92 – Person of Interest – American Mother – Tryst with Tis Abay Water Fall – Ethiopian Journey

Blue Nile falls/Tis Abay (Great Smoke in Amharic)

Aunty’s visit created a huge excitement in Kable 7, Bahirdar. In a small town everything is big news and Aunty’s arrival from USA was definitely BIG. Padma and the kids had decorated the house tastefully and had huge welcome boards (hand-made) hung in the drawing room.

Ebolu and the Coffee Ceremony

Ebolu (Kuldeep’s maid) brought casuarina branches and arranged a traditional coffee ceremony. She even added artificial roses and lights to add to the gaiety. Aunty enjoyed it.  

Anasuya Aunty, Pranav and Sahithi in the vast meadow in front of our house

That evening onwards we started to walk in the kable. With the onset of the rains the entire country side turned from a sulking dusky terrain to a green smiling maiden (Maidan as it is referred in India). There was greenery everywhere and the weather turned out to be pleasant.

Road leading to PEDA, Sahithi, Padma, Aunty and Gadadhar (Oops Pranav with the Mace)

We enjoyed the walks. Walking on the metal roads with sharp projecting stones was an adventure in itself. And once it becomes dark, it becomes pitch dark. It is so dark that one has to step gingerly, one step at a time. 

Padma and Sahithi with Ethiopian version of Tangedu Poolu 

The rains made the roads slushy and slippery too. It was quite common to see locals walk nonchalantly wearing huge gum boots -  the ones that we see factory workers wear.

Our Family snapped! in the background is the view point 

The Ethiopians we knew were pleased to know that Aunty came visiting. Most of their faces broke into winsome smiles when they were told that she came from USA. USA – most of them knew! The US green card lottery is an annual event that most Ethiopians eagerly wait for. US green card lottery is one mega gamble that no educated Ethiopian wanted to miss. They all wanted to try their luck.

Bahudurapu batasarulu

USA believes in diversity. It generously offers green cards to 50,000 worldwide immigrants to come and settle in USA. As Ethiopians were not migrating in huge numbers to USA they are eligible for the lottery. The scheme is called the US diversity Visa lottery Program. It is quite common to see many Ethiopians register for the US Visa lottery process quite religiously. It is a ticket to a better life and prosperity and many Ethiopians try their luck year-after-year.

The volume of the applications is very high and nearly 20 million people apply for the 50,000 annual green card visas that are granted. The lucky ones are selected by a lottery. Thus it was not surprising that my friends and colleagues held aunty in high esteem – She comes from the promised land!!!!

For long we wanted to visit Blue Nile waterfalls or Tis Abay (the Great smoke in Amharic) water falls. Till 2003, Tis Abay was a majestic sight. Water gushed down and fell in thundering cascades from a height of around 37 to 45 feet. From a trickle in the dry season to over 400 metres wide in the rainy season, the water falls are an awe inspiring sight in full flow.  

After a hydroelectric dam was constructed in 2003, the water flow had reduced drastically except in peak rainy season. But it is still a magnificent sight. And the route is said to be breathtakingly scenic. ‘It is the journey that is sometimes more exciting than the destination itself!!!!’. Tis Abay is located around 30 kilometers from Bahirdar. The day was 3rd August 2003.

From Left Padma, Sahithi, Aunty, Shilpa, Krishna, Suresh, Kuldeep and Balakrishna and standing infront Pranav

We were a party of Ten. Padma, me, Pranav, Sahithi, Aunty, Balakrishna, Dr. Kuldeep, his wife Shilpa, Suresh and his wife, Krishna. We decided to rough it out and take the public transport. The bus journey was not comfortable. The bus had seen better days and the ride was pretty bumpy.

Ethiopian Bus 

The Ethiopian custom of closing all the windows to avoid dust and cold air from coming in meant that the bus was stuffy and the ride was claustrophobic, to say the least. Most of the fellow travelers gave us curious glances but mercifully not many comments were made. May be Suresh’s and my strapping appearances and the huge beard that Kuldeep sported must have been the deterrents!

