Back to basics - from Harar to Meskel

The last couple of weeks have been interesting with highs and lows at Millenium. Submitted my final report and went off to Harar and Addis Ababa for a tour and Meskel celebrations respectively. My visit to Addis Ababa was in fact driven by a meeting at EHNRI, the key institute which drives health based programmes and oversees the hospital laboratories programmes.

The trip to Addis was as usual uneventful, picked at Bole airport and to Harmony Hotel. Saturday morning got to the airport early for the flight to Harar, or in actual fact to Dire Dawa which is about 100 km west of Harar. Harar is in eastern Ethiopia, about 90% Muslim and a 1000 year history. Harar is not too far (<100 km) from Somaliland.

We were met at the airport by Binama in an old Peugeot station wagon (nearly all taxis in the region were old Peugeot's). The fact that it had no door or window handles, a bare metal floor, no workable gauges and a windscreen that one had to bend over to see through filled us with expectations. Well driving through the mountains and down to Harar  was an interesting sight, through many towns and occasional breath taking scenes.

The hotel in Harar was the Heritage Plaza, a 6 year old hotel, which had somewhat shabby rooms that had not really been maintained. The reception were very nice, and after check in had organised a tour with a recommended guide called Hamdi ( unlicensed but still knew what he was doing). The old city of  Harar celebrated about 1000 years in 2010, and judging by pictures and photos from 19th century had not chnage dmuch in the last 100 years. nevertheless wandering around the old city to see churches and mosques was intriguing. Everywhere were street markets and stalls. I wandered through the spice market , a rich aroma of smells. I had the opportunity to visit, the Hailie Selassie, house, Arthur Rimbaud (a famous French poet) house when he lived for a short time at the end of the 19th century. Visits to the only remaining blacksmith and to a coffee making house and to the khat market highlighted a great afternoon of enjoying Harari culture.

Apart from the old city, Harar is also famous for Khat, a mild narcotic containing plant, the inhabitants are constantly chewing on, and the feeding of hyensa at sunset.

The feeding of hyenas take splace just outside the old city walls. The hyenas, numbering about 6, are in fact doemsticated and fed well so that they will not likely attack. There are  2 feeding group shows, one being about 89 years old and the other about 10 years old. There are 1-2 feedings per evening depending on the number of tourists. The feeder entices the hyenas with meat by calling their names. Tourists can also feed the hyenas by holding a stick with meat on the end of it. For 100 birr per person it was interesting and all over in less than 15 min. I must say it was interesting and exciting.

The return trip from Harar to Dire Dawa was almost a non-event, when our car ran out of fuel as it was heading out of Hara. Luckily we rolled backwards into a gas station to fill up. In Dire Dawa we passed by the old railway station of the Addis Ababa - Dijbouti line.
After returning from Harar on Sundat aftrenoon, we had dinner and went to  firenje/habesha club - Club Alize in Addis Ababa -  Acoustic blues/jazz in english and amharic. Munit and Jorg, an Ethiopian - German duo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DPaYVtN-RE.

As the rainy season is coming to an end this month, the Ethiopian highlands are starting to fill with a yellow daisy known as the Meskel flower. The Meskel holiday itself is an annual Ethiopian Orthodox religious holiday commemorating the discovery of the True Cross, which occurs on the 17 Meskerem (the first month in the Ethiopian calendar). The Meskel celebration involved burning of a very .large bonfire, which is connected to the belief that it was the smoke from a large fire that led to the discovery of the True Cross. The bonfire celebration took place the evening before the Meskel holiday day (Tuesday, September 27 this year), and we attended the large gathering in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa.

On the feast day this  year, people from all over the world, but mostly Ethiopians,  gathered in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa for festivities. There was singing, dancing and cheering throughout the afternoon and into the evening that day. Singing and dancing was led by Sunday School students from different schools in Addis Ababa who marched into Meskel Sqaure and then preformed various dances . A huge bonfire was lit at sunset.  It was also the coldest and wettest day that I've experienced thus far in Ethiopia. Approximately 200,000 people were there that day to celebrate.

