Not for the faint of heart

Friendship International Hotel

I was unable to get a plane to Gondar, as I had hoped today, after spending the weekend in the brand new Friendship International Hotel.  I remembered that Guetahoun had said if I did not go to Gondar we could play golf, so I phoned him and arranged for him to pick me up at 10:00.  5 min. later he phoned to say his wife wanted to go trekking, so maybe we can play golf next week.

the best part of the road

our trekking group

on the cliff's edge

He and his lovely French wife, Francine picked me up and drove to a lovely house where we picked up their French friends, Florence and Roberto (Italian).  They all teach at the French school here.  We were headed to the Entoto mountains, 15 miles out of town, and a different world.  Quiet, remote and magnificent scenery.  Once at the top, we drove perhaps several miles down a deeply rutted road with stones and rocks as obstacles and in a very remote area there was another car waiting with three more French friends of theirs.  We hiked perhaps 3 miles, then down a treacherous stretch to the edge of a cliff, not for the faint of heart.  There was a precipitous 300 ft vertical drop that was very scary.  They would not let me back off as 300 ft below we were watching hyenas stalking some grazing cows.  Had a magnificent view of at least 25-30 miiles with numerous remote Oromo villages dotting the vast valley below.  Finally I backed off a little as I had repeated visions of tumbling to my death.

my new Oromo friend

Oromo girls

woman carrying firewood

We spend at least an hour watching wildlife with occasional Oromo (they speak a different language from the national Amharic) youths appearing to warily socialize with us.  Roberto then led us back by a different route, with an extremely vigorous climb that left me very winded (we were probably at close to 3500 meters) and the others wondering if he knew where he was going through eucalyptus forest, open fields and territory very different from whence we had come.  Passed some women and donkeys carting huge loads of firewood and ultimately other donkeys with enormous loads of some grain that was not teff and not wheat, but is used in making bread and also beer.

"State of Palestine" embassy & chancery

lunch with Guetahoun and Francine

We then drove 30 minutes over the same virtually impassable road back to civilization and back down to Addis.  Guetahoun dropped off his friends and insisted I come to his house for lunch.  His home is across the street from the Embassy of the “State of Palestine”.  I warily took some photos, concerned if they should see me.  Guetahoun beeped his horn and his lovely maid/servant/cook/housekeeper/gardener opened the gate and we entered into his typical old Ethiopian house with lovely very private gardens and a gazebo covered with grape vines.  We sat outdoors in the gazebo where there was waiting a table and an adjacent tray with a lovely prepared meal of baked spiced chicken, rice with vegetable, french fries and salad (everywhere with everything they serve both french fries and rice).  Guetahoun is a native Ethiopian who went to school in France, is a French trained Orthopedic Surgeon and worked for 20 years in the French foreign service in many French colonies and former colonies in Africa.  He and his French wife returned to Addis 3 years ago.  They still maintain a lovely home in Bordeaux.  How do I know it is lovely?  Google is incredible.  On his computer with an EVDO USB dongle we viewed street views of our homes in Kansas City and Vail, and his in Bordeaux.  They then served tea along with Godiva chocolates brought from France.

After a while he drove me back to my apartment at the hospital, I took a nap, and wandered over to Jupiter Hotel to use their wifi (no access at the hospital on Sunday).

Tomorrow begins a very busy work week with the usual load, plus somehow we need to find a way to operate on what are now 17 patients with trigeminal neuralgia.  

Caio for now.