Canamancan Blog Entry No. 3
This blog entry is written in my hotel room in Juba while waiting for my second meeting with Dr. Samson Baba of the Ministry of Health, Southern Sudan Government.
The objectives of this journey to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan was to register my company in order to enter into partnerships with the respective government health ministries to conduct malaria vector control programs and to record our activities on film.
I'll start this blog with the beginning of the trip and end with our overnight stay in Jimma, the town half way between Addis Ababa and Gambella.
On Sunday March 20, Kevin Taylor, Simon Hughes and I met at the Toronto International Airport, 3 hours ahead of boarding time for Air Canada flight 9104. It was the first trip to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan for Kevin, mosquito control expert extraordinaire, and Simon, our cinematographer – both excited and raring to go. I was less so. The day before, I was exhibiting symptoms of a severe head cold with sneezing, runny nose, smarting eyes followed by plugged sinuses through the night.
Going through security went smoothly enough despite all the equipment that each of us decided to carry on board. By the time we boarded, I had used half of my tissue supply, constantly sneezing and blowing my nose. I took my place on the plane and was thankful that no one was seated directly beside me. The flight left on time at 7:40 p.m. and we were on it. That was a good start. The previous November, I had travelled to Ethiopia with Deng Tap. Because of weather, we missed our connection with Air Ethiopia in Washington D.C. and waited four days for the next flight.
We arrived in Frankfurt eight hours later by which time I had depleted the tissue supply in two of the toilets. None of our team had slept particularly well; I had spent the hours sniffling and sneezing while watching the new Harry Potter movie and True Grit. It was 8:45 a.m. in Frankfurt, and we checked in with a Lufthansa agent for the next leg of our journey to Addis Ababa. Kevin was pleased to be in Germany for the first time and because he is a cognisor of beer he directed the conversation with the agent to German beers. The agent was quite knowledgeable and kindly provided several recommendations. Breakfast in the airport consisted of assorted beers and German sausage on a bun. We paid the tab and I stuffed my pocket with napkins.
Frankfurt to Addis Ababa took almost seven hours; we were tired and we slept during the flight. It was night once again when we landed (March 21, 9:15 p.m.). We made our way through the corridors of the Addis airport and just before customs, exchanged our U.S. dollars for Birr – it was a good exchange rate of 16.7. We passed through the first stage of customs without a hitch, our entry visas were in order. One more hurdle, customs where the agents check our luggage. I was checked through, no problem, followed by Kevin.
Simon Turial from Gambella and his friend Paul were just outside the security area and we were greeted with the customary Ethiopian hand shake and bowing until our right shoulders touched. Simon Hughes had not joined us. Kevin reported that Simon was having trouble with the camera. We learned that we were required to have a permit and the camera was confiscated until we returned with one. Nothing we could do about it and headed to the hotel where Simon Turial had made reservations.
We arrived at the Damu Hotel close to mid-night. I had stayed there before; the rooms are clean, the plumbing works, good meals but "iffy" wireless internet. The cost per room is $78 U.S. pricy for what you get compared to North American standards but reasonable compared to the prices of the new hotels like the Hilton in Addis. There are sleeping quarters available for $10 per night, I've been there and don't want to be there again.
Simon Turial said he had accommodation elsewhere and would meet us in the foyer of the Damu the next morning at 6:00 a.m.
I travel with a CPAP machine for sleep apnea and have come to rely on it for a good night's rest. The challenge as with any electrical equipment, is getting it to work in Africa, having the right plug adaptors, power adaptors and surge protectors to accommodate the 220 volt system. I had bought new adaptors at Staples for this trip but they didn't work. Exhausted and still producing copious quantities of whatever it's called that comes out of your nose with a head cold, I slept through the night.
Kevin tried several combinations of adaptors in his room and fried his surge protector which gave up the ghost in a puff of smoke.
Simon arrived at 9:45 and we headed off to get our camera permit. After numerous meetings with various federal government officials and providing a copy of the document that we had sent to the Ethiopian Embassy in Toronto, stating that we were travelling with the camera equipment, we were given a permit to use the camera in the Gambella Region. The process was facilitated by the Ethiopian Ambassador who had been stationed with the Ethiopian Embassy in Ottawa a few years before. He had travelled throughout Canada and we had an interesting conversation while the bureaucratic process ground out the camera permit. One and a half days were consumed getting the camera back (March 22 &23).
