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| No, I didn't sprain my ankle horribly. That's dirt - dirt from 5 days of horse-trekking with no access to a shower (we almost didn't have enough water to drink, remember?). |
So after our 5 day horse trekking adventure, Brent and I thought it might be nice to spend a night in the resort town of Wondo Genet, it was only a 45 minute bus ride from the bus station in Sashamene, so from our bus that carried us away from Dodola we immediately hopped on a bus to Wondo Genet.
All of the Ethiopians we had spent any time with us recommended we check out Wondo Genet, since it is home to a resort with relaxing mineral springs and a lovely garden setting. It sounded like a nice place to get cleaned up after horse-trekking and relax a bit before heading back to the congestion and pollution of Addis. Always wishing to help, Yusef offered to book a room for us in Wondo Genet prior to our arrival. He recommended the Abyssinia Hotel, as did the Lonely Planet, which claims that it is "a far better value than the Wabe Shebele (the resort that actually has the mineral springs on site). The cheap doubles in the old block are clean enough, but for a few birr more you'll get a tiled floor room in the spotless new block and can avail yourself of the hot-water showers." We needed no more convincing. We were sold on the hot water showers. Yusef called to reserve our room, pretending it was for him at first to get us the local's price (his idea, not ours, but sweet). He confirmed that we would have a room with a hot water shower.
Upon our arrival we were shown to a not quite spotless but clean enough (if you didn't look in the drawers of the night stand at the condoms (not used) and the cigarette butts) room. After setting down our things, we immediately started the process of getting cleaned up. Just removing our shoes left a pile of sand and dirt on the floor. We were filthy. I let Brent shower first. After a few minutes of messing with the shower he came out in a towel to report that he didn't think there was any hot water. What? We had been horse-trekking for 5 days. The only reason we really even came to Wondo Genet was to be able to clean up a bit before we crammed ourselves into a minibus with 15 Ethiopians for a ride to Addis. I convinced him to go ask at the office.
The woman was sweet and told us we just needed to wait 45 minutes for the water to warm up so we begrudgingly put our filthy clothes back on and ventured out to find some lunch. After a tasty lunch of some greasy tibbs, doro wat, and fanta (there was only Ethiopian food near our hotel, but that was ok because we love Ethiopian food), we went back to the room. Brent stripped down again to shower only to come out a few minutes later declaring there was still no hot water. I convinced him to go inquire at the front desk again.
This time the solution was to move us to another room. We apologized for all the dirt we had brought into our first room and moved all of our things. Of course, that meant another 45 minute wait for the water to warm up. We laid around our stuffy room for nearly an hour. Brent went to try the shower again, and found there to be no hot water. At this time, we were both getting grumpy. Brent went outside to sit on the verandah and I laid on my bed (two twin beds in the room) complaining to myself. Finally, I decided I didn't care anymore - a cold shower would work just fine. I just wanted to be clean! So I stripped down and got ready for my cold shower. However, not even a cold shower was in the cards. As I turned the knobs of the shower the water began to flow and then quickly turned to a trickle and then to nothing at all. The entire resort was out of water! We were not going to get our showers at all. Brent went to the office and tried to get some of our money back, but they weren't having it. Apparently we were paying for the room, not the shower.
We could have maybe packed up our things and went up the hill to Wabe Shebele, but we were defeated.
If only the story ended there...shortly after we had come to terms with the fact that it would be another day (and a long, cozy bus ride to Addis) before we would be clean the entire town lost power. No water, no lights, no electricity. It was probably 6 pm and had just gotten dark. We chuckled the kind of chuckle you hear from a slightly crazy person and decided the best thing to do was just go to sleep and try again tomorrow. We didn't even get dinner. We didn't visit the mineral springs because we felt too filthy. We just tucked our grimy selves into our silk sleepsacks under our mosquito nets and laid in our stuffy room trying to sleep until it finally overcame us.
And that pretty much sums up our trip to Wondo Genet. We woke up the next morning with the intent of getting back to Addis as soon as possible, except, as things go in Ethiopia, we met this wonderful man, Zerfu. Zerfu saw us wandering up and down the main road and looking confused and came up and introduced himself and asked us if he could help. We told him we were looking for the bus station and he informed us that it was actually 3 kilometers down the road and offered to show us the way. We hired a bajaj and crammed the 3 of us and our bags into it. When we arrived in the next town over, Zefu led us uphill toward the bus station. There is no way we would have found it on our own. We hadn't eaten anything yet, so we asked Zerfu if he would like to join us for macchiatos and dabo (bread). Of course, he was into the idea and quickly led us off to a coffee shop. We learned more about Zerfu. He was in high school (I am guessing he was in his late 20's/early 30's) and was excited to go to University soon. He lived in Wondo Genet with his mother and younger siblings, who he helped care for. His father was dead. He was a warm, open, and optimistic man with a charming smile - true to form of all the Ethiopians we met. After we finished coffee he helped us find some bottled water and thoroughly enjoyed parading us through town and introducing us to his friends. Like the morning before in Dodola we shook many hands, especially those of the shy but curious kids heading off to school. We also met a plump older man that was obviously of some importance in the town. He shook our hands enthusiastically and made us promise that we would stay in his town on our next visit.
Unfortunately, I don't know if we'll being heading back to Wondo Genet. If it weren't for Zerfu's generosity we wouldn't have had one nice thing to say about our stay there.
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