Today has been a very interesting day - and one that I found
rather frustrating.
In the morning, I was ready for the car to pick me up from my
house. I had been told that the car would drive past shortly after
7:30. It did not, and I waited until 8:15 before I headed into
town for a taxi. My first lab is at 8:00 in the morning so
I knew that I would be late. I tried to find a contract taxi
(like a normal UK taxi), but that didn't work very well. The
taxis were hard to find. It was only by chance that I found the
line taxi that went to Ainalem (stopping just outside) MIT.
I have said about the line taxis before, but this was the first
one in Mekelle. The line taxis are mini-buses. In Addis they tear
up and down the capital. You do not have to wait long to
catch one. In Mekelle, the volume of traffic is nowhere
near as great. You go to where the line taxis are, find one that
is going to the right place and get on. You then wait until it is
full. I got onto a line taxi that was empty; it took about fifteen
minutes to fill up. At least you have a seat while you wait
though! There were some slightly perplexed Habesha as they got
onto the line taxi, but no one commented. The journey upto
Ainalem was quite smooth, although the taxi did have to drop
down to first to make it up the hill outside of Mekelle. The
roads close to MIT are dirt track and quite rough. I am
amazed that the line taxis survive. As we approached the stop,
we were asked to pay, and fortunately the charged me normal
fare, which was 1birr50, about 12p.
When I got into MIT, I was not best pleased. I decided to ask
the person who had told me that I would be picked up, where the
car was. I think that the driver did not know to stop. I had
asked three times where the car would stop, and had been told
not to worry, it would come by the house. I should have pushed
again for the answer to my question. Fortunately, I
couldn't find the person, and I set about re-arranging the
lab for the afternoon. I think that other people had told him
that I was looking for him, so I decided not to ask when I
did see him. I think he had probably had somebody else have
a go at him.
The journey back home was far less eventful. But, when I arrived,
there was no electricity. I asked in Tigrinyan (not difficult
yellem - amaharic yellen - tigrinyan) if there was no power. I
was told yes there was no power. Later, the owner of the property
came over to tell me that there is never power on a Monday,
not normally until 9pm. I had forgotten about this - there are
shifts when regions in Mekelle do not have power. Monday is
the day that this region (or Kebelle) is without power. I spent
what time I could writing up diaries using the laptop's
batteries. These ran out at about 8pm. I decided to just
wait in the dark. I had a torch, and I had a candle. The candle
had been donated by the landlady. I couldn't find a way of making
it stand safely, so I left it and sat in the dark, breathing
deeply and trying to relax as much as possible without going
to sleep. The power did return at 9, but only very briefly.
I waited until 9:30, decided to have a shower (cold of course)
and the went to bed. The lying in the dark had done the job
though - I did not feel stressed - despite needing to do a
lot.