Now we had to address outstanding issues regarding the company registration with the Ethiopian federal government. This was accomplished in one day, the balance of March 23. I did not get the registration but was satisfied that I only needed the stamp of approval from the Canadian federal government to wrap it up. This will be a priority when I return to Canada.
While we stayed at the Damu Hotel Kevin and Simon Hughes became brief regulars at a nearby restaurant called the Elephant Walk, named because of a huge plaster mural of elephants in the savannahs, roughly 30 feet long and 6 feet high that ran along the inside wall. The restaurant provided their first exposure to Ethiopian cuisine using "injira" instead of flat ware to eat mutton and goat meat. St. George's beer at a $1.00 per bottle was a plus.
The next step on the agenda was to drive to Gambella which would take two days, stopping overnight in Jimma. Simon Hughes would film our progress from Addis Ababa in the highlands (2300 metres) to Gambella (800metres). Up to this time Simon had been taking still pictures and was excited about filming.
The general manager of the Damu Hotel is a congenial fellow, Getachew Seifu, who has a daughter in Canada. I told him we wanted to drive to Gambella. He said that he had a friend who could provide a vehicle and driver. The quote was $800. Meanwhile Simon Turial had met Dejene Demeke, a most helpful taxi driver who arranged the overland trip for $500.
At 10:00 a.m. (March 24) we left the Damu Hotel in a well- used, slightly abused Toyota SUV and with a driver whose name was Bedru. On the previous overland drive to Gambella the road had been rough and the tires of this vehicle were a concern. I was advised that the driver was also a mechanic and not to worry. As it turned out we made the journey safely and without incident. Simon filmed to his heart's content and we stopped several times along the way to film some amazing scenery, wildlife and not so wild life. Ethiopian coffee and St. George's beer took the edge off. Kevin, Simon Turial and I took turns doing the commentary. Bedru, a man of few words tried to teach us one phrase, "Thank you" in Amharic.
Along the journey we became impressed with Bedru's ability to dodge the cattle and other domestic animals. One of the few English phrases we heard him utter was "Watch it Billy" when he almost hit a goat.
Kevin is a musician with a band and given the number of goats he saw, he thought that "Big Black Goat" would be a good reggae band name in Ethiopia (Ya-mon). Any Ethiopians reading this, feel free to use it.
Simon Turial was complaining of a cold; indeed he was sneezing and had a runny nose. He insisted it was an African cold and I said I didn't think so. I was actually feeling much better by this time.
We arrived at the half way mark, the town of Jimma just before dark. Jimma is an "academic centre" and hosts conferences constantly and indeed there were conferences going on when we arrived. Rooms in a decent hotel were hard to come by. We settled for a multi-story accommodation with stairs to the upper floors. The lights in the stairwell were out and the plumbing was not working. Two buckets of water were in each bathroom, one for washing and one for flushing the toilet. I skipped cleaning my teeth that night. The rooms were hot with no air circulation and with a few mosquitoes hungry for a blood meal were flying when I entered mine. It was as good as it was going get but at a cost of a few hundred Birr per room. We headed to the vehicle to get the luggage and lug it up three flights.
Bedru headed out to find his own accommodation after we arranged to meet him in the morning at the vehicle at one hour 30 minutes which translated to 7:30 on our watches. Simon Turial went to see a sick uncle in the Jimma hospital and Kevin, Simon Hughes and I headed to a restaurant for St. Georges beer and Ethiopian fare.
I haven't mentioned that we have a satellite phone on this tour. On previous trips I learned that our Canadian cell phones seldom work and are expensive at $4.00 per minute when they did work. For the most part the satellites were aligned and we got through to family in Canada. The sat phone was also supposed to facilitate e-mailing but the kinks were not quite worked out. We also bought a cell phone in Addis as a backup.
We retired to our rooms around 10 p.m. and on the way discovered that our host had replaced a blown light bulb or two in the stairwell. I sat on the bed and looked at the mosquito bed net hanging from the ceiling. It would be a hot stuffy uncomfortable night if I used it and I concluded I'd rather deal with the mosquitoes through the night and took my daily Malarone pill. I watched the two station colour television until I finally dozed off around three in the morning. This hotel definitely had its priorities – television over running water.
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