Addis Ababa

We have spent Saturday and most of Sunday in Addis Ababa. This has come about mostly due to airline schedules. We leave to fly to Lusaka, Zambia at about 10 pm Sunday night

Yesterday was the first time that we’ve done anything “touristy”. We went to Unity Park which is a new “national” exhibit near the Parliament Buildings. It was a great overview of Ethiopia. The site was built around some important historical buildings and is less than 5 years old. It has lots of Disneyland type high- interest features in the architecture and walk ways. Along with historical information, there was a focus in indigenous plants and a zoo area (lions, deer, peacocks, giraffe, zebra, cheetah, African wild dogs).

We had a little stop where I got to learn how to make injera – something that has been served with almost every meal, including breakfast.

Making injera

For me, this experience at Unity Park helped review Ethiopia’s place in history – many facts that I previously knew but had not considered. For example,

• Ethiopia has a strong place in the continent hierarchy as they are the only African nation that was not colonized by Europe (although Italy attempted in then1890’s and again under Mussolini in the 1930s).
• They are a diverse nation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as the prominent religion, but Protestantism, Catholicism and Islam are also widely practiced, in addition to more tribal beliefs in remote regions
• There are between 60 and 90 languages and over 200 dialects. For example, we were just in the Hamar, Maale and Banna region – each has its own District language. The official language is Amharic, which uses a non English alphabet.

Coca-cola in Amharic

Lunch of “charcoal meat” at a roadside cafe

Traditional end of meal coffee service

With a population of 5.4 million, Addis Ababa is one of the most influential cities in Africa. You can see how it has invested more in infrastructure in the past such as airports and roads. It has many modern skyscrapers (usually bank buildings), yet at the same time, almost everywhere you go, you see one or more high rise (10+ stories) that has obviously been sitting incomplete for years. Without motorcycles everywhere, traffic seems a bit more orderly, however there certainly are local rules of the road. And it didn’t strike me until we were driving back from church and lunch today, but unlike other cities and towns that I’ve been to in Africa, the street here are clean – as in devoid of garbage. Once we started to chat about this realization, we then noticed as we were driving that there are people with brooms all over the place sweeping up.

When we were in Jinka, our friends warned us that Addis was full of thieves. The theft of phones and $3000 cash when we arrived at the airport felt consistent with that. But overall, Addis is a huge city trying to make a place as an international hub, filled with a dynamic of people trying to survive.

View of neighborhood near our hotel.

Water is Life

Thursday morning starts with an Ethiopian breakfast buffet for the group that we would be travelling with today. It included goat-fried rice, fried vegetables, spicy pasta, spaghetti and bread (with wild dark honey for dipping). And then Ethiopian coffee service, of course.

We travelled “over the mountain” to some very remote, hard to reach villages in the Maale Tribe region. Our purpose was to deliver Sawyer water filters that many friends back home helped to purchase. The drive was even a challenge for our rugged Toyota Land cruisers. From the pictures you might be able to see why a motorcycle is a popular form of transport here. The road up and down the mountain is nearly impassable in places, especially over the now-dry river beds that wash out a little bit more each rainy season. (By the time we had returned to a hotel in the main city of Jinka, my Apple Watch had calculated that I had climbed over 245 flights of stairs and over 15000 steps – due to the bumpy drive).

Our travel companions

Although dry, the river crossings are the most treacherous

Up the mountain

Down the mountain

A river with a rare trickle

Mountain top

Mountain top selfie

The river where we eventually stopped to do a water filter training for the men who would be working in the remote communities is one of only 2 rivers we have actually seen with water running in them. There are no bridges built over this river so during much of the year it is impassable.

This is a bottle of water that one of the children was carrying. To demonstrate how to use the water filters, we gathered water from the river in the photos. You can see it being poured through the cheese cloth liner that acts as a filter. It then slowly is filter through the Sawyer water system.

In this photo, notice the 3 water bottles. One is river water. One is an unopened bottle of water. The third is the water after it has been through the filter. It is not only clear of any sediment, but also any bacteria, viruses, etc. The final step is to remove the filter and use a large syringe provided to back flush and clean out the filter before the next use.

As you can see from the images below, this river is used for everything … bathing, watering livestock, washing clothing, and in many villages, even drinking.

Here are some photos of the river usage.