Reflecting on the past few weeks - I came to Ethiopia with a project outline and no expectations. Ups and downs of the culture, language barrier and bureacracy have challenged me, but the thing that I enjoy is getting out in the field meeting the people in the health clinic labs that I am supporting. Providing advice because they think I know something as I am not ethiopian and to be thanked is reward in itself. Still, no expectations works for me. The travels to Addis Ababa, to Harar to villages whose names I dont recall makes me see what differences and similarities we have in Australian society and Ethiopian. the blatant poverty and poor people of thiscountry and what they do to make a birr or $ shows we are no different - just trying to survive.

This week I started to learn Tigrinya. When you are in a new country, in a region where your native language is not spoken ie. English, best to take the plunge and learn the local langauge, even if it is a local dialect. In Ethiopia there are some 80 languages of which Amharic is the major one, while locally you have a choice. Here in Tigray, Tigrinya is spoken. It uses the same 250 or so letters as Amharic, but the words differ. I like the word Kidu, it scares off the kids who are constantly bugging us for money, pens and to have a laugh at us.

A week of contrasts

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.

Happy New Year

With my first report draft submitted I headed to Addis Ababa on Friday 9 September. A 2.5 hr drive to Mekele and then a 1 hr flight to Addis Ababa and finally a taxi ride to the hotel. The Harmony Hotel is a popular hotel for short term visitors and close to the Bole International  airport.

Without waiting too long I headed to the supermarket for some essentials, that I had been missing in Hawzen. Cheese, tuna and chips.

That evening we went to the Top View restaraunt just off the ring road - nice food with a great night and day time view of the city.

Saturday was a bit laid back as sometimes it can be as plans for a hike turned into nought. We then went to the Ethnography Museum of Ethiopia at the University of Addis Ababa  (http://www.addisculturetourism.gov.et/en/tourism-research-addis-ababa-ethiopia-3/item/110-ethnographic-museum-content.html ). Not enough time of 1 hr as we started to be edged out after only 30 min with the museum looking to close earlier than advertised.

Another great evening meal and show at Jazzeemba, a new jazz  club and as we found out other types of music. The  club is located at the oldest hotel in Ethiopia, Taitu. Rather than jazz, we came in to listen to 80's retro in English and possibly Amharic. Difficult to tell with so many languages but I am learning to differentiate music styles and associated ethnic styles. The night was still young so we went to a night club near the hotel and listened to Kenny Allen and the 251 Band  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5GXrcn-L18) . Kenny Allen is a Washington DC native who has been in Addis Ababa for 6 years and playing western and ethiopian music with different people before putting his band together.

Sunday was a brigfht day, New Years eve. The GSK folks based here got together to visit  Entoto, a village with 2 churches and a palace on the highest mountain close to Addis Ababa. At 10,000 feet it is another level of endurance and breathing effort. But having been at 5,000 feet for the past 3 weeks I am in better shape to cope. As we drove up we saw herds of sheep coming from the rural villages to be sold for New Years eve dinners. As well, women and donkeys were bringing large amounts of wood down for bonfires that night.

The palace of  Emperor Menelik overlooks the city of Addis Ababa through a forest of eucalypts. This is where he was born. The church in frotn was built to comemerate his birth place. The churches and palace were intersting. A second church was a further 5 km along the road and was a rock hewn church which was later replaced by a stand alone church. This church had beautiful paintings of biblical scenes.

In th evening we went to Yod Abyssinia, a cultural restraunt of which there are many in Addis Ababa. Music, song and dance from the different regions of Ethiopia in a program of just over 3 hrs was enjoyed. Despite it being a show it did demonstrate the vibrance of Ethiopian culture.

One of the MVP girls from Addis Ababa office then took us to the Ethiomillenium nightclub for the ethiopian version of a night club/disco. All music was ethiopian and the dancing was very much the shoulder dancing style. Men dancing with men and few couples on the floor. Again very friendly people for us 5 ferenjes in this night club.

Ironically New Year came and went without a countdown to midnight nor even a comment from the DJ. It took us 5 ferenjes to scream out Happy New Year and even then we were not noticed.

New Years Day 2004, found me  tired and packing for the trip back to Hawzen. The flight back was uneventful, but landed to have our colleague Mullo meet us, take us to the Axum hotel and then to his wifes' sisters' house. The house was about a 30 min walk from the hotel through the back streets of Mekele and past the market. The streets of Mekele are slowly being transformed in to cobbled pavements and not the usual mud dirt tracks.

