#metema

[double-figures]

Ethiopian bunna lady, who also able to cook you hearty meal with the same fire pit that makes the coffee at the road side, seasoned with rich spices which made the food tasted like heaven after crossing the border from Sudan.

Metema, August 2018

[jiakhong-blog]

28 Aug: First impression of Ethiopia: From Metema (border with Sudan's Gallabat) to Gondar

I have been warned about the lack of morality in Ethiopia by the Sudanese. They cheat, tell lies, rife with prostitution. Well, a local Ethiopian sold me sim card said: "Ethiopia is 80% good people, 20% bad people". Given that my experience in Sudan is that 99% (or even 100%) are good people - the relative difference is enough to mark such impressions to the Sudanese. My first experience with the money exchange is a reflection of the 20%, they told blatant lies - such that I can't exchange money next few days in Gondar because of holidays, I asked what holidays, they said "I don't know".

Business in the border has not been good the last 2 years, mainly due to the South Sudan conflicts, which resulted to lack of petrol deliveries. Sudan export industrial goods and petrol, in exchange of livestock and crops.

Metema is pretty much a one street 1+ km town, there are more than 20 bars, with girls sitting. Its really a frontier town here. 

Soon after the border, Ethiopia's land is much more lush than Sudan's, mountainous with beautiful vistas throughout. There is agriculture everywhere, and the land looks very fertile. It is unbelievable how this country can have famine 15-20 years ago.

The journey wasn't the smoothest one, even though the roads are good (paved by the Chinese and Koreans). We were slowed by herds of sheep, cows, donkeys and so on. The minivan's tire went down two times. There was a spare for the first one, but the driver had to call his friend from a nearby town to send the second one, and all these are used tires, with patchy rubber. I think these problems must be common enough, and its impressive how they can resolve it too.

This is Africa, in a more positive note.