back to the bush

After a mere 24 hours back in Sudan, Ethiopia already feels light years away. For about an hour I was excited to be back here, happily waving to funny, excitable kids and ladies and goats as we made our parade back into town after a week away. Said excitement faded quite quickly with the news of my grandfather, the (initially) broken generator, today’s rain, irritating co-workers, spotty internet, failed project implementation in our absence, etc etc etc.

The Ethiopian respite ended in a funny fashion as well. Given our arrival mode and timing of travel – overland from Sudan with a local/domestic flight from the town of Gambella into Addis last Sunday evening (when immigration was essentially shut down) – I had some trouble securing a visa. After four days in country an Ethiopian colleague finally agreed it was important for me to get some legal documentation of my presence and took me to the immigration office in downtown Addis. We entered separately; he referred to this as Ethiopian gender sensitivity, haha! We waited in one long line and spoke to one irritated woman. We waited in a second long line, yielding the same results: scribbled Amharic across the back of my visa application, jammed into my full passport (note, must add pages, ASAP). We were shuffled off to the head of immigration, who shouted that he couldn’t believe our story and how could he know that we had in fact asked immigration for visas upon our arrival to Bole International Airport, but had been shooed away. Then he declared our options were detention or deportation (all of this was in Amharic, for the record). We scuffled quickly to the Africa Area office of Save the Children and were told that given Ethiopian sensitivity to these matters the best thing would be to send me (and one other – out of 25 of us - in a similar situation) back to Sudan overland – a three day trip - ASAP, in an SC vehicle.

While a little disturbing, this prickly situation proved to be a relatively great chance to see the resplendently beautiful countryside of Ethiopia. Our driver Salomon turned out to be a former tourist guide and avid bird-watcher – who was accordingly stoked to learn and supportive of my secret bird-nerd/ornithologist streak – and thus gave us key insights into the different towns and areas we passed through on our 800 km journey westward.

I really, really liked Ethiopia. Nearly everyone in the country is gorgeous. As a visitor it’s incredibly cheap - definitely the least expensive country I've ever been to. The roads are beautifully paved. Eating with your hands, and accordingly playing with your food, is obligatory. Addis is cool and breezy and the rains aren't accompanied by a trace of humidity.

It was hard to feel the destituteness and despair within this country, the only African nation boasting a colonialism-free history, but more renowned for starving, fly-swarmed children. Maybe the month in Sudan has hardened me; coming back here makes me wonder if there is anywhere in this world backwards and stuck as South Sudan. For the mean time, I hope you enjoy these pictures of my trip.