Here's a much longer post which will give you all the flavor of what we're doing:

Ethiopia Journal 2009


Visit to Emdeber Town – 2/21 to 2/22


Our revisit to Emdeber in the heart of the Gurage country where I taught from 1967-68 began at the Millennium Hotel, just around the corner from our 8-story apartment building. The assembled cast included myself, my fellow teacher Phil Lebel, his wife Danielle, the son of Danielle's neighbor in France Renault who was in Addis Ababa leading a workshop in servicing Mercedes, and our driver Yacob Hailemariam, an attorney who is an old friend of Phil who grew up in the Gurage country.

We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs and spicy meat, with lots of good Ethiopian coffee. The manager of the Hotel, of course, was an urban Gurage, Dinku Woldemariam, who was vastly amused that we were returning to his home country. We all piled into Yacob's SUV and took off round the traffic circle to the Jimma Road. The part of the Gurage country that we were going to is known as "The Seven Houses of Gurage" and is about 4 hours by car. Of course we did some meandering along the way.

The road to the outskirts of the City was lined with small colorful shops, mostly food and drink places but an occasional variety store. Every corner had an impromptu open market where people were selling vegetables, spices, and other home essentials. The road was filled with pedestrians and livestock coming into the big city market, and a wide variety of buses, lorries and other cars were competing for space. We finally made it to the main expressway and then stopped for fuel, which sells for more than $4 US per gallon. Once outside the City we saw broad plains filled with golden flowers, which are a source of cooking oil, with high rugged mountains rising above the fields.

Our first watering stop two hours later was at the Genet Hotel in Woliso, a beautifully renovated resort hotel built by the Italians (1935-1941) during their brief occupation of Ethiopia. We then took off for Wolkite, an hour away, noting how the cultural landscape was shifting from Oromo and Amharic grain farms to Gurage. The Gurage villages are very distinctive with their long central avenue, lined on both sides by round thatched houses reinforced with horizontal bamboo poles. Each Gurage house is surrounded on three sides by huge false banana trees (ensete), which provide these people with a drought resistant staple crop; they also grow some coffee and chat for cash crops and keep a herd of cattle in their collectively owned fields.

At Wolkite we turned left onto the road to the Gurage heartland, with Emdeber some 30 minutes away. All the roads in the Gurage country have been planned and constructed by the Gurage, with little help from the Government. We crossed the deep Wabi River, climbed up the steep embankment, and were immediately surrounded by a large flat lower plain where hundreds of cattle were grazing. There were also strings of Gurage villages here and there. One new thing we saw were at least a dozen small Mosques, funded by the Saudis. About a third of the Gurage have traditionally been Muslim but now they are being aggressively recruited into a conservative Muslim sect. We also saw huge transmission lines crossing the fields, something that we certainly did not see in the 1960's.

As we approached the outskirts of Emdeber town we stopped at the new secondary school and were very impressed with all the new buildings, the satellite dish, and the evident supply of electricity and running water. We called the headmaster, Fikadu Biru, to make an appointment to see the computer lab the next day. We then journeyed a short distance to our secondary school, now downgraded to 1-8 grades. There we were also impressed with the many new buildings and other signs of improvement. Further down the road we entered the center of Emdeber and pulled into the compound of the Murore Hotel.

We were astounded! When we were there the only rented rooms for guests were behind small food and drinking places, and some were rented by the hour. This new hotel had a beautiful open plaza filled with blooming flowers, with about 24 rooms on two sides. The rooms had a full sized bed, modern bathroom facilities (!), and a living room with comfortable chairs, all for about $10 US a night; the tourist hotels in many parts of Ethiopia rent out rooms for a minimum of $100 US a night, and these rooms were spotless!

We all checked in and than went off to see if we could find Phil's former landlady. Well, Phil's house had been torn down but right next door was his landlady's house, in excellent condition, and she was in residence. She's a very bright and witty lady in her 80's and she was delighted to meet Phil again and also gave the rest of us a warm welcome. We made an appointment to come back the following morning for brunch.

