Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 21:41:22 +0200
My Love-Hate Relationship with Ethiopa: A Report
18/08/2013
Posted on
<http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/blog/2012/04/24/my-love-hate-relationship-wi
th-ethiopa-a-report/> April 24, 2012 by
<http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/blog/author/mitchellk81/> Mitchell
Kanashkevich
The fascinating cultures, the breathtaking landscapes, the ever present
feeling that you are in a different time, a different dimension-this is what
I absolutely love about Ethiopia. The constant feeling of being a human
piggy-bank, the challenges of doing the simplest of things, the often
occurring feeling that your new "friends" are measuring you up to see what
they can extract from you-this is what I've come to hate beyond words about
the country.
I've been in Ethiopia for a bit over four months now. I know that many of
the readers of this blog are photographers and travelers, some of whom have
aspirations to come here. For this reason, I feel that I should write an
account of sorts. One that is fairly uncensored and touches on the good, the
not so good and the plain ugly sides of this incredible and incredibly
challenging country.
Ethiopia has a lot of potential, but, I am yet to meet a single independent
traveler who says that they've fallen in love with it. Perhaps one of the
more defining comments about independent travelers' experience here comes
from two Australians who have cycled through much of the country. "Never
have we been treated as such pieces of sh-t as we have in Ethiopia." This is
what they wrote in an email to me after we parted and they left Ethiopia.
Another traveler on two wheels, a brave solo female motorcyclist who rode
through half of the world to get here was so frustrated and disappointed
with Ethiopia that she breezed through much of it and left within a couple
of weeks.
Anyway, the point is - everyone I've met who had to deal with the everyday
realities of being a foreign traveler in Ethiopia hasn't liked it. Most
don't want to ever return. Organized tours are a different matter. These
usually shield you off from those harsh realities as much as possible.
Participants of such tours may very well come home with the illusion that
all is well and jolly in the "cradle of civilization."
I could go on and on about the frustrations, but I'll be more practical
instead. Below is a quick report on the places I've visited. I'd like to end
on a positive note, so I'll get the places I didn't enjoy out of the way
first. The ones I did enjoy are towards the bottom of the post.
Gondar and its surroundings (totally freakin hated)
If there's one place I never ever want to come back to it's Gondar and most
of the area that stretches as far as 120 km West of it. One of the major
problems with Ethiopia is that many of the not-so-well-off locals ask for
money as soon as they see a foreign face. The problem reaches a whole new
level around Gondar, here people don't ask for money, they demand it. When
they spot a foreigner, a lot of the children and even adults just stretch
out their hands saying "Money, money!" or "You, you, Bir, Bir!" I am sure
I'll have many horrifying flashbacks with this damn phrase. Thank you Gondar
for the memories, if I ever want to play a very cruel joke on someone, I'll
recommend this town as a great holiday destination.
Geralta Area (loved the churches, hated virtually all interaction with the
locals)
It baffles me how an area that has as much to offer as Geralta can be as
annoying and as frustrating as it is. The rock-churches here are nothing
short of amazing, but the residents almost everywhere we went made sure that
whatever magical experiences we had were tarnished in one way or another,
usually in multiple ways.
There were bad experiences - the greed and thirst for Bir of the priests at
virtually every church we visited was incredible, but the lowest point came
on the way to one of the more remote churches. Somehow, among the scam
artists and the cheaters we found a wonderful young man named Kinfe. He came
with us on a mini-adventure to that remote church. He was convinced that the
people of the area were all lovely and couldn't believe all the troubles we
had. A couple of hours later, when we found ourselves walking to the church,
accompanied by about thirty money-demanding children, who threatened to
throw stones at us, if we wouldn't meet their demands, Kinfe said "These are
not people, they're savages! I don't feel secure, let's leave!" What can I
say - lovely.
The one saving grace of interaction with the locals in Geralta was an
afternoon with Kinfe's family. Lovely, lovely folks. That's a photo from
that afternoon above.
The entire road to Lalibela (disliked, considerably)
This is where our journey began and it quickly became apparent that
traveling around Ethiopia would not be a walk in the park. Every rest stop
along the road was accompanied by children and whoever was nearby, running
at us asking for money, shoes, t-shirts or whatever else they could think
of. The "highlight" of the journey was an instance when Tanya and I lied
down to relax under some trees, only to have a bunch of kids nagging
constantly over a period of twenty minutes, asking us to give them whatever
we had.
The Simien Mountains and the town Debark (indifferent)
I can't really say I liked or disliked the Simien Mountains. It was
fascinating to see the Gelada baboons so up close and the scenery was nice
(though it's just as nice in other, easier to travel places). It was however
frustrating that I couldn't ride around the park without the mandatory scout
(just a dude with a gun). This limited what I could do, since three people
on a bike doesn't leave much space for camping gear.
Even more frustrating was the national park management's (almost the whole
area is a national park) lack of care about my request to head out into the
mountains and do some home-stays with local families. "The homes of the
locals are not equipped with tourist facilities" this was their excuse for
saying that I couldn't do it. I've slept on goat skins, so that's not an
issue and of course had I been more set on getting out there, I would have
found a way, but with all the obstacles and more places to see - why bother?
It's just a pity that from all the tourist money which changes hands in the
Simien Mountains, the mountain residents see one big "Zero" as a result of
the management's approach.
Danakil depression (it was fascinating, but perhaps more frustrating than
fascinating)
The main annoyances about the trip to Danakil were the ridiculous
restrictions and regulations introduced by the local government, to make
some money off foreign visitors. Mandatory armed guards (all of which had to
be paid) and a local guide (almost entirely useless) meant that we could not
ride our motorcycles here. We needed to hire a 4X4 car, which would fit
everyone in. Not only was this expensive, but the driver of the car turned
out to be the worst person I ever met in my life, no exaggerations.
