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Coffee Cola?
In the villages in Ethiopia there is not much difference between dinner and breakfast, last night njera with two types of lentils and this morning the same, with a coffee instead of a beer … the injera has never thrilled me much with that acidic aftertaste, the first time I saw it in a restaurant in Addis I thought it was a small towel, here by now I eat it without any problem because, like yesterday, at times it is the only carbohydrate available.
In the longest stage with the earliest departure, the first 50 km are easy apart from a stretch of gravel where the Chinese are remaking the road, it goes up before going back down to the 1500 of Dilla, we really are in the mountains, it is cold, the sun can hardly ever be seen and a light rain keeps me company up to the top. The emerald green luxuriant vegetation makes me more positive, I saw banana trees tall three times ours in Chikupi. For about ten kilometers four boys, one of which on a BMX, race me and each other, surrounded by fields, pines, horses, cows, cafeterias and … ping pong tables. I have seen a lot at the sides of the road a bit sideways, the surface is at the same time concave and convex, and the players focused with rackets with no plastic.
A lot of children work in these first 400 km of Ethiopia, today in the afternoon I was stricken to see three children of max 10 years carrying wooden planks more than three meter long and five centimeters thick, on the head and uphill …
The uphill, the downhill, the flats and the wind modify one’s perception of things, so these invading Ethiopian children are curious and pleasant on the flat with the favorable wind, but they become stressful on a uphill with short breath and the cycling schedule skewed. Ethiopian children call me with a ‘you’ repeated frantically, like somebody falling off a cliff would do … ‘You-you-you-you’, at times after the series of you they ask for something, money, pen, t-shirt, pump … but it is not their fault but of parents, older siblings and ignorant tourists who do not understand the damage they are making, because if they ask with this insistence it is because they have received something from some fool who puts his heart at easy by giving a dollar to a child. I never give anything, if the request comes from an adult I explain he has to work. Today a child kicked my panniers and another one threw me with a piece of sugar cane, others followed me on the long uphill which took me to 2400 meters, running, singing and clapping their hands. Potentially they are excellent supporters, who in same case would need some barriers.
In Hagere Maryam I stop in a cafeteria, when I enter I am surrounded by a pleasant smell of incense which is always there when there is coffee, with all the coffee cups ready to be used on a round tray, then … on the shelves behind a small counter … I see the Coffee Cola produced by Abyssinia Water … a one liter bottle, plus the toasted barley which a doctor there present told me is the best carbohydrate in the world, will help me go up …
In Ethiopia there are many black outs … and Dilla is no exception (during my stay the electricity was never there) … the arrival is in the dark and under the rain I go towards the hotel Giorgia pointed out … everything is dark … I see another one a bit further in front with the lights on … they have a noisy generator … it is nice for 8 euro … I think today mega hot shower … nobody speaks English … is there hot water? … yes … then when I enter the shower nothing comes out … the hot water does not work with the generator! Together with my jersey I also washed the Blackberry … let’s hope for the better …
I asked Abel the manager of the pension if he could call for me a Bajaj to go to eat … after many gestures he makes me understand he has no number… I ask him if he can point out or come with me to the place where I can get one … ok … when we find it he climbs in and comes with me to the restaurant … he thought I had invited him for supper … we chat through the waitress who speaks a bit of English …
Surupa N 5° 13.579’ E 38° 29.433 – Dilla N 6° 40.833’ E 38° 30.833’
172 km