Watering animals

Bathing

Note the yellow water jugs

Keep in mind that people, usually women, will walk many kilometres to access any water that is available, even if it is this dirty. In the picture above, you can notice a yellow water jug waiting to be filled.

Some larger communities do have a water source, but as you can see by the jugs lined up, the water is not always available. In addition, this water will likely not be as visibly dirty, but it will still contain all sort on bacteria and contaminants.

The Sawyer water filters plus buckets and cheese cloth liners ended up being about $130 Canadian each. We delivered 21 to men that will take them to villages throughout the Maale region. They are really more suited to a single family but we have started by providing them to key leaders in various communities. (If you are interested in sponsoring water filters, let me know as there will be more opportunities to provide another round of water filters).

The Maale Tribe

Wednesday and much of Thursday we spent in Maale territory. Our local friend and guide, Tamene, is from the Maale tribe so it was good to be among his people.

Why the Maale region? Jesse and Harold’s Church of Christ in Lethbridge has been involved in sponsoring over 80 Ethiopians to Canada and about 65 % have been from the Maale tribe. Many of the people we met were parents, siblings, colleagues or friends of their Ethiopian-Canadian friends.

We spent our days in another Toyota Land Cruiser. Our driver, Tewa, was from Jinka and we greatly appreciated his driving skills over these 2 days.

After meeting the King of the Hamar tribe again for breakfast, eggs, vegetables, avacado and injera, we were on our way. (This restaurant definitely had a “special price” for white folks.)

Our first stop was at a church in the town of Banetta. Central Church (Lethbridge) helped provide funds for their current church building and this was great for Harold and Jesse to see it completed. We also supported an athletic project with uniforms and children’s Tim Horton’s soccer balls. The 100+ 2nd-hand soccer uniforms had been sent a month ago with Lethbridge church member, Amene, who was able to return to this area for his mother’s funeral because he had recently (finally) received his Canadian passport. Unfortunately, even though the uniforms were donated, the infamous Addis Ababa customs charged $700 USD to release them. When we were coming into Addis from Uganda, we were fearful that we would also have to pay duty for the soccer balls, but after a 2 hour wait at customs and lots of documentation being shown, we thankfully did not have to pay duty on the soccer balls.
Here is a picture of Jakob, the man at the Benetta church a few days after receiving the soccer balls.

Uniforms and soccer balls from Canada for children at the Banetta Church

After some wonderful African singing, a tour of the church grounds, a gift of wild African honey and bowls made out of gourds, we had a lovely African lunch which included a very nice bread (instead of injera), rice, vegetables, fruit from trees on the property, and a special treat of honey water.
From there we walked a short distance to the home of Amene’s father, where we were greeted (and served another lunch and coffee) by his father, some siblings and nieces and nephews.

Lunch – have I mentioned that it is customary to eat with one’s right hand (no utensils)

Before each meal, a hand washing bowl/pitcher is served

1000 people come to church on Sunday mornings

Inside the church at Banetta

This is a Children’s Ministries building in progress. Construction usually stops when the money runs out

We then travelled to a nearby town of Koybe where we stayed the night at the compound of the Church denomination offices for the Maale region. We toured the grounds and heard about their needs, hosted a supper of goat served many ways, injera and vegetables. We were presented with more lovely dark Ethiopian wild honey.

In Africa they put honey tubes in trees – like we would set out bee hives. Honey is harvested from these tubes. This tree is on the Koybe church campus.

It’s always a happy day when all of the plumbing works at a hotel or guest house. This time, none of it did so we worked out of buckets. Fortunately, this wasn’t a long day on a dusty road so the lack of facilities wasn’t a big deal.

I’ll write about the next day in a separate post… hopefully that will help this one get posted more quickly.

Returning to Addis Ababa

Just a quick note as we are packing up again for the airport in Jinka to rerun to Addis Ababa. We will spend almost 2 days there before flying to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

I have a few posts written about the adventures over the past few days, however having internet that is strong enough to send with images has been a challenge.

This watch image shows 200 flights climbed and almost 15 000 steps. Little of this was acccumulated outside of a vehicle – most of it was from bumping along in a vehicle on our adventures through the wilderness.

