Addis Ababa, and the new, old home of the Rastafarians
The arrival in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, is, as might be expected to be, only a time marked by chaos and traffic jams. Luckily I have the map of Addis in my GPS, and thus take the lead. Normally I go into cities behind the guys, since it is much easier to follow their car on my bike than vice versa. Ryan has once again identified via the Internet platform www.couchsurfing.com a night's lodging for the next few nights. Korina from Belgium - she works at a school as an English teacher - and her friend Mika who works as an independent search engine optimizers take us warmly into their home and will be our guides in the next few days.
We have a lot to do in Addis. For me it is to get in contact with Flavio from www.africaridinngadventures.com, work on the website and to find the DHL Shop, Klaus sent my tyres to. Even a DHL Shop is found quickly, but it's Saturday and it is already closed. I still meet Retta who works here. He gives me his business card and invited me for Monday morning for a coffee in his office. The real problem is then to maintain our websites. We make our way to Bole, a district in which the best Internet connections are to be found. We can find internet cafes with a promising advertising such as 3MBit Fastline. But unfortunately it feels when surfing, as if the whole city is on its way to this 3Mbit line. We spend 4 hours in the bar but refuse to pay the entire sum, because we really were offline most of the time. After tough negotiations, we will pay each about 30% of the required price. Thus, the subject of Internet in Ethiopia is then dealt with only once.
On Monday morning, then I am also on time at 8:30 in front of the DHL Shop. And it's even open ;-) But unfortunately, the young ladies in the shop can not do anything with my tracking number . Several times they try to call the DHL headquarters to locate my package. Without success. Around 9:30 then Retta arrives and it turns out that he is not only working here. He leads the DHL Store, as well as a travel agency and a Europcar office. But he does not know anything about my parcel, too. It's me to come up with the idea of a look at the German DHL website - which will be presented from abroad in English. And my package is on its way. I do not know when it arrives, but with today's date of 22.2. it is on its way. I went on and deliver my motorcycle to Flavio before we leave Addis for the next few days.
Together with the ethiopian girl Nigisti we are, all together in the Land Cruiser, on the road heading south. We met her in Gondar. She leads a home for orphant and street children, which she founded in 2001 at the age of 20 years. Much of the necessary funding comes as donations from Belgium, but also the local community supports them eagerly.
Our first destination is the town of Shashemene, which is considered home of the Rastafarians in Africa. The route is too long for a day, so we stay at Lake Langano. The Land Cruiser is less than 10 meters from the water and we can enjoy a beautiful sunset. How guys are like that, we start throwing stones into the water. But the pieces do not go under. There is lava, which is included in as much air to drive the stones on the surface. Somehow looks at funny if suddenly driven across rocks in the lake. Of course, we again have many viewers on rising. Really every move is monitored by the locals with great interest. Have they never seen anyone washing his hair in the lakeß Since we know nothing about the water, we can not go swimming. So I wask my hair by kneeing in the water. Longer hair will eventually be maintained. OK, I admit that the comic might have looked in their entirety.
In Shashemene we are warmly welcomed by Mauris. His parents have moved over 30 years ago from Jamaica. They live in a large community and maintain their faith. They operate their own schools and a religious center and give other newly arrived Jamaicans a home. It leaves us no choice but to take a lunch in their vineyards to us. Maurice Mum prepares fresh fish with spicy rice. It tastes wonderful. Then We visit the community school. Within a minute we are surrounded by children. On each of my arms hang 5 children. But none of begging. The director takes us around. The tour of the classrooms on the first floor proves to be difficult as something that the children are still dependent on my arms.
We leave Maurice and his family and take our way over to Sodo and Lake Abaya. Again we find a nice place to sleep directly on the lake. And of course the locals observer. We light a small campfire and suddenly the fire is much more interesting than we are. All the locals sit by the fire and stars, as well as we, in the fire and enjoy the approaching over the lake overnight. It was late when we climbed into the rooftents of the Land Cruisers and fall asleep with a calming sound of the waves.