Nearing the finish line....

Jumping ahead several weeks from our boat trip, (as I forgot to post the boat blog until now) we are in the final stages of creating our land use plan. Having hosted three community development workshops, our fourth, final, and by far the largest workshop will take place this Tuesday. We have invited members from local community groups and are attempting to engage individuals from all backgrounds. Counting by the invites sent out, we are hoping this meeting will reach around 75 attendants. Through this presentation, we are hoping to receive feedback on the plan we have created which means we need to have most of it finished by next week. Lucky us though, it is in amheric so it will be facilitated and presented by the mayors office. Tick tock, I suspect that most evenings this week will be spent planning with Kystie around the table of our new tiny red kitchen.

Bahir Dar Boating

Bright and early we are waiting in the garden of the Ghion hotel; the launching point of our survey boat trip of the Bahir Dar waterfront. Birds chirp around us as they move through the vibrant flowers of the impeccable maintained garden. Jacaranda trees shed their blossoms into a carpet of purple as Ethiopian patrons sit on the terrace enjoying their morning macchiato. This restaurant may not have much in the way of food, but what keeps everyone returning time and time again is the garden; the perfect image of Bahir Dar.

This trip is designed to give us an overview of the area we are hoping our plan will help us protect. My CUI team has been invited to Bahir Dar by the Region Urban Planning Institute and the City Administration to help develop a sustainable waterfront development plan that will help guide Bahir Dar’s growth over the next 20 years. Heading out on the water we see huge white pelicans covering the islands around the wetland shores; fisherman in papyrus reed boats throw their nets out into the shallows and all along the shore; people are bathing and washing in the lake. The brush that lines the shore is covered by clothing and sheets lain out to dry in the hot sun. Environmental preservation and sustainability is one of our key goals with this project and the wetlands surrounding the lake are at the center of this. Providing not only animal and bird habitat, but also acting as a filter for pollutants in the lake, the wetlands survival is integral to the survival of Bahir Dar itself. Without them, the city will lose the beauty that it is famous for and along with it, its tourist industry.

Adventures on the public bus

5am finds us sitting on the wall outside our guesthouse. It is pitch black and even the roosters, the most notorious early risers, are still asleep. A few ghostly figures drift past us on their way to worship, shrouded in the white scarves of the Orthodox Church. We wait, craning our ears for the sound of a mini bus coming down our gravel road to snatch us out of the dark. It has been an amazing two days in Lallibella, visiting the rock hewn churches, true wonders of the ancient world, and hearing our guide spin history into legend and back again, mixing the facts with the grand stories of God and his followers descending and returning to heaven. King Lallibella built the New Jerusalem himself, with the help of God, in a mortally impossible length of time.

We continue to wait for our minibus, to no avail. We had confirmed the night before with a seemingly nice young man who promised he would be there the next morning. At 530 we have resigned ourselves to the fact that they may not be coming. Bad news as we need to be back in Bahir Dar for work the next morning. We rise in silence and begin the 2km trek to the central bus depot. Few people notice of us, some wish us good morning. Those up at 530 don’t much care to chat up the forenji women as they slog down the road. We finally reach the bus depot and the mood descended into mayhem. Five buses lined up at the gate, the only ones in the depot, all attempting to pull out and begin their journeys at the exact same time. “This way, this way!!” men yell, “where do you go???” We are hurried down the line and jostled onto an impossibly packed bus. “Something for your guide?!?!” One of the boys yells as he hangs out the back door of the bus and it begins to move. I hurriedly shove 10 birr in his hand and he drops to the ground. People are everywhere, standing in the ails and sitting on top of one another. A few unfortunate souls are forced to give up their seats for us. Those going the long haul get preference as we pay the most. And so the 12 hour, (what we thought would be a 5), journey begins. Ethiopian public bus is the mode of transport for those who cannot afford the minibus. Of our habusha friends we have spoken to since our return, the unanimous response to this story has always been “WHY did you do that????” THEY do not travel by public bus….

Three hours into our bus journey, we’ve covered the ground our minibus accomplished in one. Not a good sign. The three hour point also signalled our one and only bathroom and food stop for the entire journey. Get off the bus when you weren’t allowed and they’d pull away leaving you chasing them down the A small girl selling limes got on at one of our brief stops. While waiting for payment from her starving customers, the bus began to pull out. Rather than let her off, the back door operator slammed the door trapping her inside. As she pleaded and cried for escape, he covered her mouth. “You go to Bahir Dar” he said and laughed. The bus would have carried her all the way if it hadn’t been for the ferenjis screeching stop from the rear. People were sick and vomited on the floor, to which the response was simple: pour dirt on it. One unfortunate man who couldn’t hold his bladder anymore, relieved himself in the ail, standing and letting it run down his leg. In combination the violently ill woman on the seat beside me, doves in ankle chains chirping below me, and children relieving themselves into plastic bags, it made me wonder why everyone INSISTED on keeping the windows closed. Along the way we lost fellow travellers, driven off the bus by hunger and the promise of a clean (?) washroom. In the end, we survived, home in one piece and poured ourselves into bed long before dusk.

Reflecting on the day, we had an amazing adventure and experienced some true Ethiopian travel. But, as a final lasting souvenir, we were both violently ill the next day. No one gets off that easily…