The Hamar Tribe region

We spent Tuesday touring the Hamar region around the towns of Turmi and Demeka. In these towns even public buildings like the municipal offices might only have 2 or 3 computers. Most residents have to gather water, often by donkey cart, from the nearby river. Washroom facilities, if they exist, probably have a sink or toilet, or both that doesn’t really work anymore. The majority would have no transportation, not even a mororcycle.

In Turmi we travelled with the young mayor, Emmanuel, and some city Councillors to 2 rural villages nearby that are populated with extremely traditional tribespeople that rely on herding cattle and goats for a living. They live in huts and wear very traditional clothing, often including goatskin. They speak the tribal language of Hamar and we communicate with translators.

Water in this region is a serious issue. Women in the tribes walk up to 10 kilometres each day to gather dirty river water in those yellow containers for their needs. Fewer girls are allowed to attend school, partly because they are needed to carry water.

In each thatched hut village we visited schools. The regional school superintendent who was travelling with us had a plea at each location, listing the hardships and needs, including building materials, supplies, and teaching staff. (In this area, there is evidence of various NGOs from USAid to World Vision so the idea exists that white people mean money.)

In the Hamar region, there will be some villages that oppose their children going to school because then they aren’t available to carry water and herd animals.

At both schools we visited, the village leaders and a current or former student also talked about the hardships in education and the list of what we could provide to help them out. In both cases, the schools only taught up to 3rd grade.

At 7am we left to visit a school called Magello; there are over 100 students for this single tiny school with twigs for walls, a plastic tarp for cover, rocks for chairs and half of a blackboard. The single teacher (female) lives a long walk away at the next village. Students stop attending school here because of crowding, lack of water for the village and the long walk (5-8 km) to attend grade 4. As you can see in the images below, lack of facilities and materials are also an issue.

A tiny twig school for over 100 students.

Half a blackboard, but usually no chalk

These rocks serve as chairs/desks.

Traditional Tribal dress is still the norm.

After a restaurant breakfast of injera and a goat dish called tibes, we drove to Shalle School in a different village near the area where we were last night. This school has wooden walls and a tin roof. There are a few partial desks but most students sit on cow hides on the floor. There are 2 teachers – a male and a female, but they are not trained in pedagogy so the school only offers grade 1-3.
There are 140 students – 105 boys, 36 girls – up to grade 3. Average family size is about 8 children in this region, so there is a constant supply. They don’t know their birthdays or even how old they are, but they guessed that most started grade 1 at age 8 or 9.

To attend grades 4-8, they must walk many kilometres to the next village. We heard from the only older boy who is still in school, trying for a 2nd time to pass grade 8. When he started in grade 4, there were 20 others who made the trek with him to Borria School. Due to the distance, only 2 have made it to grade 8.

We also visited a pregnancy medical center. This is a fairly large, well-known facility and ladies will come from as far as the Kenyan border 180 km away to have their babies. The facility has one doctor /surgeon and 3 or 4 midwives. It has a neonatal unit with 2 beds, mini blood bank for blood transfusions, and an operating room where they can preform emergency surgery. There is a single computer. The power goes out frequently and their back up generator, if it works, has to have someone come out and try to start it manually. While waiting for their time, pregnant women sleep outdoors on the floor or on benches at the hospital (making their own meals and often taking care of other children).

In the afternoon we drove down the highway to the next town of Demeka, still in the Hamar tribe region. We ate lunch at the home of Forra, the civil engineer for the town. Over 20 years ago, his oldest brother Sentayhu was a respected judge in the area, and even though none of the other brothers were educated, he took Forra many hours away to Jinka so he too could be educated. Sentayhu now lives in Lethbridge and asked Harold that we go meet his family. We drove south of town on a very bumpity road to meet the mother and two other brothers with wives and children.

At Forra’s house:
A beautiful lunch of injera and vegetables, which was followed by a full coffee ceremony.

You can’t imagine a bigger contrast between the 2 western educated brothers and the rest of their family who live on a remote hilly landscape in thatched huts and wear animal skins.

Forra and his mother

Other female family members.

The day ended with another goat roast, this time on the grounds of our hotel where we hosted the King of the Hamar tribe. He is currently in exile from his palace because the people don’t want him to be a Christian. Harold had a great opportunity to offer him some very encouraging words and present him a study Bible in the local language.

