Ethiopia lasted three nights and 600 km. Mandela died and we had to leave just when he began to understand that he had finally reached a totally different Africa from the one he had contemplated until now.
Even Ethiopia came to think that if Africa was not a country it looked a lot. Frankly, between South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda I have found many similarities, in the way of course, And deep down. He found more economic and developmental changes than great social gaps. It seemed to me that there was a fairly common cultural base to all, A closeness despite differences. Ethiopia, On those three nights and 600 km, I thought elsewhere.
Even Ethiopia came to think that if Africa was not a country it looked a lot
Maybe it was because I got there with a lot of baggage, having read the book of a friend who tells you the country above counting himself. He "Journey to the sources of the Blue Nile”It was partly the cause of my trip, So somehow I landed there with the manuscript ready to identify me or move away from Ricardo Coarasa, author of the work.
And so I arrived at an Addis Abeba where a friend of Francesca received us that lives there. He took us home and took us out for some of those postín channel bars of the African capitals in which prostitutes wear a lacquer to wax their high heels. Then, reaching your home, He told us that we may see hyenas that go down to his neighborhood, In the skirt of a mountain, To eat garbage and the many stray dogs who have the bad luck of being. I did not believe him until in bed I heard clearly the "laugh" of several of them. I was impressed to think about a city where at night they walk hyenas through its streets.
I was impressed to think about a city where at night they walk hyenas through its streets
The next morning we meet John. It was a recommendation from Ricardo, An old colleague of his trip, that his country taught me with a mixture of beaten Cuban accent in Amárico. Yohanes belongs to that generation of Africans who in their independence were welcomed by communist countries to be trained. A great guy who in a short time ends up being friends. I hope to see you now, When crossing by Ethiopia if nothing twists, In the month of March.
And so we leave the route for a trip in which we had to get to Gondar and Lalibela. From the car I saw a changing landscape. The capital seemed to me that it was a place where strong economic progress was understood. It was better and bigger than expected. It is not addis a pretty place, It retains the physiognomy of communist cities created in the middle of the last century, seasoned in this case with vestiges of real palaces and some fascist iconography left by Musolini Italy. It is not a pretty place, insist, But if it seemed an interesting place.
Then we were ascending the more than 3000 meters high that the city has in the mountains of Bototo and the rural Ethiopia appeared. The immense field was mostly carved, Good news to measure the development of a country, But the populations that we spent as they moved away from the capital were looking poorer. Adobe or stone houses, rectangular, In small and constant population centers that appeared scattered before our eyes.
I don't like African cuisine in general, except the Mozambiqueña
We stop to eat a chapter in a small town, Where the owner is a Cuban who emigrated years ago to Ethiopia. I do not like the dish that threatens to chase myself the next few days and after trying it, I try. I don't like African cuisine in general, except the Mozambiqueña. Sorry, I do not find any grace to the Shima in any of its variants nor do I like how cooked the meat always accompanied by vegetables.
After a meal in which I just ate anything we return to the road. We still have almost five hours left. We see the great Chinese constructions, that Yohanes explains that they look equally evil as in all Africa. China has become a synonym for cheap and bad for Africans. There are many "stranded" trucks on the road, Waiting for a miraculous piece that takes them out of their funeral, And after the window there is a constant activity of a town that does not seem to have resigned to be an example of poverty.
We arrive at night to give and find a multitude of people who swirling on the road. We cannot pass, The cars are standing in a long line. We approach and verify that there is a body on the asphalt. It seems that his body fell there, at that precise moment and in that precise place. There ended his life. We pass by and look sideways at the body. "It is worth living with intensity, That could be me ", I. "Surely he also thought about that while looking at the death of another", I tell myself in silence.
Surely he also thought about that while looking at the death of another
The next morning, When I already knew that I should go to Johannesburg, And after writing an unknown story of an attempt to Mandela murder with which I stumbled by chance, we decided to go to know at least the Tis Isat falls. It was on the way when I found a second sequence that told me about death. Among a pile of garbage where burning part crap thrown there were dogs, pigs, men and kids looking for something to put in the mouth. They put their hands or snouts in mountains of waste. Children wearing her bare feet. Only the barking was heard of some dogs. In the sky flying vultures and storks. I thought about the everyday where I live from that scene so many times contemplated, In the misfortune that must be born already dead. I remembered that body last night. I remembered the lucky one that I am.
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