We left Pagak on Saturday, ferrying two quadbikes (all terrain vehicles/ATVs) from our compound, across the Ethiopian border and 25 kilometers through sparsely populated forest and bushland to reach Kuergeng. In this small border town – a place that seemed bustling compared to Pagak – the four of us mused how "everything is better than Pagak!" while taking a liquid lunch and waiting for the others to reach us and our hardtop vehicle that is kept by the local authorities for our exclusive purposes of driving in the far western areas of Ethiopia. So, yes, now I can say my first stop in Ethiopia was to a mud jail – where I watched all the police officers bucket bathe in the scorching sun, haha!
We stayed overnight in Gambella, all of us taking great enjoyment of simply being out of Sudan, all of us acknowledging that Pagak is Hell (attn mom – it's not just me complaining!), before traveling on Ethiopian airlines on Sunday into Addis Ababa. Shared concern about our accommodation at the "International Livestock Research Institute" left Bret and me cracking jokes about sleeping with goats and chickens, but we were so far off. It is beautiful here – and in Addis, generally – with resplendent gardens, English speaking support staff, good restaurant, tennis courts, and interesting expatriates lingering at the Zebu Lounge nightly. Over a few Vodka/tonics, I chatted with a Norwegian-raised-in-Kenya fellow, the regional coordinator of a large water research group, whose work has stationed him all over the globe. Aside from his good looks and daily presence at the bar, what really stuck with me was his comment concerning life in the stable west versus working in these challenging places we find ourselves in: "There is too much of the world to see, what reason do we have to live somewhere boring?"
1 comment:
Okay, for real. Re. Pagak being Hell. I have spent nearly half my life in Africa (Liberia, Rwanda, mostly) and three months in Southern Sudan last year almost broke me. Not kidding. That is some tough world you have going on there. The good news is that if you can survive there, you can survive almost literally any living conditions. Plus it makes for a great rant for YEARS after you come back. "Oh, yeah? Well, when I was in 105 degree heat in the cool season in Southern Sudan using a pit latrine that was too hot to go into during the day because it was made of corrugated metal and hearing gunshots every night and experiencing chronic stomach problems and being chewed by mosquitoes that bit me through my jeans that it was too hot to wear and..." You get the picture :)
I'm enjoying reading your blog. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
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