On Monday and Tuesday I held an oral exam for the grades 3 to 6 of Campus 2 and all passed. I rejoiced because majority of the pupils had prepared well for the test. Of course there were kids who had been working during the weekend instead of studying or for whom it takes longer time to learn the material. Still I saw that they were trying hard. By Wednesday my „Spoken“ lessons were done and then I had the chance to visit the homes of three students from Campus 1. Despite none of the children living with their mother or father they had normal conditions for sleeping and doing homework.
School vacation started for the kids and it was time for me to start going back to Estonia. We decided with Merle to go to Addis through Jimma. After wiggling for fifteen minutes at our door with the wrong key we finally got the right key back from Anneli who had gone to a nearby cafe to have breakfast. Having obtained our luggage from the locked room we had to wait for the ordered bajaj which was supposed to arrive ten minutes ago. It seemed that we were going be late for the bus. So our hostess called his son who was willing to take us to the bus station. Right after sitting in the car our long awaited bajaj arrived. We were annoyed with the bajaj driver who was 40 minutes late and told the son of the hostess that we still want to get to the bus station with him. On the way there Jossua explained to us that this is Ethiopia and we shouldn’t make plans here like in Europe: everything here goes as it goes which was once again confirmed by the way we got on our bus.
So far in Ethiopia I had only been on tarmac roads. Now it was time to enjoy the classic African gravel road. We were nearly last ones to get on the bus and so we got ourselves places to the most rear and most„best“ row of seats. Bumpy gravel road, bus with no amortization, open windows and seats in the back row gave us an unforgettable experience. When we reached Tarch on half way to Jimma my head hurt because it had been banging against the ceiling for five hours, insides shaken through to the last bowel and from my nose which only cleared up many days later I could only pick out pitch-black boggers.
In the nice and dusty town of Tarch we spent the night at Hildanas mothers sisters daughters house. We were given a twin bed in the living room between the sofa and a fancy TV-set with clean white sheets. In the evening they hung a newly bought baldachin over the bed which was impregnated with mosquito repellent. After a bumpy bus ride and an excursion around the town we snuggled under the baldachin and covers. I think I had been sleeping for about twenty minutes when I felt something crawling between my Ethiopian style braids. I turned on the lights and started hysterically whisking away the cockroaches from our white bed sheets. Merle tried to calm me down by saying that it is the mosquito repellent that lures in the cockroaches.
The uneasy night ended at five in the morning when we sneaked out the gate through a sixteen head herd of cows to get to our bus. So far I had understood that the bus starts going when it’s full but it wasn’t so in the morning bus for Jimma. We started going once the aisles were also packed full of habeshas. At least this time we got ourselves seats to the third row. Suitcase under my feet and backpack in my lap I was mentally ready to continue yesterdays unfinished journey to Jimma. The moment we got out of Tarch the bus driver discovered his racing skills. There we were at the sunrise hurdling 100 kilometers per hour down a gravel road with a packed bus towards our expected destination. After reaching dusty and hot Jimma I felt as if I had passed one of the hardest trials of my life because the rats who were running between the roof and the ceiling of our hotel for the coming night didn’t seem so uncomfortable anymore.

MARTIINA

 

In Tarcha

In Tarcha

Tarcha

Tarcha

Jimma

Jimma

View to the backyard of Jimma tourist hotel

View to the backyard of Jimma tourist hotel

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