From Harer to Djibouti

The last part of my ethiopia-journey lead me to the Afar region. The most exciting place to visit there is Erta Ale, the world`s only lava lake, but as there were some kidnappings in the last time I better stayed in a safer area around Assaita, the biggest Afar city. There the Awash river, bringing all the liquid waste from Addis Abeba, flows through several lakes untill he ends in the Afambo lake.

Assaita and the settlements along the Djibouti road host a large amharic population. Most of them came here to serve the hungry and tired truck drivers with restaurants and hotels (it`s probably the most frequented road of Ethiopia, as it`s the main connection of the contry to the ports of the world). But I was told that there is no conflict between the two ethnics, they (the Afar) rather have occasional clashes with the Issa, a somali tribe.

The backbone of the Afar is, of course, livestock, and in some areas salt plantation. Agriculture is only possible along the marshlands of Awash.

From the tourist office in Samara (it`s the regional capital but only consists of a cluster of administrational buidlings, very strange settlement) I took an official guide and a permission to go to the Afambo lake. From there I joined a camel caravan for a 3 day walk through empty desert untill Dikhil in Djibouti. It was a nice experience to see the caravan` s daily life but I wouldn`t recommend this tour to others, because the landscape after the lakes is very boring (only lava stones and, sometimes, an acacia tree) and the border crossing was illegal, so i had to go by truck from Dikhil to the border post in order to get my exit and visa stamps. Along some 100 km we (me and the caravan) didn`t encounter any settlements (except some stone cairns which protected us from the nightly desert storms) and no water, and as they fetched their water from the Afambo lake, I didn`t have any other choice than to drink the infamous "Addis Abeba water".

From the border it wasn't far to the capitol and main port, also called Djibouti. Like the Afar region in Ethiopia, Djibouti is mainly inhabitated by Afar and Issa, but in addition to their own languages and french (Djibouti is francophone) most of them speak also arabic and some amharic, which often leads to trilingual dialogues when I get in touch with them. Of course one also meets a lot of arab traders and, easily to indentify by their tough haircut and chunky bodies, american and french soldiers from the nearby military bases.

Since I left Harer I wear a Imama (turban) to protect my head from the heat, and I'm getting tired to explain that I'm no muslim. Just yesterday some bored policemen disturbed me half an hour with stupid question because I confused them (Atheist, austrian name and passport, looks like a muslim, speaks arabic...)

Harer

I seperated in peace from the "new flower" (Addis Abeba translated to english)and fell in love with Harer at first sight. It's the only city in Ethiopia with a real old town. It has it's very own style of houses (especially the sitting plateaus inside), and even it's own language, only spoken inside Jogul, the old wall embracing it. Harari is a mix of arabic, amharic, oromo, somali and many other languages.

Also the harari folk songs are a refreshing alternate, they sound quite arabic. Regrettably I didn't find any live performance at this time, only bought some records, contrary to it's amharic counterparts in Lalibela and Addis, performed in a so called "asmari bet" , some kind of traditional night club (I forgot to mention it in the previous entries). Eventually I master the amharic "skisa" - dance, which is best described with joggling one's shoulders, to some extent.

Harer is an old trading city. The most important product sold here is Khat, a narcotic leaf, the nr.1 drug in Yemen, Somalia and some parts of Ethiopia. I tried it before several times in Yemen and Ethiopia, but I couldn't get used to it's bitter taste, and also couldn't feel any stimualtion. Unfortunetly the surrounding of harer is covered by a sea of blue plastic inwhich the khat is sold.

Now I stayed here for 5 days, including a day trip to Babile (1 hour by bus from harer), where I took a walk through an amazing stone forest, only angered by the cactus alongside the overgrown paths. Though I really like it here and found some new friends again, I'm quite disappointed now about my soon ending stay in Ethiopia. Within 2 months I couldn't find a place in the rural areas to integrate into the farmer's daily life, like I hoped to do. I've always been always a visitor and most acquaintances were rather cursory.But I'm still far away from feeling homesick.

From Lalibela to Addis

From Lalibela to Addis

Since friday i'm in Addis Abeba. I reached Korem after a 2 days trek and 1 day by bus, and stayed there 2 days , including a visit to the beautiful Ashange mountain lake. Then I still tried to make a trip to the nearby Afar Region in the east and sacrificied 2 days with running from one local authority to the other to get a permission, but without any success. The Afar nomads are known to be very hostile not only for "farenji" (white men like me) but also for other ethiopian ethnics. So it would have been nessecary to take a guide from their tribe in order not to be abducted or even killed. Their homeland is the hottest area in Ethiopia, flat pastoral land, interrupted by many extinct and active volcanoes and salt lakes, very different from the highland. Maybe I'll try it again from their regional capital Samara, when I'm on the way to Djibouti.

Here in Addis I stay with some Somali friend's friends, refugees from Mogadischu who are waiting for their visa to follow their relatives in Austria or other western countries. The Djibouti Visa is also the only reason why i still didn't leave this monster city, mainly consisting of corrugated iron buildings and shopping malls next to each other, without any single park or other alternations. I should get the visa tomorrow, then i'll go to Harer , a historical islamic trading city, most probably better worth seeing. It's only 2 hours (in Ethiopia a ridiculous distance) from Jijiga, the capital of Somali Regional State, which i have to avoid in order not to get into the same situation like in the new year, as there is still a long lasting guerilla war in it's hinterland.

I still have problems loading the pictures, it would simply take days (without sleeping) untill I've loaded all important images. Maybe in Djibouti it's better. Also I cannot open my blog here in Ethiopia, (seems to be censored by the government) and I have to mail the texts of the entries to my sister in austria.