So we ate lamb BBQ, injerra and a few beers. I guss I m anot a fan of the injerra and various spicey dishes that come with it.  But the company was great. Meeting Mullo, his wife and their 2 children ass well as his relatives. Language as usual was a challenge as Mullo was the only one to speak English.

The following day a visit to the Regional Laboratory at Ayder Hospital in Mekele for my project and then a drive back to Hawzen. Ethiopian New Year was a blast.

The human condition

Today as I was leaving Koraro Health Centre we were asked to transport a pregnant woman back to Hawzen. Koraro is one of the remotest villages in the Millenium project village cluster, 30 km from Hawzen by gravel road. In relative terms not that far but with no transport people are reliant  on the one or two mini-buses and occasional cars per day, otherwise it is a long walk to Hawzen. the woman had been pregnant with twins, had given birth at home to one but not the other, no fetal heartbeat was detected by the time she arrived at the Health Centre.

We helped  the woman and 3 relatives into the back of the Nissan cab vehicle, an umbrella held over her head to shield her from the sun and slowly drove the 30 km over gravel road to Hawzen Health Center/Hospital. I dont know the outcome but hope she is well.

Finding a saint

Today was another fine start. We left in a 4WD to head via Megab and Degum to Wukro to visit a Spanish priest who had set up a school for orphans and an agricultural school at Wukro. Father Angel. Passing through Megab and Degum we had a view again of village lifestyles on a Sunday morning,

The drive took us past 2 rock hewn churches at Mikael Minda and Abreha We Atsbeha, about 17 km and 21 km from Megab on the road to Wukro. Both churches were in a rich green valley with beautiful views. Only Abreha We Atsbeha was opened by the priest for 100 birr and then to see the museum for another 50 birr. I must say it was quite interestinto see the rock paintings, clearer than othe rchurches I had seen.

The arrival in Wukro at the Wukro Agriculture College was quick enough as we proceeded through town and finally arrived at the College to be greeted by Father Angel and 2 visiting British optometrists. We were shown around the complex, seeing the large orchards and fields of fruit, salad and vegetables, heow shed fro milk, dorm accomodation, a communal dining room -the site reminded me of a kibbutz. About 15 Spanish volunteers were on site to help withe operations and withe te children. On average they were there for about 2-4 weeks. But I had the impression they did not go often into the town. We were able to speak to Father Angel over lunch, but as usual with the spanish,  a siesta was required. after lunch.

Leaving Wukro we visited Wukros Chikos church, A some what delapidated church, with beggars and children pestering us. But it had a rich history of some 1400 years.

Up he road to Sinkata we had decided to visit the Adi Chewa Arbuti Insesa church just outside Sinakat. We could see the  church,  the rock cliffe wall from the road as it had a distinctive blue cross on its door. However, due to roadworks around Sinkata we had some diffciulty finding a way to it. We finally got within 1.5 km after running out of gravel track, and proceeded to be led /accompanied by about 5 children, that grew to about 12 by the time we reached the church. The walk through fields and past a waterfall and creek and squalking of a large beak billed bird, we climbed the 100 m or so of stairs to the cliff ledge. Howver, as usual no priest and no key to enter.

A week is a long way to walk

Its been a week packed with exciting and frustrating activities. Last Monday, I  finally started my assignment proper visiting the Hawzen Health Centre Laboartory to review their procedures and facilities. An eye opener into laboratory design, infrastructure, operations and making do with what you have with limited budget.

Tuesday and Wedensday were lost but for a good cause. Went with Delphine (the other GSK Volunteer here) to Mekele to the George Markos clinic to get her stomach ailment checked out. The ride to Mekele was with Yanis, my Earth Institute, Columbia University manager who returned to US on Tuesday. We found the clinic and then our hotel as we needed to stay the night for the tests to be complete.

The clinic was dark, no lights and the laboartory operated under candle power. The day was the end of Ramadan so was in fact a holiday. The clinic was due to open about 4pm, with first patients seen by about 5 pm. Pathology was slow for a number of reasons and so Delphine had to return the following day for further tests. Luckily all turned out to be OK with no parasites, but results from a candle powered lab makes me think quality is an issue.

The short stay enabled us to see abit of Mekele as best as it could be done under the circumstances. A walk around the market showed te typical food and house hold products as well as live animals for sale.

A delayed pick up by a MVP car taking Safa (Columbia PhD student looking at oral health at MVP) enabled us to get back to Hawzen by 4pm.

