OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
9171 OU36 - Ethiopia - Visiting with the Aid Agencies
When I was on one of my regular trips to Ethiopia, Pat and I arranged to take a two-week holiday in Ethiopia. Accordingly, Pat flew across to join me, before we went off up country for the major part of this.
The second half of
the holiday was to be the standard tourist trail for Ethiopia; of which much has
been written
elsewhere.
But the first week, which was in essence a duty, was being
in Tigray province - going round with the aid agencies. As I say, this was
meant to be duty, but it turned out to be the most marvellous
vacation we ever had.
We stayed in the best hotel in Mekele, the capital of Tigray province, but it was still very backwards and the facilities were not brilliant -- though eventually we were given a room with an en-suite shower.
The hotel, our ‘suite’ was under this terrace!
The price I had to pay for this was that I had to teach a couple of my students who were working in Tigray. Even worse, I had to teach them from six o'clock in the morning until 7.30 am, so they could go on to their work afterwards. However, I didn't begrudge this, since they were excellent students and really wanted to learn.
Johannes & colleague, my two students
The rest of the time we were taken round by the director of the aid agencies there. Thus we spent many happy hours bowling along, over the dirt roads, in a Toyota Land Cruiser; which seemed to be the normal mode of transport for aid workers.
Our first port of call, however, was the local orphanage. There had been a large number of orphans, due to the war, but the number of these had been reduced as they were placed with families -- until there were only a hundred or so in the orphanage in Mekele.
It was reassuring to see the conditions in which they lived, which were quite good by Ethiopian standards. It was, incidentally, the only time we actually saw Indera being cooked - on the massive skillets they used -- which was fascinating in itself. Thereafter, in any case, I used to give my local expenses to the orphanage. These expenses were paid in local money, which I couldn't take out of the country anyway, and would never have been able to use it otherwise. This was something like £1,000 a trip, so the £4-5,000 a year they got in this way probably was quite a large amount by Ethiopia standards. It made me feel good, but of course there was nothing else I do with it.
We also taken round to see the bomb damage in Mekele, to see the various buildings that have been flattened by the Derg. The worst damage, which we saw later on, was actually at Bahir Dar, where the superb new terminal at the airport had been completely destroyed.
Equally interesting, though, was the flour mill which was used to grind the tef coming in from the local farmers. This was a very manual operation, with 50 or so workers. The most interesting aspect, though, was that it was the largest industrial enterprise in the whole of Tigray province -- covering something like 6 million people. The Derg had long starved Tigray of any commercial developments, as part of the punishment for the guerrilla activities there.
The next day we went out, locally, to visit a couple of the villages. It was fascinating to see how simply they lived, but even so how complete was life in Ethiopia. Every house, and farm, was made from mud walls with a tin roof on top.
A typical larger farm compound, surrounded by a stone wall
People in the West may look askance at the mud walls, but they are very effective in the Ethiopian climate. They are thick and, as such, retain heat; they are warm in winter and cool summer. If the walls started to crumble then you just slapped some more mud on. Inside they had, of course, earthen floors, and even the sleeping benches tended to be made out of mud. Accordingly they were dusty, and this would have horrified Western housewives who have been convinced by the advertisers that cleanliness is next godliness. But they were not unhygienic. Indeed, it was obvious that the inhabitants were house-proud.
On
the main road from Mekele to the coast!
On this part of our holiday, we came to the village where we sat down with the elders to discuss national politics. We sat down in the middle of the street, which might not sound too much of a problem for a village of the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, this village was on the main route from Mekele to the coast. Even so, in the hour or so we were sitting there, just one lorry came along. This threaded its way through, carefully avoiding us. It was a graphic example of their level of trade, or at least the lack of it.
Perhaps more representative, and certainly more interesting, was a caravan of camels which also moved down the street. There were 20 to 30 of them, laden down with blocks of salt which had been produced in the Danikil depression -- the lowest part of Ethiopia -- which were being carried up to the Highlands. This was still a major way of transporting goods. It was like being taken back several hundred years. Indeed, Ethiopia had a camel herd of something like 10 million camels, though we didn't see many of them since they were typically used in the drier regions. Instead, we mainly saw donkeys and mules which were the main method of transport in the rest of Tigray.
The people
themselves were also to be seen striding along the roads, th
e men in their
characteristic posture with their arms hooked up over a stick placed behind
their head. They thought nothing of walking 50 miles, over the hills, to an
event. Of course there were commercial lorries, but almost no buses. Instead
each lorry, as it passed, had a contingent of passengers sitting on top of the
load -- perhaps 20-30 on each lorry.
Tigrayan children working alongside their elders
Commercial enterprise in the village, such as it was, took the form of kiosks built into the walls of houses on the main street. Each kiosk, I suppose it was their idea of a shop, must have been little more than five by five feet; but they stocked everything you might want -- especially cigarettes which seemed to be the main luxury item.
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