Next we drove up to the headquarters of the Gurage Catholic Mission, now a cathedral complete with bishop. About a third of the Gurages in this area are Catholics and the Church also provides health clinics, schools, and agricultural advice through its network of 12 or so missions. The remaining third of the population are Ethiopian Orthodox.

Next we drove back up to the main road heading south toward the highlands of Daquna. On both sides of the SUV we could see chains of Gurage villages running along the ridges, with deep valleys on each side. Most were traditional thatched round houses but there were a few rectangular buildings along the main road with corrugated metal roofs. When we got up to Daquna Jacob stopped at the house of the local chief to share the news; he had run as an opposition candidate in the 2005 national election and almost won. We were all invited in to the Chief's house, a much larger traditional style house but on a stone foundation, with windows, electricity and an operating bathroom. We then walked across the road to the neighboring beer house and had another round of drinks.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon so we took off down the long winding road to Emdeber, visited another chief's house in town, then freshened up in our rooms, and sat down for a supper of roasted lamb, injera, and berbare spice. It had been a long day but the fun was only just beginning. In walked a group of middle-aged urban Gurages, and their leader, Fikre Hugiane Finfune, came over to our table to chat with us. We explained why we were here and he was amused and impressed. He and his group had come to town to help plan for a new technical college in Emdeber. Well, he invited us to an after dinner BBQ in the hotel compound and even though we were stuffed to the gills we couldn't pass up his kind offer. So we gathered some chairs, the hotel staff built the bonfire and placed a huge wak full of cut up pieces of lamb. Overhead we could see the stars bright and clear, with the familiar constellation of Orion directly overhead. Beer was offered as well as wine and even harder stuff. And we soon were regaling one another with stories of Emdeber students we had known. Phil's Amharic is still quite good and he can generally chatter at a rapid pace. Mine is more basic; I can follow the conversation roughly and add in an appropriate comment now and then. We learned that several of our students had gone on to the States and secured professional degrees and positions. Others were working in responsible positions in the Ethiopian ministries. Still others had seemingly disappeared or had died in the civil unrest. One of Fikre's group finally identified himself as one of our students; he's now an engineer. What a delight it is to have chance play nice tricks!

The next morning we staggered out of bed for our brunch with Phil's landlady. I got some pictures of a flock of vultures cleaning up the leftovers in the plaza; a tiny little girl was trying to shoo them away. Phil's landlady had invited more of her family to welcome us, some of whom we had never met since they hadn't been born when we were in residence! We were served coffee, freshly brewed from the coffee trees in the backyard, and with sugar, not the traditional salt and butter. Phil then showed via his laptop a set of pictures he had taken of his landlady and her family at work in the fields, making pottery, and entertaining. She was delighted to see all those youthful images!

We then went up to the Cathedral to see if we could find Phil's former cook Tamare but this time we had no luck but at least people reported that she was alive and well. I looked for my old house as well but it appeared to have been another victim of Emdeber urban renewal. We then picked up the headmaster and drove down to the new secondary school. They do have a lot of computer equipment there, about 30 desktops in working order but for a thousand students. Moreover, it wasn't that clear how well students were being taught and the school no longer had any access to the internet via the satellite dish. We are considering donating money to the school for another year of internet service. I do wish we had more time to talk with some more of the teachers but it was time to visit Gura, a nearby village where Yacob had been raised.

Gura was down several backroads and even Yacob got lost a couple of times, one false banana tree lined avenue looking very much like another. But we finally pulled up to his family's house. A younger brother was now occupying the house, since both of Yacob's parents had passed away. The house was well-maintained, primarily thanks to Yacob's periodic contributions. We were given another warm welcome and at least two dozen other relatives and neighbors gathered in to chat. This time we were served coffee with butter and salt, followed up by araqi, the Gurage equivalent of White Lightning.

By this time it was getting late so we bid everyone a fond farewell and scuttled back to Addis. All in all we couldn't have asked for a better revisit!

Besalam,
Charley Noble

Internet connections are very frustrating here. This time I am posting from the U.S. Embassy from Danielle's computer; mine is fermenting in the gate house because it takes two days to process access for it.

I'll probably try another post by the end of the week. I have lots of images but I'll wait until I get home to begin editing them. The Old Gods are well and good. LOL

Cheerily,
Charley