Part II
In the evening I got together with my new travel companions to search for transportation opportunities to Dollo Ado. I found out right away that there is no minibus transportation and only Izuzu trucks loaded with food and equipment mainly for the refugee camps leave to Dollo Ado. The road is really bumpy from Negele to Dollo and stretches about 360km long - only a sturdy 4x4 SUV or a big truck will survive the road. We are several people who needed to get to Dollo in the next few days and decided to continue our search for transportation the next day. It was getting late and everyone was tired from a long journey to Negele Borena.
After I got some good sleep I woke up early in the morning. I couldn’t overhear the call for Allah from the nearby Mosque. I enjoyed hearing the prayers and it reminded me again of the worlds apart from home. The sun was rising and I got up as most people in Africa rise early with the sun. After breakfast we searched for transportation again and with some help we were able to find a truck taking along three people. From here I continued my journey with a young Ethiopian Chemistry teacher, who is about to start his new job assignment in Dollo Ado and a business man. We got on the truck in the late afternoon as the trucks only drive through the night to Dollo. The hot temperatures during the day will quickly wear down the tires and the daytime heat does not make for a pleasant travel condition. Finally the truck was loaded and ready to go. I got into the cabin with two drivers and my two travel mates. The cabin was also filled with khat and the drivers cheeks were already stuffed with the green plant. In the eastern parts of the country it is tradition to chew khat in the afternoon and it keeps the drivers at night awake and alert. They didn’t want me to go to sleep either for the long road ahead, so I had to chew with them. The plant has a bitter taste and is best to enjoy it with sugar or drinking coke at the same time. We drove slowly through the night and stopped several times at small villages to unload and sell the khat the truck brings along the route for the local Somali tribes men. It can never be too early or too late in the day - local tribes men are always ready and wait for the fresh delivery of their beloved khat.
Finally after 15 hours drive we reached at daylight the first refugee camp Bokolmanyo. We stopped at the local MSF Spain camp where the truck unloaded its heavy load of water and cement. I walked with my travel mates near the main road and we could see the Somali refugee camp with many white tents in the far distance. We got a snack and some tea at a local Somali house along the road. We were near Dollo Ado, but still about 100km away. It was hot, the land is flat and the desert clearly shows its face with only a few visible shrubs in the landscape. We patiently waited for the truck to unload and after several hours we continued our trip to Melkadida, another refugee camp closer to Dollo Ado. Since the truck has finished his mission and needed to return to Negele Borena, the driver searched for a minibus to take us into Dollo Ado. At this point it was clearly visible that it had rained for at least a few days and the road was more or less flooded. Somehow we made it into the minibus stuffed with Somali women, children and large bags. The driver’s voice sounded like the devil in person. Somali culture is so different - people speak loudly, sometimes scream at each other and gesture with their hands. His laugh was so loud and scruffy and sounded like it came right out of hell. Initially I couldn’t tell whether he is angry, but I quickly understood that his speech is normally like this and his laugh with his smoky and rusty voice started to amuse me. His cheeks were stuffed with khat and his yellow and brown teeth showed his longterm khat abuse.
The road to Dollo Ado was about another 70km ahead of us - heavily soaked and flooded from the rain. It continued to rain, but somehow we made it to Dollo, sitting all squeezed together with way too many people on board of the minibus. The roads in town were also flooded - the first rain in over two years - so they told me. The streets were muddy and the driver took me to the nearest hotel in town. My first impression was a town from the middle ages - busy with many SUV’s driving around from different NGO’s. A town seemingly stuck in the 16th century - without electricity (some people have generators) and running water (donkey carts bring water from nearby wells) - but almost everyone has a mobile phone. The future has arrived in Dollo Ado :: Ethiopia.