Jinka and Beyond

We flew out of Addis Ababa just after noon (on Monday), on a 70 minute flight to Jinka in the South Omo region, tucked down toward the border with Kenya and South Sudan. If we were driving, this trip would take 2 days and 20+ hours of driving. (Our team leader, Harold, made the drive in 2015.)

Our Canadian team is now 4 people (instead of 7) and we have been joined by Tamene who lives in Jinka and will travel with us as interpreter and guide.

The Jinka airport is a single runway with a small terminal building – flights go back and forth to Addis Ababa. We had lunch at the nice restaurant in town – and it seemed that all of the other non- African folks on the plane ended up there for lunch.

Jinka runway

Jinka terminal

Passengers unload their own luggage.

After lunch, it was in the vehicle and on the road. There seem to be few types of vehicles in Jinka – white Toyota Land Cruisers sponsored by an NGO or gov’t agency or tiny little putt-putt vehicles that are even smaller than a smart car. And the odd transport-type truck, usually carrying 2-10 people on top of the cargo. There are some motorcycles around town, but they behave nothing like the boda-boda’s in Uganda.

Our destination today is the region of the Hamar tribe. The first 50 kilometres of highway was a mixture of quite nice pavement and rough rocky sections where the 6-year old highway had already broken. The last 50+ kilometres was relatively stable gravel road. We drove about 80 km an hour on both sections but slowed or stopped very frequently for the parts of broken pavement, or more often, dozens and dozens of herds of goats or cattle. This area is primarily made up of remote and traditional herding people.

We drove for two to three hours from Jinka which was at the bottom of the nearby mountainous area. By the time we reached Turmi, a town of 21 000 including surrounding rural villages, we were on the top of a high, very dry, hot plateau. Daily temperatures will often be in the high 30s.

Driving through the region was quite like driving through a version of National Geographic. Children and boys/men in wrap-around fabric garments herd their goats or cows, often carrying an axe, machete or rifle. (When I asked about the rifles, I was told they were used to kill lions or men from rival tribes – both/either would bring a man great stature in the tribe.)

Woman walk along the highway often carrying bundles to/from market or babies tied to their backs. Once we were in these rural areas, traditional garments, head- pieces and tools/weapons were the norm. Villages are constructed of wooden and thatched huts and fences, the kind you would imagine in your most stereotypical version of Africa or National Geo magazine.

When we arrived and were taken to the guest house where we would be staying, we were informed by our hosts (which turned out to be the Mayor and some of his Cabinet) that we would be visiting a nearby village in the bush before it got dark and then to dinner.

The village turned out to be a very significant place for Harold and Jesse. Years ago, their dear Ethiopian-Canadian friend from Lethbridge, Paulos, sought refuge in one of the huts as he was fleeing persecution in a neigbouring tribe; one of the villagers later guided him through to Kenya by one of the tribesmen. Paulos was fleeing government persecution because he stood for change. He was from the Maale tribe to the North, and like many others in recent decades, was trying to make his way to Kenya to seek political refugee status and hopefully get to a North America.

There is way more to this story, but Harold and Jesse got to see the hut where Paulos hid and meet the wife of the man who led him to Kenya across the literal wilderness.

We ended the night as guests at a feast with the Mayor and City Caninet members – ice cold Coca Colas, inderbe, and fire roasted goat.

Goat roaring on sticks

This pot is about 4 feet across – filled with goat (we had this at a goat roast the following night)

The goat is served on a large platter and the brown covering is actually injera which is a very thin – bread like food, with consistency between a crepe and fluffy omelette

This is finally being posted on Wednesday morning- internet is scarce.

Arriving in Ethiopia

It’s a cool and rainy 13 degrees as we wake up at our “budget-friendly” hotel in Addis- Ababa. W

e arrived at the hotel at about 11:30 pm after 2 plus hours of going through Visa lineups, security lineups and customs lineups.

On the positive side, they were able to track Brian’s Visa application in the system, even though his e-Visa hadn’t been emailed to him yet. (The other 3 of us received our e-Visas a week ago). So we were glad that Brian didn’t have to pay an extra $100 for a Visa.

Another positive is that we were able to bring the suitcase of 40 mini/youth soccer balls into the country without paying additional duty (like when we had to pay the extra $600 usd to bring the cellphones into Uganda).