We paid a lot of the money up front, believing he was nice. I guess we
softened a little after spending a few days in the lovely town of Mekele.
With this being his first trip to the Danakil, the driver didn't know what
to expect. After seeing the rough roads, he resisted taking us virtually
anywhere we wanted to go. Not only that, the man would have left us in the
middle of the salt desert, had it not been for the mandatory guards, whose
only usefulness was the fact that they took away the driver's keys and
locked him out of his own car, while we walked around and took photos.
Most of the locals living in the villages we'd stayed at in Danakil were not
exactly saints either, but in comparison to our driver, they did at least
seem very human.
Harar and Dire Dawa (kinda liked, but not as much as I expected after all
the praise)
Harar is a fascinating and incredibly photogenic town as are parts of Dire
Dawa, but having been to cities in India that remind me of these two, I
can't say that I was blown away. A big reason for my lesser level of
excitement is also the attitude of the locals (more so local women) towards
being photographed. I understand that no one owes me anything and that no
one has to be in my photos, if they don't want to, but, that doesn't mean
that I can't like the place less, when people go out of their way to ruin a
shot where they are only a small component within a frame. A little tough to
explain that concept, I guess. :)
Gunda Gunde and its surroundings (liked)
Although Adigrat, the gateway to Gunda Gunde lies along the main tourist
route often called the "Historical Circuit," but, Adigrat has for some
reason been spared from all the crap that tourism usually brings. The people
are decent and helpful - no cheating, no begging. The whole road to the
jumping off point for the trek to the remote Gunda Gunde monastery is filled
with children who simply wave and smile as you ride past them. Things are
much the same during the hike, though some of the more cunning villagers did
show signs of wanting to make a quick buck from the visitors. The monastery
itself was not as fascinating as I had expected, but being among genuine,
hospitable people more than made up for it.
The Omo Valley (liked)
For me the Omo Valley was surprisingly hassle-free. This, however, might be
because I saw relatively little of it, or perhaps my expectations had
completely hit rock bottom by the time I got there. Regardless, the Omo
Valley is nothing short of amazing, especially when you're riding through
the African bush and seeing tribal folks along the roads (if you can call
them roads) that belong in a Nat Geo documentary.
My time with the Hamer tribe was one of the highlights of the journey.
Unfortunately it does seem like they have been indoctrinated with the idea
that every click of the camera should result in money and despite paying for
a home-stay, a few of my female photographic subjects did request Bir, when
I hung around with the camera for extended periods of time. A funny, regular
occurrence though was the fact that just after being somewhat pissed off
about not getting paid for being photographed so many times, the women would
completely switch moods bursting into laughter or inviting me in for food.
See the post on the Hamer tribe HERE
<http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/blog/2012/04/17/the-wild-wild-south-hanging-
out-with-the-hamer-tribe-in-the-omo-valley/> .
Lalibela (loved, but depends when you go there)
Lalibela is magical. It might be my favorite place in the world, as far as
religious centers go. I was there during Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas.
Having been surrounded by all those incredible churches and rural folk who
looked the way I imagined people looked during biblical times - I felt like
I was back in time. You can see the post on Lalibela
<http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/blog/2012/01/12/orthodox-christmas-in-lalibe
la/> HERE.
I stayed in Lalibela after the celebrations too and outside of those times
it is a different town. There are more tourists than pilgrims, and money
hungry, scheming locals are attracted to the tourists like, pardon the
comparison, flies to you know what.
Abi Adi and West Tigray (liked a lot)
I first started to feel that things were changing in a positive way when we
arrived in the town of Abi Adi. While looking for a hotel, we came across
many children, not a single request for Bir, pens or whatever other crap.
The folks at the churches still had their minds set on charging the standard
"entrance fees" and hoping for a tip for doing some pretty small things,
but, there was no real hassle.
Some of my favorite moments of the journey came in this area too. A visit to
an elderly leather-worker's house that felt like a trip to a real-life
museum, as well as a crazy ride through some of the worst roads I'd ever
been on, that one ended up in a climb to a monastery, up a vertical cliff
face with the assistance of small footholds and a chain.
Enderta area in Tigray (absolutely loved it)
This is the only area where I got close to falling in love with Ethiopia,
perhaps even did, for a while. :)I didn't hear requests for money or
anything else throughout my entire stay,which was close to a month, and this
almost made me forget all the bullsh-t I encountered before. The people of
Enderta are proud, genuinely hospitable and just lovely. They're some of my
favorite people in the world. It didn't hurt that they were incredibly
photogenic too. :)
We stayed overnight in a few villages and visited quite a few more on day
trips. No matter what happened before or after, Enderta will remain a place
that is dear to my heart. You can check out my
<http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/blog/2012/03/15/into-the-heart-of-ethiopia/>
blog post from a few weeks back, if you're interested to read and see more
about the area.
Conclusion
That's about it for my report. Writing it was somewhat cathartic. I'm sorry
if I've sounded too negative at times, but this blog, besides being a
resource for like-minded people is also a sort of a diary for myself. I want
to remember my impressions of Ethiopia and the blog post will help.
I probably don't have much more time in the country. My wife has already
left for Belarus and I'm hanging around until I make a decision on where I
go next. The big question that I have been asking myself and that others
might want an answer to is "Will I ever come back to Ethiopia?"
There are still places that I really want to see and I feel like my trip to
the amazing Omo Valley was unfinished. On the other hand, I feel like I need
to be a bit of a masochist to go through all the crap again. At this stage
I've honestly got no idea whatsoever if I would come back here on my own
accord. Time will tell.
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