Sunday, 25th Feb 2007

To: Camp Ethiopia #9

This is the day that a boy rode a cow, I was stampeded by a mob of 50 children and a horse, and I took a walk into the village after reaching camp. Would have been a nice day for a camera but oh well.

First was the boy on a cow. I was riding along at a very slow pace. Up, up, up. When I looked to my right and saw... one boy on a horse, a donkey, 2 cows, and one boy on a cow. I continued riding for about 1 second before my brain registered what I just saw and I thought, "Wait a minute!" Looked over again and, sure enough, ... 1 boy on a cow! He was on the cow, holding the neck. Don't know how he was steering the darn thing!

I then moved along, at a slow pace. Up, up, up. Then, stopped at a village. Went in a bar-type place and had a coke. Many, many children, and I mean MANY, were crowding around the doorway, trying to get a good look at the white lady (who was doing nothing other than sitting on a bench and drinking a coke). Every once in a while, an adult would come along and want to get in the bar so he would and shoo the kids away. This was nice because then sunlight could come in the door. After about 15 minutes, I got up to leave. This is when the stampede occurred. The moment I stepped out the door, the kids swarmed around me - swoosh! I could barely walk. I saw the horse and didn't worry too much about it. The kids had me surrounded, and the horse was between the kids and the road. A man was leading the horse on a rope. All of a sudden, the horse got spooked and started rearing up and the man couldn't control it. The horse reared and then backed into the kids, who struggled to get away, opening a space for the horse to back into my bike which I was pushing on my side. I couldn't move because from the road to the bar we had: rearing horse with a man holding a rope around the horses neck, bike, me, and then mobs of kids. Couldn't move. The horse looked like it was going to fall over - my direction! After a few seconds, the horse managed to settle down (slightly) and I and the mobs of kids moved en-masse slightly away from it. At THIS point, the adults finally got annoyed and started yelling at the kids who moved away from me and let me walk. I don't think the annoyance stemmed from the kids not allowing me to move. I think it stemmed from them being worried that the kids would get hurt by the horse!

I then rode the rest of the way to camp. Since I had hitched a lift (with an Ethiopian trucker!) part of the way up the hills today, I got to camp too early - 3:00. Don't like getting there that early because I'd rather be out on the road, experiencing things. Happily, however, there was a village about 1 km from camp. So, I decided to stroll on up there...

Thought I might find a nice, quiet, peaceful place to read. Haha, what a joke! I first walked past the football pitch, where kids were playing. Some of them then started following me. We saw some ornate gravestones. In many ways, Ethiopia reminds me of France, with all the Christian icons - Virgin Marys and things - all over the place. Tried to ask the kids who was buried in the graves, but they either didn't know or didn't understand my question. Anyway, picked up more kids at that point. Then it started to rain, so I ducked into a building that turned out to be a grain shelter. No kids allowed. The kids had to stand out in the rain, while about 12 adults including myself, were inside. Might have felt sorry for the kids except for this: They could have just gone home! But no! They'd rather crowd around the door, getting wet, in order to get a better glimpse of the white lady inside. After a few minutes, the rain stopped so I went back outside and the kids followed me into the village.

When I got to the village, I looked around for a beautiful garden to read (haha), but instead found a very crowded local bar. Above the bar was a nice looking balcony. I was wishing I could go up there, but couldn't. Went inside and squeezed past several people to find a place to sit. While squeezing past people, an old lady kissed my hand. A young gentleman told me that she was "just drunk", but I didn't care. Got to chalk up one more Ethiopian kiss! Sat down and noticed that everybody was drinking some kind of local brew, which I later discovered was called "yellow". I know that the culturally correct thing to do would have been to take some of that. But it looked terrible! They were just drinking it out of plastic pitchers. Reminded me of chibuku from Malawi (which I did actually used to drink). But ... just couldn't bring myself to order one, so asked instead for an ordinary beer in a bottle. Turns out that the young gentleman sitting next to me was the owner of the place. I asked him where he lived and he said, "Upstairs." Wow! What a stroke of luck! Visions of balcony started dancing through my head. I said, "Do you mind if we go up there?" He said, "You want to go up?" I said, "Yes." He said, "O.k.," and led me out the back of the bar and up some rickedy old stairs to where he lived, with his wife, child, parents, and sister.

We then walked out onto the balcony and sat there for more than 2 hours. How nice! It was beautiful up there - you could see the whole valley! Of course, the whole darn village was interested in the "visitor" and many, many people (including adults) were standing down on the road, looking up at us on the balcony. Made me feel a bit like the Pope, and thought I should give a speech, but didn't. The young man's name was Matheo. At first, it was just me and him up there. But then his wife and baby came out... then mom ... then uncle (brother to mom) ... then dad came home from farming and joined us ... then another uncle (brother to dad). Within 30 minutes or so, we were having a whole little party up there on that balcony! Nobody but Matheo could speak any English at all. Matheo's English was just so-so, but he was trying his darndest to do the translating. I think an awful lot got lost in translation, but that's o.k. Matheo's uncle kept suggesting that I take Matheo to America. To which I kept laughing and saying, "What about the wife and new baby?" But nobody seemed to care about the wife and new baby - just take Matheo. (Side point: Rick Steves, by the way, is talking out his butt when he says, "Americans would be surprised at how few people care about going to America.")

At one point, I noticed that the dad had been missing for about 15 minutes. I asked Matheo, "Where is your dad?" He pointed down to the street. The dad was going about, telling all his friends about his visitor. Matheo said, "He is very proud to have you as a visitor." All in all, they had offered me no less than 3 beers and 1 pepsi, before I finally said, "I really, really have to get back to camp. It is getting dark." They told me not to worry about it, that they would walk me back. To which I had to reply, "Yes, but my friends will worry and wonder where I am."

So, we started walking back to camp. Immediately, the kids joined in. It was so cute. You could see that they were vying for "best position", so that they could be the one to walk right next to me and hold my hand. Got back to camp at 7:00, having missed dinner, but I didn't care. It turns out that they HAD gotten worried, by the way. Shanny, Rachel, and Addis had come up to the village looking for me, but by the time they came up, I was already crossing the field back to camp. Felt bad about making people worry, but that's life.

------------------- TODAY --------------- TOTAL
Cycled ------------ 31 km (19 mi) --------- 2,634 km (1,639 mi)
Sagged ----------- 72 km (45 mi) ---------- 1,264 km (897 mi)
Total ------------- 103 km (64 mi) --------- 3,898 km (2,536 mi)
In Saddle -------- 2 hours 50 min ---------- 164 hours 8 min
Ascended -------- 1,571 feet ---------------- 33,243 feet