Make a Difference Day Ethiopia 2008' are underway! Make a Difference Day is run by charity CSV (www.csv.org.uk) and is one day a year where as many people as possible are encouraged to volunteer to make their communities a better place. I've brought the concept with me to Ethiopia, and 18^th October 2008 will be our Make a Difference Day!

The concept of volunteering is not big in Ethiopia, although it is arguably more a way of life than it is in the UK or America. The generosity of Ethiopian people never fails to amaze me – no matter how little someone has, they are always ready to help someone worse off than them, and they are very willing to give their time to help you.

Our Make a Difference Day will involve the children of the orphanage as well as many expats and family members I have roped in, and we will paint the orphanage's main compound, including the offices, library and classrooms. This compound is used by the orphanage children, of course, but it is also used by the local community, including many older students studying to get a place at university.

The outside of the offices will all be painted green (so I am off to the famous 'Mega Paints' Factory to buy 6 gallons of green paint next week!) and some of the boys who are studying technical drawing will design a mural to go on the classroom walls. They will draw it on with chalk, while the less artistic among us will 'colour it in' with paint. Even the babies will be able to wield a paintbrush and help!

One last thing – Hanna's Orphanage is desperate for a volunteer to help us do all our IT stuff (updating myspace, maintaining our soon-to-be-unveiled website, sending out our newsletters etc). Could you give around 2 hours a week to do it? Do you know anyone who could? If you do, please email me at honeyjenny@gmail.com, cc'ing anthonyh007@gmail.com and I will send you some more details. Thank you

18th September

I'm in the classroom at the orphanage, marking some work, complete with audience as usual (who knew my day to day life could provoke such interest!). One of the older girls ventured a question.

"Do you have a husband?"

A common question – and my answer varies depending on who's asking! But this time I told the truth. "No, no husband."

The girl thought about this and then asked, finally, with no malice at all "Is it because you are not beautiful enough?"

Yes, honey, that's probably why. Sigh.

I love this country! :o)

New Years Day

We spent most of New Years Day at B's mother's house with various aunts, uncles and cousins. B's mother is a fantastic cook and the lunch table was full of traditional Ethiopian food, including (obviously) injera, dorro watt (chicken curry), shiro, spinach etc. There was also a dish called 'doulet', which is cut up sheep's stomach mixed with … er … something else! I've tried it once before, in London, and thought it was revolting, but B persuaded me to try it again – and it wasn't too bad. Not something I'd chose for my last meal, but not too bad. The trick is to clean it well (!), apparently, but I didn't take the recipe …

Much tastier were the cakes everyone had brought with them … mmmm! Lots of people laugh when I say Ethiopia cake is fabulous, but it really is! There is nothing I like more than to sit in a café on Bole Road, drinking shai and eating cake; chocolate, lemon, black forest gateau, it doesn't matter! So, with the cakes and the dorro watt, I ate so much I could barely move, and my belly was nearly as big as E's!

Later in the afternoon I went with E and M to go to visit other relatives, and at each house we were offered food and drink again – dorro watt, injera, shiro etc etc. At one house, I had a glass of 'talla' which is a kind of home brewed beer, but I managed to avoid the alcohol at the other houses – otherwise, everyone would have been carrying me home! It's hard to refuse food and drink without being rude – and I am no stranger to packing in a lot of food! – but I felt like I was going to burst if one more piece of injera passed my lips!

Food is a very social thing in Ethiopia – often, you all eat from the same plate, and whenever you go to someone's house, or even their office, you are always offered food and drink. Ethiopian New Year, although not as religious like many other holidays and celebrations here, is mostly about eating and food – and sharing it with relatives. For a few days before New Year, progress along the roads was slow due to all the goats and sheep being herded along, and on New Year's Eve itself, I could see all the animals tied up outside houses, ready for eating for New Years Day lunch! In the same places on the road, I can now see the left over bits of those animals, the bits that didn't make the pot – intestines and skin, mostly. Lovely!

