We are back in Addis early, and very glad to be here.
Remember how I wrote that Clare seemed to be coming down with something? I thought it was the elevation up north, but it was not – turns out it was a full-on flu bug of some kind. She started feeling sick on the last night in Aksum, and by the time we got back to Addis, was really knocked out. She has been in bed for the last 4 or 5 days.
On Friday morning when I was getting ready for for the drive to Awassa for a few days, she thought she was over it and so decided to come with me. But, no such luck – she felt terrible by the time we got there, and again was totally bedridden. Poor thing.
It was especially bad because the hotel in Awassa (the Pinna - don’t stay there!) was pretty much a pit. Our room was hot and stuffy and we couldn’t open the windows at night because of the mosquitoes. Neither one of us is on Malaria prophylactics, so we had to douse ourselves in Deet, cover our beds in mosquito netting, and hope for the best. This made for a not-so restful stay, to say the least.
Yesterday after I was done with my explorations I got back to the hotel in the afternoon to find a pretty sad-looking Clare lying on her mattress on the floor. She was trying to stay cool and the bed was horribly uncomfortable. Solomon (our guide) and I took her to the “best” private hospital in Awassa. This was quite a scene, and somewhat scary, and involved a lot of waiting in crowded hallways with crowds of Ethiopians who were pretty shocked to see us there. Thank God our guide was there – he managed to expedite the whole thing, and Clare was seen by a doctor relatively quickly. That said, the medical care was not exactly cutting-edge. But we really wanted to make sure it wasn’t malaria (it is not) and it was somewhat reassuring that the doctor agreed it is in fact, flu.
After the nightmare of the hospital visit, we couldn’t stand to say another night in Pinna hotel, so we decided to cut the trip short and head back to the comforts of the Sheraton in Addis. We told our guide and driver, packed up our things in about 20 minutes, hit the road, and hightailed it back.
Driving in Ethiopia is terrifying enough in the daytime – you DON’T want to be on the road at night! 
Among other reasons, the Ethiopians have a weird tradition - stubbornly adhered to - of not turning on headlights until it is pitch frickin’ black out. At one point, I just broke down and demanded that our driver turn on the lights. Many of the vehicles, including the biggest trucks, have no functioning lights at all. In addition, every 10 minutes of so, you come across a stationery object in the road - maybe it’s a broken-down truck (with - you guessed it - no lights) or maybe a donkey lying on the still-warm asphalt or maybe a drunk blind man on his hands and knees (I am not making this up).
In all cases, if it is daylight, you honk the horn at anyone in your path. This occasionally works, but usually you have to swerve. If it is night, you flash your highbeams at the offending object or being, temporarily blinding them.
I am including a few photos of some typical roadside sights.
We made only one stop (for fuel) and ate in the car so we made pretty good time – about 4 and a half hours. By the time it was dark, we were on the outskirts of Addis, so it wasn’t too scary (well, it WAS scary, but we survived).
Checking into the hotel and an air-conditioned room and clean sheets was a huge relief –
this morning as I write this, Clare is already feeling and looking much better and I’m so glad we decided to come back.
For a while there, I was pretty scared that I’d get sick too, but it’s been long enough now that (thank God) it appears to have passed me by. Now it’s looking like she’ll be in condition to travel on Tuesday night, when we plan to leave for home.
Among other reasons, the Ethiopians have a weird tradition - stubbornly adhered to - of not turning on headlights until it is pitch frickin’ black out. At one point, I just broke down and demanded that our driver turn on the lights. Many of the vehicles, including the biggest trucks, have no functioning lights at all. In addition, every 10 minutes of so, you come across a stationery object in the road - maybe it’s a broken-down truck (with - you guessed it - no lights) or maybe a donkey lying on the still-warm asphalt or maybe a drunk blind man on his hands and knees (I am not making this up).
In all cases, if it is daylight, you honk the horn at anyone in your path. This occasionally works, but usually you have to swerve. If it is night, you flash your highbeams at the offending object or being, temporarily blinding them.
I am including a few photos of some typical roadside sights.
We made only one stop (for fuel) and ate in the car so we made pretty good time – about 4 and a half hours. By the time it was dark, we were on the outskirts of Addis, so it wasn’t too scary (well, it WAS scary, but we survived).
Checking into the hotel and an air-conditioned room and clean sheets was a huge relief –
this morning as I write this, Clare is already feeling and looking much better and I’m so glad we decided to come back.
For a while there, I was pretty scared that I’d get sick too, but it’s been long enough now that (thank God) it appears to have passed me by. Now it’s looking like she’ll be in condition to travel on Tuesday night, when we plan to leave for home.
As of today, I’ve been in Ethiopia for 2 weeks and it has been (obviously) challenging, but also great. The best part - of course - is getting to meet the wonderful Elsabet Aden.
Tomorrow I have my Embassy interview and the next day (I hope) we get Elsa’s visa. I’m taking her out of the orphanage for good tomorrow, now that I’m done with running around the countryside. I ordered up a crib for our room at the Sheraton - can’t wait to have Elsa in it!
No comments:
Post a Comment