Back from the backwoods
Ambo was lovely; it’s in Oromia, the westernmost province of Ethiopia. I will be sharing photos and stories later, once I catch my breath and my workload (ha, as if.) We left Ambo at 5:30 AM this morning because the training lasted until 5:30 last night, and we are not allowed to drive past 6 (or darkness), per USAID regulations as well as common sense, because the road back to Addis is 1) atrociously bad, 2) under construction (on TOP of being atrociously bad, meaning scary detours) and 3) there are bandits. Whenever T. would mention ‘bandits’ I had to hide a smile because it makes me think of Robin Hood or some such; but they aren’t unfortunately referring to a mythical time past, but the very real present. The road conditions are prime accessories for bandits, as people frequently blow tires, crack axles, roll over, etc., or are stopped by man-made barriers (and then accosted.) The only types of vehicles you see on the intercity roads are buses, trucks, and large SUVs with truck chassis. No actual cars would survive 20 km outside of Addis.Speaking of roads, the roads in Addis are infuriating to the newcomer. None of them have names that are commonly recognized. Apparently, the roads used to be referred to by noticeable landmarks—i.e. the “UN road” and “Rwanda Embassy road.” Recently, when Addis hosted a large pan-African conference of some sort, the city administration renamed all the roads after African countries and put signs up on some of them indicating these new names. Which were promptly ignored as people continued on their ways about town via landmarks. I've asked drivers as we go out which street we're on, in a futile attempt to figure out the sprawl that is Addis, and almost every time the answer is a shrug of the shoulders and, "I don't actually know the name, it's just the street that goes past the Mercato." Perhaps it's an attitude taken in anticipation of the government renaming all the streets every time something notable happens, like a coup or a WTO meeting. "Lower Import Tariffs Avenue" or "The Avenue where we kicked your butts back to Tigray." (The current government is mostly Tigrayan, and really, really unpopular in the city, post-election fiasco.)
For example, I live off a dirt alley off a dirt alley off of the signposted Zimbabwe Rd., which is an actual, paved road branching from Bole, a main road everyone knows. (There are not many of these. Paved roads, I mean.) Every single time I’ve given a friend or taxi driver the direction “Zimbabwe Rd.” they look at me with a blank expression and I have to resort to describing the shops on the corner, and I wonder how the hell I’m more familiar with the city layout than the natives are, and how I'm going to be able to get home at all, given my lack of actual street name or number. But it isn’t that; it’s that the government never bothered to name the roads before, and people never bothered to care, and they certainly can’t be bothered to learn the new fancy names, particularly due to their newly strong dislike of the gov’t. A. even described the naming of the roads a “pretentious move” by the authorities. So I am resigned to never being able to give or understand most directions; our office doesn’t even have a real address, but a PO Box followed by the words “Off Bole Road.” All meticulously named street maps you see of Addis are some foreigner's fantasy land, and are utterly useless unless you know the city's landmarks, which defeats the point because then you wouldn't need a map, now would you?
My favorite area so far is the aptly named "Confusion Square," an intersection of about 5 streets and 26 lanes of traffic (where there is room, major roads will expand to upward of 7 lanes...on each side.) There are no lights and no traffic police. There are no rights of way or clear turn directions--a "right" could mean any of three routes across the square. No one uses their blinkers and the center of the square always has a small knot of cars stuck in the middle, in gridlock, as everyone hustles to get around them before the gridlock spreads. And here I thought the Big Dig was a disaster.
posted by Margot @ 7:19 AM
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