It took me quite a while to be able to face food again after our New Year Celebration, and any weight I've lost while I've been over here has been grudgingly welcomed back! There is another celebration at the end of September, which happens in Meskel Square, and I have a feeling it will be another eating holiday …

New Years Eve

Happy New Year! Yes, it's the beginning of 2001 - Ethiopia follows a different calendar to the UK, so September 10^th is Ethiopian New Years Eve and New Years Day is 11^th September. Despite having many Ethiopian friends in London, I've never celebrated Ethiopian New Year before, so I didn't know what to expect!

On New Years Eve, I went to E and M's house with Y for dinner (pay attention to this, it may become something of a theme ..) - a meal of injera (Ethiopian bread), watt (Ethiopian curry), spinach (which isn't spinach at all, but a kind of cabbage) and shiro (mashed lentils and chick peas). After dinner, we created a 'shubbo' (a fire) in the garden.

M had already made the shubbos (bundles of wood about 10 feet long, all tied together) and gave one each to Y, E and me. He then lit his shubbo from the cooking fire in the house before carrying it outside and then lighting our ones from it. M and E's caught fire without a problem, but mine took ages – apparently even fire has something against faranjis!!

The shubbos are laid down in the shape of a cross on the grass, and the fire continues to burn. According to M, it's the women who have to lead the traditional song – but E had forgotten the words (she's pregnant, she has an excuse) and obviously I was no help at all! So instead, Y put on a Lauryn Hill CD and we danced around the fire to that (there is video evidence, but hopefully it will be destroyed shortly!).

The New Year tradition is to jump over the fire three times, which M and Y did with no problem at all (with M doing a little mid air spin on the 3^rd jump, just to show off!) but I was worried about my jeans catching fire, so I waited until the flames had died down before I attempted it!

Around 11 o clock, M took us somewhere to dance the New Year in. As we drove through Addis, we could see all the shops decorated with bright lights and the streets packed with people dressed in traditional dress and twenty-somethings out to party. Every so often a firework would shoot into the night sky.

We ended up in a club called Gazebo, watching a singer called Ma Dingo, who is quite well known in Ethiopia. As we paid to get in, the heavily pregnant E barely raised an eyebrow, but of course the word 'faranji' was immediately mentioned by the door staff! It makes me tempted to start wearing a mask or something. There wasn't much dancing done by us, but there was a little count down and we all cheered in the New Year.

We tried to move onto somewhere else – this time playing English music – but by now everywhere was so packed there wasn't really enough oxygen left for us all to breathe! Eventually, we admitted defeat and went home to bed, to prepare for the eating marathon that is New Years Day!

Things I Miss

Forgive my (constant) self-indulgence, but since I did a blog post
about all the reasons I love Ethiopia, I wanted to do one about all
the things I miss in the UK. Obviously, I miss my friends and my
family, and I miss my own home, but these are the little things that I
miss having in my day to day life:

- Text messages!
That little envelope in the corner of my phone screen used to make me
smile! I love to text. Text messaging has is now available in Addis
(I believe the government 'enabled' it for the Millennium celebrations
in September 2007) but people don't use it very much as far as I can
tell. And anyway, anyone who is likely to text me is in the UK, and
it doesn't work internationally.

- The Metro
My morning routine in London was my favourite part of the day: listen
to the radio as I doze on the bus, then jump on the tube with the
Metro. Yes, it may just be a collection of press releases with no
in-depth reporting (and they did write that Ethiopia is a West African
country, which annoyed me!), but my morning wasn't complete without
it. And how am I going to know whether my day is going to be good or
bad now I can't read my horoscope?!

- Chris Moyles on Radio 1
See above! The bus journey was never the same without Comedy Dave, Aled, et al.

- Nandos
I make small involuntary mewing noises when I think of the peri peri
sauce, of chicken breast in pitta with chips, of the fat free
chocolate frozen yoghurt that we all got a sugar high from at
Miranda's birthday … mmmmm ….

- The mix of cultures
Spend a day in London and you will see people from nearly every
country you can imagine, and hear 100s of different languages spoken.
There are restaurants serving every cuisine in the world, from
Ethiopian to Chinese, to Spanish to Lebanese, and there are always a
variety of cultural events happening. The multiculturalism is
something I've always loved about London, and I miss that in Ethiopia.
Not that there aren't different nationalities in the city, there are,
but simply not to the extent that there are in London – and a
foreigner (be they black, white or otherwise) is still a source of
amusement and interest. It can get wearing after a while.

