12/09/2009 Day 13: Arba Minch and vehicle repairs

I have written two versions of each item so if you are in a hurry read
the short version. If you like detail skip the short version and read
the long version further down.

Short Version:
I woke up feeling rather sick but enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over Lake
Abaya and lake Chama. The morning and early afternoon was spent having
the vehicle repaired. Later in the afternoon of a yummy fish salad (that
reminded me of the Taliapa's of Peru) we went of in search of the
universities swimming pool, eventually finding it dry. In the late
afternoon i caught up with homework. In the evening i had a nice chat
with out of the russian girls before having supper of Spaghetti
Bolaignaise with Deon and Taryn outside their room on the stoep.
Afterwards i headed to bed while the others went up to the Hotel for drinks

Long Version:
Waking up at 6:20pm i felt really sick with a very blocked nose and was
blowing out of it nice green chunks. I did however get to watch the sun
rise overLake Abaya and Lake Chama while having wheaties for breakfast.
Baboons mingled around the rooms where we staying. The russian girls
were also up early and so I had a nice chat with them. They have been
based in Addis Abeba for over year, working with a Russian NGO and are
seeing some of the country before returning to Russia. While i was
chatting to them Simon C went to town to pick up some groceries. On his
return he made us yummy tomato and cheese omelettes, my second breakfast
of the day!

While we enjoyed our breakasst on the stoep, a big male baboon who had
been sneaking from behind a wall, rushed around the corner, grabbed the
bag of rolls and made a dash for it with me in hot pursuit. In his panic
to get away he dropped all of them except one. He then retreated to a
distance when he leisurely and rather smuggly ate it. While we watching
the baboons we noticed another smaller male baboon masturbating and
then climaxing...exactly as human do it! Once he was done he carried on
sitting there as if nothing had happened...gross! After that traumatic
experience we looked across to the sunrise and noticed a young male
baboon trying to attack a female who was avoiding him, shrieking and
fighting back. In stepped what must have been the alpha male and chased
the younger male baboon away with loud barking...that baboon was lucky
to get away, as the Alpha male was huge! The female thanked him by
coming up to him and grooming his fur...I thought it was so sweet.

Our day was supposed to be a rest day but we needed to fix our vehicle.
The other team, having no problems with theirs got to lie in and enjoy
the day!

Our first point of call was to find a garage to check out the vehicle.
Asking around, we eventually picked up a young boy who directed us to
one. The garage was very dirty and black but signs hung stating safety
and the guys seem to know what they were talking about. Well at least
from the little english they spoke. We ended up replacing both rear
shocks, a gasket on the exhaust and a fuel filter. Apparently our fuel
filter was clogged up because we had use Black Market fuel which is
filled from dirty steel drums. It was suggested that in future we use a
shirt or mosquito netting doubled over when pouring such fuel into the
engine.

While they were fixing I read, checked email and blogged while Simon had
a smoke, read and chewed some "Cut". Cut is a leaf they chew in Ethiopia
that is a mild stimulant, with the ability to give a feeling of
Euphoria. It didnt seem to have any affect on Simon but perhaps it did
on the garage's goat which was all greased up, just like the
mechanics...perhaps it helps out :P. No more "grease monkey"... its
"grease goat" lol.

In order to affect a temporary fix temporary fix on our roofrack they
had had to take it off the car. This allowed us to pop into town around
12pm to get some lunch while they added bolts and strengthners to the 3
aluminum struts shorn. We stopped off at the same restaurant Taryn and
Deon had been to yesterday and were served by a bright, kid of about 11
who's english was not to bad. We wanted the cheap fish but unfortunately
they did not have and being muslim i couldnt eat the meat there. Instead
Simon opted for a coke while i just had water. We paid the kid for the
drinks and gave him a 1birr tip for his excellent service. Now here is
where it gets good. While we were just sitting down a peanut seller came
along and tried to sell us peanuts at what we thought were unreasonable
prices. He wouldnt budge on the price so we let him go. The kid stopped
him as he was about to leave and bought peanuts. He then turned around
and gave us the peanuts. He had bought with the 1 birr we had given him
what would have cost us Farangis 2 birrs! A very clever, astute kid who
i have absolutely no doubt will go very, very far in life!

Another interesting item on most menu's we have seen in Ethiopia is
something called "Fasting food". At first i thought it was something to
do with Muslims and Ramadan...some sort of food one orders and eats at
sunset before the main meal. What is actually is I dont know but its
actually served on Fridays for the Orthodox Christians who are not
allowed to eat meat on this day!

Returning to the garage, we had the rack fitted. The fix was not great
and local towns dont have facilities to weld Aluminimum. Something to
bear in mind when travelling through Africa. My latest advice...dont use
aluminum! Payment was a bit of an issue to. Despite us writing every
single amount and price down beforehand and having the garage agree they
still tried to charge us more, saying that "fixing" the rack took longer
because of the way it was fixed. We paid a compromised amount but it
never ceases to amaze me how bad mechanics are when it comes to
honouring their word!

Having completed our repairs we were free to do our own thing and so
headed back around 1:45pm to town in search of lunch, this time stopping
at another restaurant where I had a salted fish dish, which reminded me
of the tialapia i had had in peru, one of my all time favourite dishes!

With the temperature reading 35'c (again!) and having read that one
could swim in the local University swimming pool we decided to give it a
try. In our attempts to find the pool we passed and waypointed the local
airport. It look modern but abandoned with 4 friendly guards standing
outside. We also saw a sign for a crocodile market (read farm) and
headed down a lovely road through a forest; eventually coming out some
kilometers later to a beautiful farm area where there appeared to be a
crocodile farm containing many thousands of crocs. Later we were told
that these markets or farms are actually just natural places where the
crocs congregate...who knows!

Eventually after much driving up and down Arba Minch we located the
university with the guard on duty insisting on taking my passport; and
me none to happy about it. I let Simon C drive in while I waited with
the guard, not letting my passport out of sight. When the guard realised
i wasnt moving until i got my passport he unhappily gave it back to me.
As i caught up with Simon we spotted Deon and Taryn who had just been to
the pool but had found it empty.

Turning around we headed back to our hotel. There I spent time catching
up on homework that had been pilling up. In the evening I had a nice
chat with one of the Russian girls before heading to Taryn and Deons
room for a nice spaghetti bolaignaise cooked on the gas stove on their
stoep. Once again i turned in for an early night while the others went
up to the hotel for drinks! Tomorrow would be a day of mapping!