The Road to Diré Dawa

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

We awoke early and began packing our vehicles for the long trip to Diré Dawa. We were loaded and ready to depart by 6:30 a.m. and bounced down the dusty rutted street one last time. The only paved road in Meki is the highway which runs through the middle of town. The taxis of the dirt roads are still horse drawn, two-wheeled carts. The horses are beasts of burden, skin and bones and not well groomed. The main street of town is serviced by the omni-present three-wheeled, blue, two-passenger taxis and a string of continuously honking mini-vans.

Our transport is the Brother’s 12 passenger van and a rented bus. The bus featured a shag carpeted ceiling. The 7 ½ hour journey stretched into 12 hours as each of our stops for breakfast and lunch took over two hours. No McDonalds or Quicktrips. Spaghetti sounds simple until you remember they are boiling the water over a charcoal fire. Nothing is easy here…or quick.

There is a great diversity in the Ethiopian landscape as well as the people whom inhabit it. Around Meki there is a series of shallow lakes, which during the raining season, fill, allowing agriculture, especially crops such as tomatoes and other vegetable and fruits which require a steady supply of water. Soon our journey takes us through a semi-arid area of scrub, sand, goats and camels. The houses change with the landscape. The more permanent residences of the farmlands, round with thatched roofs, change to the small domed shelters of the pastoralists made of small branches covered with cardboard and plastic. The temperatures rise noticeably. We start again to leave the dry, arid valley. The highlands are cool. The smell of eucalyptus fills the air, especially from the cooking fires as we pass through village after village. There are fields of coffee and chat (a mild narcotic favored in Arab countries that ban alcohol and a chief export in the area). Chat is also used by the poor to cut their hunger pains. The villages which are holding markets are busy and colorful. As we reach the edge of the escarpment which drops back into the Rift Valley, the eucalyptus gives way to cedar and quickly acacia and euphorbia. The square mud dwellings are replaced with rock structures. Again the heat of the lower elevations are evident even as the sun is setting. And as darkness sets, we arrive in Diré Dawa, “The Queen City of the Desert”. As a testament to its former grandeur, there are street lights and pavement. However, the train station is dark as the train service that formerly ran from Djibouti to Addis stopped two years ago.

The girls are staying together in a classroom and the boys in some rooms behind the Brothers residence. Mr. Dols and I are housed with the Brothers. There are four Brothers here: Getachew, Kasseye, Taye and Daniel. Brother Peter, an American, is on his home visit.

Bri writes:
Lucky us woke up at 6 to load the bus for a whopping 9 hour drive to Dire Dawa. Overall, it was probably one of the most beautiful car rides I have ever taken. The landscape through the mountains and valleys to reach Dire Dawa seemed like they jumped straight off a painting. We drove from dawn to dusk; barely ever stopping except for breakfast, lunch, and every half hour to let the guards/cops screen the van.
When we finally reached the school I think some people got a reality check. We were shown where we would be staying the next week or so and it was different than our Meki lifestyle that’s for sure. All 18 girls would be sleeping in one kindergarten classroom. This should definitely be interesting.