Road side view from the bus 

The scenery around us was a throwback to the nomadic times that our ancestors must have passed through. Pencil thin Ethiopian peasants hefting huge loads on their backs or on patient and slow moving donkeys or cows could be seen. 

Unarguably one of the most photogenic race in the world.

We also saw young girls and boys dressed in tatters but they sported beaming smiles and waved at us in gay abandon as the bus noisily made its way alongside!

Tissisat Village, gateway to the Tis Abay water fall

The bus dumped us at Tissisat village and immediately we were surrounded by a pack of Ethiopians, all of whom wanted a piece of us. They were all like the modern day Shylocks! They were all screaming at us and we could not make head or tail of what they were saying. Sahithi who was youngest in the group was in tears and Pranav too looked close to a breakdown. We were being dragged and buffeted from all sides.

Luckily for us Suresh had limited command of Amharic and he spoke to the crowd with his best teachers’ voice and slowly it dawned on the unruly crowd. “Omigosh, this is a group of teachers”. Slowly a hush descended and it was as if there was an invisible finger on their lips.

Out of the restless motley crowd one guy stepped forward. He had a saucy, jaunty look about him. He jabbered away at Suresh and Suresh slowly started nodding his head. Suresh turned towards us and said “this guy says that it is very dangerous to go to the waterfall by ourselves. The crowd is demanding 50 dollars per person (roughly 350 birr) to guide us”. It was a jaw dropping amount.

500 dollars for 10 people was 25,000/- Indian rupees!!!!. Suresh who visited the waterfall before dismissed the preposterous idea. He said, “Not to worry Sir! We can go to the waterfall by ourselves”. “That is fine” I told him. “But what do we do with this wailing, howling and restless wolf pack?”. Suresh hit upon the divide and rule that the British taught us.

He took the leader of the pack aside and made a deal. “Make peace and leave us alone”. We could hear talk of 100s of birr being thrown about but Suresh was patient. Infact he could become a great negotiator in a hostage release situation! He had that Zen calmness about him. It was the leader who was getting more and more rattled. Finally, a deal was struck and they shook hands and surreptitiously money was exchanged.

As the leader was explaining the deal struck to his pack, we beat a hasty retreat to the path that led to the waterfall. ‘Suresh”, I said “that was good. I am sure that the 100 or 200 birr that you gave him will buy us peace”.

“100 birr!!!” exclaimed Suresh “I told him that we are volunteer teachers and that we don’t get paid very well. I argued that 2 birr per person was enough to let us go” I gaped at him. Think of the Indian ingenuity and the ability to squeeze oil out of even desert sand! I mentally saluted Suresh for getting us out of a tricky situation.

89 - Anasuya Aunty’s visit and Surprise of surprises at Mercato – Ethiopian Journey.

10^th October is the big day as far as this blog is concerned. It was 10^th October 2017, when I wrote the first blog post, titled “The genesis – Ethiopian journey – Part – I”. I   made a mental vow. That I would blog daily and that I would limit myself to 500 words per blog post.

Let me admit I was way off the mark on both counts, guilty as charged!!!  I could blog only 88 times instead of the self-promised 365 times and my average word count is 917 words per blog against 500 words. 365 blogs @ 500 words would have meant 1,82,500 words. I have so far reached 80,661 words to pen my 88 blogs. 

So much for the statistics of my one-year journey. The next interesting event that we were all anticipating in July 2003 was the visit of Padma’s mother Mrs. Anasuya Devi Matam. Anasuya Aunty lived in the USA along with her second son, Matam Sai Prasad, a well-known Software Engineer. Anasuya aunty’s elder son Luke (Srinivas) Matam also lived in the USA.

Aunty had her life cut out for travel! Her daughter was in India till 2002, and both her sons were in USA. But our going to Ethiopia changed it all. Now her relatives near and dear were in India, sons in USA and daughter in Africa. She was literally straddling three continents; Asia, America and Africa (Triple A, what a coincidence!). Aunty was made of very sterner stuff! She wanted to visit us, come what may! She did not want to miss seeing her grand children growing up.

