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| I manned this shop to earn my coffee |
It was time to say goodbye to the guide I brought from Gondar
to Axum. For many days, we were
constantly bickering over his habit of not finishing the food he ordered. I told him that there are many people
(including his fellow Ethiopians) who are starving, and yet he wastes
food.
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| Me and my guide |
Towards the end of our travels, he would clean-up his plate and call my attention to it. He said that he could not thank me enough for giving him the opportunity to travel around Ethiopia, and the education that he received along the way. He says that even his family and friends could not believe his good fortune. I gave him a handsome bonus which I hoped would help him partly finance his school fees.
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| See the thread on his ears? He also uses the door knob as bobbin. |
There was also this gentle old man who is a tailor. He is 70 years old (in modern times or 62
years old in Ethiopian calendar) who asked me to drop by his shop everyday for
coffee. Oh, I love the old man who uses
his left ear lobe as a bobbin for the thread of his sewing machine.
 |
| I enjoyed his company |
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| He sews traditional Ethiopian clothing |
I had an unforgettable experience of taking a domestic flight
that operates like a bus. To return to Manila, I took a plane from Axum to Addis Ababa, the capital, without knowing that the plane makes brief stop-overs in each of the places
that I had been to: Lalibela, Bahir Dar,
Gondar and finally Addis.
 |
| Tried riding in the badjas.... |
Ethiopia has
17 domestic airports and the Ethiopian Airlines
run these airports like a bus stop.
It was fun waiting inside the plane and watching while it loads and unloads passengers at all the airport stops.
 |
| and in a dressed-up donkey with blinders |
I almost missed my plane to Manila. I forgot the time while enjoying the food and having a drink too many at a Filipino friend's house while my things were still all over Uziel's (co-volunteer) house.
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| We were strangers sharing a taxi. It turned out, she, too was a VSO volunteer! |
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| At the VSO office in Addis Ababa |
But Uziel had all my stuff packed and ready for my pick-up on the way to the airport. Nothing left behind. Among the skills that a volunteer possess is the thoroughness in the art of personal packing.
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| Well, my boots are now clean and shiny. Manila, here I come! |
I arrive Manila after two years in Africa. Coming home is another adventure.
That's for the next post.
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