- Have I Got News for You, QI, Mock the Week, Friends etc
All those TV programmes I enjoy so much! I particularly miss the TV
channel Dave, and all the programmes on it (even Top Gear, though I'm
doing okay without that so far!), but generally I miss comedy and
satire. As you may guess, satire is not big in Ethiopia! I miss
watching a panel of comedians make comments on the week's news – even
if that week was July 27th 1998, as is sometimes the case on Dave!

- Indian food
What I wouldn't give for a chicken tikka masala with garlic nann bread
right now …! There is a very expensive, very posh Indian restaurant
in the Sheraton Hotel which I am saving for when I am feeling really,
really homesick, and the craving for curry is just too strong…

Jimma: Part 3 – the bus journey back!

I'd like to say the bus journey back was better – we knew what to
expect, we could prepare better. But no, it was much worse! We had
to be at the bus station by 4.30am. 4.30AM!!! As it was, I was awake
at 4 as my stomach was hurting and I felt sick – this did not bode
well for the journey ahead.

The Jimma bus station was not quite as busy as the one in Addis, and
we got better seats (possibly because we got there earlier) with
Anthony, Danyele and I able to sit together. The bus ceremony
continued for a good hour, while Danyele slept and Anthony and I
groaned at intervals 'come ON!', but eventually the bus pulled away.

The ride was okay – not too bumpy and we stopped a few times, just to
give some men the chance to pee in a bush and for the driver to have a
quick smoke. Danyele slept heavily, while Anthony read his book and I
leant forward onto the seat in front of me and tried to stop the
contents of my stomach exiting through my mouth. There was a lot of
yogic breathing going on!

About two hours into the journey, when the cold sweat was starting to
pour off of me, Hanna gave me a lemon to smell, to stop any feelings
of nausea. Well. One sniff of that, and I was throwing up
everywhere. Luckily I threw up into a ziplock, airtight bag in which
I'd packed our toiletries. But it had a hole!! It's supposed to be
airtight, and it had a bloody hole!!! So poor Anthony's bag got … er
…dripped on (sorry).

The rest of the journey passed fairly uneventfully, punctuated by
small vomiting sounds, and the rhythm of yogic breathing. Danyele
woke up, Anthony continued his book, and a few other women joined in
the being sick competition, except they managed to stand up and throw
up out of the window!

We stopped at the same small town for some fresh air and refreshment,
and we pleaded with the pub landlord to let us use his toilets again
(the ones at the bus station made Danyele retch as she approached them
… not a good start!). This time they weren't as clean, but there were
no goats trying to come in with us, so that was a bonus.

From this town, it is a 2 hour journey to Addis so I was really happy
we'd be home soon. Except I didn't know about the searches. Busses
that are coming back to Addis from the countryside are subject to
searches by policemen – Hanna says they are looking for big quantities
of coffee or khat which we are planning to sell in Addis without
paying taxes. Three times we had to pull over and half of the
passengers got off (I'm not sure why only half) while a policeman (or
someone) came on and had a look round. As Anthony pointed out, if
we'd wanted to smuggle something, we'd just have to NOT leave it on
the seat with a big label saying 'Smuggled Stuff'. Easy!

The last search was the big one, as Hanna warned us. We all had to
get off of the bus this time and they started going through bags etc.
After about 15 minutes some people got back on the bus, and we
followed. The policemen on the bus angrily waved the men back off the
bus, but allowed the women in to sit down and of course us (sometimes
there are advantages to being faranji!). They appeared to be giving a
Rastafarian guy quite a hard time about the khat he had, but
eventually they were satisfied and we were able to go on our way.

Because of all the stopping and searching, the two hour journey took
nearer three, and I have never been so glad to see a bus station!!
D was there to pick us up and take us back to the hotel, where we
spent a good 3 hours recovering before venturing out to dinner.

I did tell Danyele and Anthony I'd show them the 'real' Ethiopia!