HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Market day on the roads
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Creating a Wi-Fi monster
WORD OF THE DAY: Amensekanalow-thank you
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 165KM
As we didn’t have too far to go today we were able to have another leisurely breakfast, one last check of the internet. You just never know when we will get back online and we hit the road at 11am. I am pretty impressed with what internet connection we have had so far as on my last trip we were lucky to find internet let alone having Wi-Fi access. But we are staying in higher quality hotels on this trip and the north seems a little more ‘westernized’ to use the term loosely than the south.
Its market day today, so the roads are bust with people carrying their wares to and from the major towns/villages along the way. The donkeys are loaded to capacity, people are carrying by hand wood, chats, and chickens under arms and just about anything you can think of regarding rural life these people carry it all around the countryside. It is a tough way of life, but do they really know any better. Do they know how other cultures live without the access of internet and TV? They probably think all white people have money as we are still a novelty here in the country, but I have said this before for all the hardship (or what we think is hardship) is just another day for them and they could be happier than ‘western’ people with all their gadgets, cars, money and bills. It would be interesting to do a focus group on what they think of us. Very interesting.
The other thing if interest and this is country wide the availability of water for the villages. There isn’t running water in the villages and people have to walk to get water. A lot of Aid Agencies have helped by installing wells and pumps to help eliminate disease and it has made a massive difference, but with all things there isn’t enough of them, so people walk for miles carrying their 10L yellow drink jerry cans and when they get there they add their can to the lineup that had formed to wait their turn to fill it. I am not sure how long it takes to fill one and I wonder how they know which one is theirs when they are all the same size and colour. I guess they mark them in some way so they know. But it is a pretty well run system. I just hate seeing children carrying the full can back along the road, that thing would have to weigh over 15KG I rekon. Heartbreaking.
We arrived into Gondar just after 2pm. Zeme had a name of a hotel here that had been recommended, so after asking a few people for directions and giving a lady a lift part of the way, we arrived at the hotel. It was located next to a very busy mosque, but once we entered the driveway, the sounds and noise miraculously disappeared and we entered a little sanctuary. The cost for the night here was 60USD which in Ethiopian standards is expensive, for me it is still cheap with breakfast and free Wi-Fi included it is a bargain.
The food has continued to be of a pretty high standard so far. Considering we are travelling around in what is one of their religious fasting periods that compromises 250 days of the year. They are:
An important religious requirement, however, is the keeping of fast days. All devout believers are to maintain the full schedule of fasts, comprising 250 days.
Fast for Hudadi or Abiye Tsome (Lent), 56 days.
Fast of the Apostles, 10–40 days, which the Apostles kept after they had received the Holy Spirit. It begins after Pentecost.
The fast of Assumption, 16 days.
The Gahad of Christmas (on the eve of Christmas).
The fast preceding Christmas, 40 days (Advent). It begins with Sibket on 15th Hedar and ends on Christmas Eve with the feast of Gena and the 28th of Tahsas.
The Fast of Nineveh, commemorating the preaching of Jonah. It comes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the third week before Lent.
The gahad of Epiphany, fast on the eve of Epiphany.
It is similar to Ramadan where there is no eating permitted during daylight hours. We have run into problems where we are given a 4 page menu and when you order something and it’s not available you just have to ask what they do have and then make a choice from that. I don’t know why they bother giving you a menu as it just causes all sorts of issues.
Another issue, which I have crested on my own is an internet monster called Zeme. Now that he has my old IPod and I have shown him how to use and connect to Wi-Fi, it is a whole new world to him. There is a good and bad thing to this; actually I think the good outweigh the bad. The 2 good things are we can both internet at the same time and be fine with us doing it and secondly he will be able to keep in better contact with me once I leave, where before with his laptop practicality and connection was a major problem.
As we had eaten lunch so late, dinner was a simple affair of French fries delivered to our room. We have booked a local guide for tomorrow to take us around and out of the city tomorrow. We have 2 nights here and we have picked a nice spot.
Welcome to Gondar.
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