On a less positive note, when we arrived at the hotel late last night, we realized that Jesse, one of our team members had items stolen out of his backpack, likely as it went through security check. Even though we are all cautious and experienced travellers the unexpected procedures and commotions at various airports can cause us to momentarily lose track of items. Thus, in some short time frame, or behind the protection of “security”, Jesse had 3 Smart phones and $3000 usd removed from his backpack.

Fortunately, on the advice of our Ethiopian elders and advisors in Canada (Lethbridge), Jesse and our local contact Tamene had time to return to the international airport this morning and have already made it through to report the loss to airport authorities. Although this seems quite futile, we will wait and see what becomes of this over the next several days while we travel to southern Ethiopia.

We are leaving shortly to a domestic airport to fly to the Jinka region. This is an hour flight, but driving would have take over 20 hours!

This is our hotel – quite close to the airport (10-15 minutes) and the street outside the hotel. (A case of “you get what you pay for”)

Communication in Africa

When we started to talk about a technology conference at Grand Maria School in Uganda, one of the requests from the school director was that we also bring old or unused Smartphones. So if you live near me and have an old Smartphone (and charge cord) to donate, let me know and I will make arrangements to pick it up from you. Here’s why it matters…

Access to reliable communication is something that most of us have taken for granted our entire lives. For our teacher friends in Africa, their experience has been different as I will explain if you keep reading. For many, they use their phones until they are entirely worn out or broken; phone replacement has nothing to do with the latest iOS version that is available!

Historical Communication in Africa

While most of us in North America don’t know life without access to a telephone (although for some of us that still includes using a “party line”), the history of telephones in Africa is much different, as is their use in today’s Africa.

At its peak in 2000, only about 4 % of African citizens had access to a landline telephone. In some countries, like Uganda, about 98 % of the population never had access to telephones until mobile phone technology became affordable. During European colonization, colonial powers only installed landline telephones in “civilized” areas of major cities and to trading posts or other resource-rich sites where multi-national companies were setting up extraction facilities. As decolonization happened, investing in landline infrastructure was attempted in some regions, but was mostly unsuccessful. Progress was slow and hindered by various factors such as limited resources, political instability, and geographical challenges. As a result, telephone landlines remained a luxury accessible to only a privileged few, with penetration rates of less than 4% across the continent, even into the 21st century.

The Mobile Phone Revolution in Africa

The real game-changer in African telecommunications emerged with the introduction and rapid proliferation of mobile phones in the early 2000s. Unlike landlines, mobile phones provided an opportunity for Africans to bypass the limitations of traditional infrastructure and leapfrog into the digital age. With the expansion of mobile networks, remote areas that were previously unreachable became connected, often transforming the social, economic, and political landscapes across the continent. From digital payments to increased access to healthcare and education to improved access to family members living far away, mobile phones have significantly impacted daily life for many African families.

Although mobile phones have been a game changer on the continent, there are still several access issues. As of 2021, approximately 80% of the adult population in Africa owned a mobile phone but only 44% of those are Smartphones. Comparatively, 97% of North Americans have a mobile phone and about 85% of us own Smartphones.

Phones and Smartphones are used quite differently in Africa. For example, texting was common in Africa long before it was widely used in North America. African mobile models are much more often a pay-as-you-go model as opposed to the multi-year contracts that North Americans often find ourselves locked into. As a result, in many African cities and rural areas alike, Sim-card vendors and advertisements seem to be everywhere. Can you pick out the telecom advertising in the images below? Citizens buy minutes or Sim-cards as they can afford them. For these reasons, What’s App is the most popular tool in Africa, partly because it is less of a strain on internet resources and therefore more reliable and affordable.

Although Smartphones provide internet access, connectivity is still very unreliable in many areas, especially in rural locations. In addition, the extra cost of operating a Smartphone is beyond what many can afford. My teacher friends in Uganda, for example, make approximately $50 USD / month. Smartphone access becomes a luxury. On the other hand, owning a computer is even a bigger stretch, so having a Smartphone is often the only feasible way for folks to access the internet.

The adoption of smartphones in Africa has significantly transformed communication, access to information, and opportunities for individuals across the continent. While the penetration rate of smartphones continues to rise, challenges such as affordability, limited connectivity, and technological literacy persist. Addressing these challenges can further unlock the potential of smartphones, enabling Africans to leverage the benefits of digital connectivity and participate fully in the digital age.