Monday, September 7, 2009

A Different sort of a day........

We got up at 5 to catch the hot water for a shower before the electricity went off at 6, so we were on the road real early. The great plan was to get to Bahir-Dar for lunch and then explore the town. We stopped for breakfast and then decided to take a detour to a little village called Amuramba. It is a fascinating place. The people there all live by the philosophy that all people are related and equal and that all need to live in harmony and that the best way to improve life is through education and doing meaningful work.

All that sounds great and wonderful, the difference is that they actually make it work. The guy that established the village still lives there and he has done a lot of work to put his village on the map. The whole village is built from the same sort of mud and straw mixture that gets used everywhere. The difference is that he has developed an interior sort of furnishing made of the same materials. He also developed a stove, which we thought was ingenious. It is difficult to describe, but it made a lot of sense and it is energy efficient as well as environmentally friendly. All the furnishings are sort of built in and all the houses have a similar layout.

The little village of 403 inhabitants have a pre- school building, a library, a clinic and an old age care centre. Their main source of income is from a very active weaving business, where both men and women work equally. They make beautiful fabric, which is widely used in the area by all other people as blankets, shawls, scarves, etc. All their equipment is rather primitive but very practical. The spinning machines use bicycle wheels and all sorts of other innovative contraptions. The looms are an upgrade from primitive and are just old fashioned, however they seem to work well and fast. After having spent an hour or more there, we were really inspired and uplifted. It gives one new hope when you see places like and it was not established by a foreign NGO, it was home grown!

Off we went in search our next adventure, which was to go and see the hot springs at Wanzaye. Well with a fair amount of difficulty we found the turn off. Warning bells should have gone off at that stage. Maybe they did but were ignored! We carried on through what looked like rice paddies and flooded rivers and passed many surprised looking people on the way and still we continued. We confirmed several times that we were on the correct road and despite conditions we were confident and looking forward to the beer at the hotel at the springs. We approached a fast flowing river and a mud patch. Well we never got to the river and we were stuck in the mud for a while. We tried the normal emergency 4x4 trained stuff, without success. This was now all taking place with a rapidly growing audience of mostly young men, who were on their way somewhere, the Springs, maybe? We realised that there is not a way in the world that we were going to get out of there without assistance and then the negotiations started. Nobody could speak any English, but when it came to money they were quick to put an amount on the table/bonnet. It was Br 100, then 200 and suddenly it was 500. I walked away, Dick “negotiated’ and eventually the agreement was made. Br 250 was handed over and the work started. Within 10 minutes or so they had dug out mud, placed branches and stones under the wheels and with a loud cheer we were unstuck and out. We happily got in the Landy and were all ready to give the Springs a miss. No such luck, a new round of negotiations were now about to start. A further Br 100 was to be handed over. I just said ‘not a damn” and Dick put foot and we were gone. Bloody cheek, we thought. So much for integrity.

We arrived in Bahir-Dar without further incident. It was just interesting to have had 2 such different experiences in one day. We stayed in a great hotel in Bahir- Dar and did nice touristy stuff. We went to the Blue Nile Waterfall, which was full, thanks to the rainy season and we also went on a trip on Lake Tana to visit some Monasteries. We drank the wonderful fresh juices, we ate the tilapia from Lake Tana and Dick even had his muddy boots cleaned by one of the shoe shine boys in the street.

Now we are off to Addis for the last few days and who knows what we can experience on the way there?

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