This week upon my return from Addis Ababa, I discovered that most of the office was on annual leave for the rest of the week. Frustrating part of working in the boonies is lack of communication to let us know what is happening at the site.espite asking the previous week who was going to be away.
I still managed to mount one trip to Degamba to visit the Health Centre laboratory. The drive there proved quite rough with the road disappearing some times and proving in some sections inaccessible which required slight diversions.
The return trip proved even more interesting as an Ethiopian male of about 45 yrs tried to throw his gear in the back of the Nissan cab and get on while the we were still moving. Our driver Hafrom, Sayit and Sege ( MVP health workers) and myself got out and tried to remove the man and his gear from the car. Pushing and shoving led to some almost thrown punches. Things got tense as villagers flocked to restrain the man while we tried to get Haftom free to get him back to the vehicle. We finaly got on our way even with eman standing in front of the car.
Saturday proved a nice day to take a drive north to teh city of Adigrat which is about 125 km or 90 min drive over roads almost completly under construction thewhole length. The scenery is spectacular, and one forgets where you are. At about 7000 feet, Adigrat is the base for a start to the road to Axum. Adigrat is about 30 km south of the Eritrean border. In 1998-2000 Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war. The border remains closed. Adigrat is surrounded by mountains and great sceneery and look forward to getting back for some trekking, as we foun dout there are soe great treks with huts along the way.
We had lunch at the Cathlic church with the Bishop Abune Testaselassie. He had met Delphin on the plane from Addis Ababa to Mekele 4 weeks previous and invited her to visit. We had a chat about the archdiocese and what they were doing for the community. The catholic community is very small in the region.
After lunch theBishop gave us a tour of the compound, anf from abobve on teh roof of the buildin from which we had an excellent overview of Adigrat. We the visited the Italian War Cemetery, mostly unknown soldiers, from the Italian-Abyssinia war of 1936-1939. It woudl seem based on teh registration book there are 2-3 visit a month from tourists.
The Bishop put us in contact with a couple of French and Spanish ex-pats who were working the area and we later had a drink with Alex, a French ex-pat working with Caritas International on infrastructure projects.
Sunday was Meskal at the Gheralta Lodge with about 150 invited guests including priests from thesurrounding churches. September 26 i steh eve of Meskal and is a feats commerating the Finding of the True Cross. http://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/articles/articles/focus%20electronic-00/ermias%20gulilat%20-%201.htm. At the Lodge there were speeches, lunch and then singing and dancing.
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