Travelogue: Day 4, Lalibela to M’kele

It was hard to say good-bye to Lalibela. After all, everyone enjoyed the tour day of the stone churches and the hotel was given high marks by my family. But now another travel day was before us and no one in my family was looking forward to it (I was ok with it but then I was going to be driving). It was another 7 hours of driving with more of the same; the same scenery (spectacular), same roads, same dust, same weather . . . and of course no roadside rests or nice restaurants to stop at along the way. So once again the girls talked about the sheer cliffs on our right or left (with no guard rails) and shivered at the thought of the drop off. I knew I needed to concentrate in order to not make a mistake. Going down, going up, shifting up, shifting down, constant curves and switchbacks. The only thing that made the driving nice was the absence of other vehicles. I counted around 6 vehicles that came toward me on the open road over the entire time. There were still people and animals to contest with but they were fewer as well.

And so we drove through to M’kele. There was the incident of Sophia getting sick but other than that the girls did great the whole time. I played Keith Green music and the girls mostly slept after a rowdy start. We had the windows down but as we wended our way from the mountains to the desert floor the temperature rose to 34c (about 90F). The air flowing through the car prevented further car sickness for a while but finally we needed cool air and we closed things up and turned on the a/c. The girls became restless and we did the times tables with them (one of our summer goals). They also did the, “I went camping and I took . . .” game and got all the way to Z. Once again we didn’t have a meal until we got to M’kele.

Finally the road came out onto a plain and I could drive faster. By then we all needed out of the Land Cruiser. As we came over one final hill there was M’kele, a wonderful sight to see. We found our way to the main road, it was nice to see a paved road again after 7 hours. M’kele is one of a handful of rare modern cities in Ethiopia that was designed by a future looking individual (nephew of the last emperor, Haile Selassie). Along with Awassa and Bahir Dar, the city has wide city streets and sidewalks and it laid out like a grid. The most important thing, however, is that the city planners have followed his plan (not like in Addis) and the result is quite impressive. A beautiful downtown and a city that has both palm trees and trees of the highlands.

We found our friend, Berhan, and she invited us to her home where we enjoyed her hospitality. She is the founder of the ‘Anna Hofer orphan village’ which takes orphan children and places them in foster homes (sometimes with immediate family) and pays a stipend to the family to keep the children in food, clothing and school. The project is an MCC Winnipeg ‘Constituent Initiated Project’ (CIP) which means it was begun by constituents of MCC and MCC administers it.

We didn’t see the project, it was enough to get here and go to our hotel on Thursday. Friday morning we shall see the project offices and meet the children that benefit from this program. In the meantime we once again found ourselves quite ready for bed in the Milano Hotel. A nice hotel as you look at it from the outside, but with its own quirks. Our room smelled of sewage but the clerk assured us that the smell would go away when we opened the windows and doors. Ok, the smell did go. But then the loud live music downstairs began after dark and the EuroCup 2008 commentary was played on the loudspeakers down below as well so we closed the sliding glass balcony door. Bad idea. The smell returned. So we left it open all night and eventually everything quieted down. And that wasn’t all. All the doors had a crazy lock that needed one to exert much pressure to open. I had never seen such a lock before and I hope I never will again. To my embarrassment I had to ask the desk clerk to come and open our door at one point.

But the restaurant was the worst. Both supper and breakfast we had the same waiter who smiled and assured us that he would take our orders without pen and pad. He got the orders in English and Amharic (Mekonnen made the orders clear) but each time he screwed up royally. Forgetting some things, bringing the wrong dishes to the table, never delivering on certain requests. We were ready to forgive and forget the evening meal because it was busy with lots of people. But then in the morning we were the only guests for breakfast and he made even worse mistakes. Even Mekonnen, a man of patience, was finally fed up with him and berated him in Amharic (wish I could have understood). It didn’t seem to faze him. He didn’t get it up to the very end. *sigh*

So, Friday is half MCC orientation and half day travel. The wheels just keep rolling . . .