I'm a GD mountain climber!

For the past few days, I have needed to go to the nearby town of Bekoji to do about 15 minutes of Peace Corps work. Bekoji is a small town about 45 minutes south of Asella. Mountains surround it and, as a result, it is pretty cold and has an elevation that makes me feel completely out of shape. The town is known for two main things: 1. Their water- it is bottled and sent throughout the country. 2. Their runners. If you know anything about Ethiopian sports, you know that this country produces great runners. Bekoji is where a majority of the runners come from. This little town has produced multiple Olympic gold-metal athletes. There is a runner culture in the town and if you can manage to wake up and get out of your warm bed by 7:00am, you can go to a forest and watch hundreds of young athletes train. The forest is a renown place were past and, likely, future Olympic gold medalists got their start.

Thursday morning, the honorable Joe Whelan (a volunteer who lives in Bekoji) called me to invite me down. He works with an NGO from time to time and they had a large group of Brits in. They were going to take a van up to one of the local mountains and then hike to the peak. There was one spot in the van left and if I wanted it, it was mine. Thanks to the relaxed Peace Corps lifestyle and workload, I was able to run over to my school, do a couple things and be on a bus to Bekoji by 11:00am. 

The plan was to meet the group outside of a hotel at 1:00. I arrived to Bekoji at about 12:15 and went to Joe’s house. We needed to eat lunch so we went right to the hotel and ordered a tagebeano and Coke each. At 12:40, Joe received a call saying they were ready to go. They arrived 5 minutes later, right when our food arrived. One person came out of the van and said they were going to leave in 30 seconds with or without us. Now, some key points:

• Neither Joe nor I had eaten all day. The hike would be about 3 hours. To do that on an empty stomach would have been a miserable and grumpy time.
• Tagbeano is delicious. But it is served scalding hot and is the consistency of refried beans.
• It is impossible to even get the bill in 30 seconds in Ethiopia.

We got the people to agree to wait until we had at least paid for our food: approximately 3 minutes. In those three minutes, we had to eat as much food as we could possibly shove into our mouths. My entire mouth was burned, I could not taste the food and pounding bites of something like refried beans wrapped up in a thin sponge (injerra) is not a pleasant experience. Thankfully, we have now been in country for 10 months and if there is one thing a PCV learns, it is how to eat. If you ever travel and happen to see PCVs at a buffet, sit back for a show- you are about to see something special.

Joe and I finished the meal in three minutes flat and then ran over to the van. The motion of running made me realize what a terrible idea the last 5 minutes of my life had been. I could feel a pound of heavy food in my stomach. I was about to go on a three-hour hike. No good could come of this, but like a true Peace Corps Volunteer, I persevered hoping this would not be the day I became a “real Peace Corps Volunteer”* Fortunately, the Gelama Mountain Gods were kind, and we suffered no ill effects.

The hike itself was amazing. Without question, is was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. As we started walking, we first had to climb up a hill. While that does not sound difficult, anything at an elevation of 8,000 feet is a challenge. This is where we got the first view of the valley we would walk through and the surrounding mountains.

Joe refusing to get out of the way for my picture.

The valley was probably ¾ of a mile across. We had a guide with us and he pointed out the wildlife in the area. The majority of what we saw were various breeds of deer. In the nearby hills, there are two or three panthers that roam freely. There is also rumored to be a cheetah of some sort, I am not convinced of that. The terrain was flat but it was a bit swampy. I probably have shisto now, but that is easily treated and a good illness to put on your Peace Corps Bingo card! 

Another form of wild life in the area are hyenas. They dig huge holes in the ground (one might call it a den) and come and go from it as they please. We saw a ton of these holes and they were huge. It is not uncommon for a hyena to be the size of a donkey. I could easily have fit in this particular den.

As we finally started really hitting some steep parts, I started taking more pictures. There were about 12 people in our group and I think everyone was a bit too prideful to stop to take a breath.  I fell right into this. I am a Peace Corps volunteer. I have lived here for ten months. I am used to this elevation. I cannot let some Brits who are here for a week show me up. So stopping to take pictures became a good excuse to rest and still have my pride. 

I did make it to the summit. Here I am at 11,400 feet. 

The part of this that I am most proud of is if you notice my footwear. For all the people who like to mock me for my love of sandals and flip-flops (I am talking to people back home and other volunteers here in Ethiopia), I climbed an MF’ing mountain in sandals. I should be on a Chaco’s commercial.

The people we were with asked if Joe and I wanted a picture together on the mountaintop. We looked at each other, laughed and said no. As you may be able to imagine (especially if you have ever talked to me on Skype) the longer you are here, the more cynical you become. We definitely had some laughs at the greenness of the Brits. And when they offered to take the picture, there was a bit of a “we’re pretty cool and can just come back here so we don’t need a picture” attitude. Once we got back to Joe’s, I looked at all the pictures he had around his room. There is a spot for photos of him with his PCV friends. I gave him a hard time because I was not up there. We decided one of us would print a picture the next time we were at a photo shop to put up. It was this moment that we realized we did not have a single picture together. We had just had this wonderful day and hike and the picture of us on the mountaintop would have been perfect, but we were too cool to take it. We had a laugh, but it was a good realization that we shouldn’t always be such cynical a-holes. Even though we like to think ourselves far better than tourists, we wont be here forever.

View from the top…

After a long and steep trek downhill (I did not fall once, it was redemption for the embarrassment that was my last hiking experience), we made it back to the van and headed for the NGO. I only feel comfortable taking this shot at the Brits cause they took a shot at me being America: They brought candy for the local kids and were kind enough to offer Joe and I some. I started laughing uncontrollably and took a picture of it. I have never seem anything so British as this candy. If Doctor Who ate these while listening to the Beatles in front of Big Ben, it would be on their national flag.

*There are many sayings in the PC that pertain to particular regions. For example, you are not a real PC Mongolia volunteer until you start smoking just for the warmth. And, more aptly, you are not a real PC Africa volunteer until you soil your pants.