March 2: We took a flight from Addis to Dire Dawa, heading for Harar, where our daughter was found. Once we made it to Dire Dawa, we had to somehow make the 1 hour drive to Harar. We found a cab driver who would take us. Well, we didn't find a driver, as much as Hanania did. She came with us to be our translator and guide, and she put together all the pieces of the trip. She has quite literally been a God-send, in so many ways.
Anyways, we are pretty sure the cab driver spotted her and knew exactly who he wanted to spend an hour in the cab with. The guy actually proposed to her on the drive! Too funny.
Our ride from the airport was this styling Peugeot.
But the driver said we had to switch cars before driving to Harar. We assumed this was going to be a more reliable and more comfortable ride. So we switched into this...
Yeah, they looked identical to me too.
Us in the back of the mighty Peugeot.
The drive took almost exactly an hour. Most of it up a winding mountain road, with minimal guardrails, at less that 10 mph, dodging goats, cows, and traffic, winding through the chat markets and past the Somali drug running trucks, all while inhaling the lovely aroma of diesel fumes.
So pretty standard taxi ride around here, I guess.
But we did make it safely to Harar, while being thoroughly entertained by our driver's application for our guide's hand in marriage.
Then we jumped immediately into what we came here for... Sophie Tufah's story...
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1 comment:
that is SO funny! i cannot wait to show these photos to dan. unfortunately, he did not document his trip to Harar nearly as well as you did.
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