A plan was made for her to visit Bahirdar, Ethiopia. The plan hit a stumbling road block. Sai told us that the air fare from SFO (San Francisco) to Addis Ababa were way too expensive.  A ticket from SFO – Hyderabad – Mumbai – Addis Ababa was cheaper than SFO - Addis Ababa. It was decided that Aunty would come to Hyderabad, India and from there come to Addis Ababa and then to Bahirdar.

The first part of the plan went as per schedule. Aunty landed in India and was overjoyed to see her relatives and friends. The information about her arrival was conveyed to us through ‘rock(et) communication’.

Our Rocket communication was the joke of entire Kable 7. In 2003 landline phones were rare in Bahirdar and luckily for us Kuldeep had one and his house was right behind ours. Whenever he received our telephone call from India/USA he would throw a small rock onto our roof. As the roofs were all make of tin, the falling of the rock made quite a noise. A falling rock meant a telephone call. We would lock the house and make a quick beeline to receive the rare telephone call from India/USA.

We were told, when aunty would come to Addis Ababa and Padma and me made suitable plans. Padma and the kids were quite keen to come to Addis but I convinced them (may be prophetically) that I would go alone. I told Padma quite jovially “You better stay here. May be some information might come in from India/USA”.

On the day before Aunty was supposed to come, I went to Addis Ababa by the trusted Cobra (Toyota Land Cruiser). By now I got used to the dusty and bumpy road travel and with a handkerchief draped on the face the journey was bearable.

I landed in the evening in Addis and took a room in Tourist Hotel, Arat Kilo. It was quite spacious for a single person. The tiresome travel and the delicious Bayenetu (Injera served with Vegetables) had me nodding off to sleep in no time.

The next day dawned quite chilly. I had to spend the entire day as Aunty’s flight was only expected at mid night! I went to the local Ethiopian Airlines office and booked two tickets, for the next day morning. Spending an entire day in Addis Ababa was not a big deal. I went to Mercato, the biggest open air market in the world.

Unlike the nay sayers Mercato is very safe. Obviously we need to take care of our wallets just like any other city of the world. Unfolding in front of me were unbelievable items and products that I was totally unaware off.

I stopped and gazed at a beautiful article, the size of a small water melon. It looked very fragile and had stunningly beautiful Ethiopian motifs painted on it. I took this quite peculiar article in my hand. I thought it was made of wood.

To my surprise it was hollow and light. “What is it?” I asked in wonder. “Yesegoni Inikulali” was the impudent answer. Inkulal as we spelt it, I knew was an egg. Then it dawned on me, I was looking at the biggest egg that a bird could lay – An ostrich egg!!!

The discovery stunned me. It was totally unexpected. Seeing an ostrich egg itself was rare and here I was looking at an ostrich egg transformed into an art piece. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The enterprising youngster made a small incision at the base of the egg and sucked out all the liquid.

Then he sealed the hole and painted beautiful tales from the bible. The huge challenge would have been to bring symmetry and structure to a painting on a curved surface. I had never seen anything as artistic as the painted ostrich egg in my hands!

Then the battle started. I asked the rate. It was 500 birr. I rolled my eyes up, made a noise as if a scooter was revving up. I said “Orroo! Habesha, Firanji ilem (hold on, hold on, I am a local not a foreigner)”. I quoted 50 birr. The vendor was not impressed. He sat on his high horse. “400 Birr” was his snarling reply, as I made a hasty get away. I was almost ambushed 100 metres away. “how much, how much” he was demanding. “80 birr, 80 birr (Rs 400 or roughly 8 dollars at that time)” I said, sounding more confident than I felt.

With a disgusted look, he shoved the Ethiopian egg roughly into my hand and I paid him his eighty birr. It was a damn tough task to get the fragile egg back to my room. I had not carried any bag and the Indian carrying an ostrich egg in his hand and dexterously maneuvering it through the crowds and protecting it as if his life depended on its survival must have made quite an impression on many Ethiopians.

It was almost 5 p.m. by the time I reached Tourist hotel and I have to wait for seven more hours before the flight landed from Mumbai. I went to room and tried to relax, but I was as tense as a coiled spring.  I was good to go.