I’m still recovering from our weekend trip to Addis. We travelled to Addis on Friday because we were due our final Hepatitis vaccinations. I returned on Sunday and Gill will stay in Addis until Wednesday to attend a volunteer committee meeting.

The bus journey was interesting if tedious and uncomfortable. The bus could probably seat about 60 people. Even though the journey takes about six hours, the seats are the same design as you get on buses in a city in the UK: hard, uncomfortable, little legroom and with a handrail along the top of the seatback. Bus stations here are, to my Ferenji eyes, a picture of complete chaos. The only way to find out which bus is going where is to ask several people and take the median average of the responses. Once a bus has been filled, somebody might announce that we have to transfer to a different bus for no apparent reason. Even then, “departure time” is a very loose concept and depends on how full the bus is. Even leaving the bus station is eventful. Three buses might simultaneously attempt to fit through an exit wide enough for one. The bus might actually almost make it through the entrance before stopping while the driver and others have an unintelligible conversation about something, or even reverse back into the bus station to pick up more people. Meanwhile hundreds of people are milling about looking for buses, friends or trying to sell food to other people looking for buses.

The journey between Awassa and Addis is along the floor of the Rift Valley, through flat, dry-looking scrubland and past large lakes. There are very poor people living in small circular huts made of mud and wood, and children playing in muddy puddles, everywhere you look. After three bum-numbing hours we stopped for a 30 min break at a small town. All buses stop here and, as we stepped off the bus, a small army of people selling snacks, water and tissues descended on the passengers. The break is also an opportunity for the driver to stock up on Chat. Chat is a drug found in the leaves of a particular shrub. It’s a powerful stimulant, like strong coffee but longer-lasting, and is released when the leaves are chewed. With frequent use it can be addictive but is used by many people to help them stay alert e.g. drivers and students studying for exams. Seeing people stuffing leaves into their mouths is quite common. After regaining circulation to our legs, we set off for another three hour run into Addis.

Addis itself was a good deal less intimidating to me than when we were here nearly three months ago. Arriving at the Yonas Hotel (where we stayed during our in-country training) was a relief. The real pleasure of the Yonas is that the staff are very familiar with VSOs and the rooms have TV!

We had a fabulously expensive meal (140 birr each!) in a Middle Eastern restaurant that evening with Susanne and Stephanie, two Addis-based VSO vols. Cold white wine was lovely (a COLD drink!) and the food was stunning after being used to good-if-dull Ethiopian food in Awassa.

There are loads of Ferenji in Addis, working for embassies or NGOs. They are all generally well-paid and look it. I went looking for wholemeal flour in Bambis, a Ferenji supermarket. It’s a Ferenji shop because it sells food most Ethiopians would not be familiar with and at prices that must seem astronomical. I found it a bit depressing to see well-paid ferenjis filling shopping trolleys with staple food that costs several times what you can pay if you go to a small local shop, although I suppose the inflated amounts they pay go into the local economy.

The journey back to Awassa started with a chaotic bus station and then an uneventful six hour journey. As we neared Awassa, we passed a large bus on its side in the mud. The wreckage was being recovered and from the state of it, people must have been killed. From the way people drive here and the animals wandering across the roads, I wouldn’t want to do this journey too often. Besides, I don’t think my buttocks could handle it on a regular basis.