Thursday turned out to e a great day in the laboarory at Megab where I looked at the laboratory procedures and systems. Limited diagnostics capabilities and no Quality Control and a technician who had taken only 18 days of annual leave in 10 years made her role that more admirable.

On Friday back to Hawzen laboratory for another visit as the organisation of cars, despite being prebooked did not happen and enable a return visit to Megab.

At Gheralta you meet intersting people. Yohaniis a German living in Brazil and in Ethiopia for a climate audit went off for 4 days trekking in the mountains with a guide and 2 donekys, and then a few days later we hear from another traveller Chris who worked for Accenture and who had been a volunteer with Catholic Relief in Kenya, had been a on a 2 day trip with Yohannis in the  Danikil. Or the British diplomat or the American who was part of the US delegation to the African Union or the German professor who was Dean of Engineerng at an Ethiopian University. travellers passing through, repeating your story...to every traveller.

Saturday aarrived and we decided to walk the 9 km from Hawzen to Megab, a down hill walk most of the way. The walk in the morning took us almost 2 hrs. Along the way we met with various people walking to or from Megab. Language was a barrier in taling with anyone an dteh call sof ferenje and waves from kids gave some reality that we were in Ethiopia. I still see so many eucalypts I often feel at home in Australia. A limited number of cars or trucks passing, showed that it is tough to get around in the rural areas. Prior to arriving in Megab, a photograph of 2 camels and their drivers left me with abuse and almost a stick beating from one of the drivers. Luckily were accompanied by other travellers who chased him off.

Arriving in Megab we were greeted by ferenje calls and guides wanting to take to churches we had already seen. I wanted to catch up withe the heafd of teh health cenmtere but he had gone to Hawzen.

A walk around the market where everything and anything was on sale in the open, a drink and then we were on the road back to Hawzen.

More churches and a home invitation

The plan for today was to visit 4 churches, Petris, Paulo, Mikael Melehayzenghi and Medhane Alem Adi Kasho all located to the east of  the Wukro - Sinkata road. Delphine coulnt make it due to stomach bug, so Yanis and I walked thogh the town to the office to see where the MVP driver was who would be taking us. At the office was Day 3 of training for Community Health  Workers on Child Count.

W attended for a few minutes the session and were introduced by Dr Aregawe. The attendees were about 40  women , some with babies breastfeeding during the class.

Brook came in and we headed off to the churches in the Sinkat area. Along the way we saw a couple of MVP projects - a water hole and reservoir.

Arriving at the first church Petros we had to walk up a hill and then  climb about 30 m up a rickety old wooden ladder arrangement attached to the vertical cliff. reaching the top we had to wait for the priest to come and unlock the door. Once we paid our fee, he unlocked the door and we entered. The church was about 1400 y but I have my doubts about Ethiopian measurement of time. The rock walls were covered in paintings that looked not more than a few hundred years compared to Maryam Korkor, that we visited the day before.. We then descended and visited the nearby Paulos church which had similar paintings.

We then drove about 2 km to the Mikael Melehayzenghi  church where again after a short hike up a hill we found a rock hewn church opened by another priest. Inside we found some very clear rock wall paintings of saints and biblical scenes. The priest took out a bible written in the ancient language of Geez and which also had some very clear paintings of saints on the inside cover.

Driving onto th next church,  Medhane Alem Adi Kasho, a further 3 km, I was stunned by the rural setting and people, especially the kids. The kids and older people were in dirty shredded rags and up close looked like they rarely washed themselves. With such poor infrastructure, so many people, and a challenging environment the contrast to our industrial society is marked.

In the afternoon we headed back to Hawzen negotiating some flooded roads and a causeway from the heavy rains over the Hawzen area, about an hour earlier, We had been invited to Brooks house for lunch and coffee (buna). We picked up Delpine from the lodge. Brook lives not too far from the office. His wife Tua and girls Belin and Mahalit were there. Lunch was lentils and salad with injera and bread, followed by coffee. Brook's english is limited so it was challenging to talk but we managed.

Brooks house is within a set of  3 houses in a long concrete building each with 1-2 rooms. Brooks house has 2 rooms, a combination lounge/dining room and kitchen/bedroom.

I was impressed with what he had done with his home. he had moved his family from Addis Ababa to take thsi job with MVP for the next  few years.