internet after 2 days of trying! finally!‏

between the power outages, first day here was like 5 hours no power, and internet connection being down, i have been 12-14 times to different internet cafe's over last 2 days till finally i found one working.that is totally insane! and it took 11 mins to log into hotmail and open up the first message(yes 11 mins as there is timer at bottom of screen so i know it was! drives me crazy internet here, dial up but slower than dial up back home!)

lots has happened sadly met mainly not so good people as this is bigger city than before. last night in last town i went to bar in hotel next door to mine and met this 25 yo photographer local guy. very nice family of 7 children both parents dead of aids, anyways i had only been drinking bottles of beer till then, and he was drinking these mugs of draft beer and he told me they were .21 cents each. yes .21 for a mug of draft...........my god I've found heaven! he is the only guy so far that has bought me a drink or anything for that matter! funny too, as bar thinned out after 11:00 ish and i said to him, well if i am going to robbed on my way home, then the more i drink in here, the less i'll get robbed of.......so let's drink.and we did. till 2:00 ish owner would nod off in corner and we'd just clap our hands, she'd wake up bring us 2, then nod back off. long as we were paying(a whole .21 that is so beautiful!) we were welcome to stay as late as we liked!

here to get attention of waiter you clap your hands, kinda crazy to hear in restaurant clapping all round you!~ the next day was hectic. i had fish again for final time(i am proud to say in those 3 days every meal i had was fish.....i tried it about 5 different ways and even first thing in the morning....i miss it already!) then walked to bus station as i was pissed off at the hotel touts for lying to me, so rather than let them have my .35 commission for them...out of spite i walked about 8 blocks to bus station myself, and i told them b/c they lied to me they would get my commission as they walked beside me offering to call for a minibus. i did it for the principle of it and to show them, not for the .35 but only took 10 mins!AND I SHOWED THEM!

when i rounded the bus station entrance then the circus began. i saw 4-5 men start running towards me pushing each other n shoving, then they all started to grab at me or my bag saying things like' come with me i leave first, don't go with him he doesn't go to Gondor, my van is the fastest one to get there, ect.) so really they are all lying men, who do you trust. i walked round and found the fullest one, then stepped in, as they don't leave until full, the whole time guys in my face and all around me shouting at me to come with them. how pathetic, afterward they were all talking/joking to each other n no doubt friends, so why bad mouth each other to get me t go with them?

a guy in our van had some kind of a army gun with about 30 round circular banana clip magazine leaning against seat butt end down, barrel pointing towards me, so was sorta leaning over in my seat so my head wasn't directly in line of the barrel. luckily a girl in van saw those, spoke in Amharic to owner, then the placed it in the front on it's side. still unsure why many people have guns here. all rifles. to protect from wild animals, or from wild robbers. i'd guess the second, but i am unsure.

passed really pretty scenery valleys with rolling hills and speckled with farm houses everywhere. lots of trad. houses with grass roofs, walls made of sticks covered in cow shit/straw/mud or sand i believe. saw lots of real hard core poverty. people everywhere i saw walking with jugs of water on there back, and i looked round and didn't see a house or well or nothing for miles in any direction, so u know darn well they'd been walking a bit already n still had more to walk. poor woman mainly, strap a wide band around barrel then across forehead and they lean forward supporting weight of barrel on their lower back...............looks like hot hard work in the days sun! these people have hard lives.

got to Gondor and a guy actually helped walk to to about4 different hotels before i found one acceptable, well sorta! 1 hotel had no water at all except in a bucket, and others were just waaaaaaaaay overpriced . the owners are like a mafia here, they all ask extremely overinflated prices(double for tourists a local told me) so u have to pay it , you have no choice! the one w/out water wanted 4.70/night...so i asked for the principal of it, if she'd take 4.35 a night I'd take it and she looked at me and said no! the room was dirty, hotel had no water at all, and she wouldn't go down .35? what i don't understand is, they will rent to a local for say 2.35 and be happy, but she wouldn't lower for me to 4.35 which is 2.00 more then she'd make from local? that is crazy but i think they all think that tourists are rich so they should pay full asking price not a penny less no matter how many nights u stay. all other countries i've traveled, if u stay 3 nights it is cheaper/night then for a single night, and rightly so, but no here. i have tried explaining this logic to all 3 hotels i've stayed at, and they just shake their heads . i actually thought about checking out one day, making them clean sheets n make the room, then get another room 45 mins later at same place, but that would be waste of my time, but then they may understand how multiple night should be cheaper! oh well can't let lil things like this bother you or u'd go nuts, specially here.

my first night i just walked round n met 5 locals, 1 was 7 months pregnant and she was drinking beer as well, not loaded but had 3-4 that i saw.....oh well i wasn't gonna preach to her. like other towns but more so here, every time i walk always a local comes up to me offering to sell everything u could imagine or anything u want like food/taxi/hotel anything he has a friend with best price blah blah blah b/c he will get commission. it is frustrating and pisses me off, i should flat out tell them off. as the same 5-8 guys I've seen every day for last 3 days asking me for the same stuff i say no to every time. today 1 asked me to borrow him 20.00US . the nerve of him!

yesterday i went to amazing castle 13 or 15 century, and huge yard surrounded by rock walls that many emperors each built their own castles over their reigning years. really pretty almost best i've seen in the world yet and i've seen many over the years. then just sat in outside cafe watching people go by, one of my fav things to do, watch the locals n all the crazy sights. so many donkeys here overloaded with heavy sacks of grain or ? being whipped as they struggled to go up hills in the road. animals are so mistreated here it is sad and many animals have big sores from being whipped or from the bags constantly rubbing their skin raw! sad lots of people with blankets n cloths wrapped around themselves every way imaginable. i left , tried finding internet w/o any luck. i did go to a rest and have the best roasted lamb i've ever had. come to think of it, the only roasted lamb i ever had, but it was great in a spicy tomato sauce. everything here is spicy, everything.

i then searched for this volunteer group office that homes 17 street children until they are 18 and able to live on their own. I actually found a person that walked me to the house where the children were living, a bit uncertain when the local said follow me leading me down the narrow streets, but it was daylight n i had hardly any money on me n lots of people around, but still always in back of your mind. my gut feeling said it was okay and it was. was nice house with all the children there and i got to see the entire operation. cute lil girls maybe all 17 of them 4-8 or so, their clothes had the odd hole or tear, but they were clean and loved n fed so better than being on the street! many street children here as well. i gave money at the house for donation and bought 50 coupons to hand out that any person can bring to any bakery for a loaf of bread to eat.

excellent idea for .07 cents u can feed a meal to a person that normally would have nothing and they cannot buy anything with it, like money would be, only can give to bakery for meal. last 2 days I've handed out many, one time i pulled out the pad of ten certificates to give a boy 1, and all of a sudden about 6 kids came running so i handed all of them one, but then 2 of the kids said they never got one, trying to get a second. plus now b/c they know i have a bag of certificates. i get swarmed every time i walk so i try tore member who i gave to already n who i haven't. i could have 500 of them n still run out. so many poor people here

last night met this nice guy in my hotel rest. so we chatted and went out. he said how he'd simply order n pay for all drinks, me not to open my mouth or speak and i'd pay him for 1/2. great plan. worked great at first 3 places we just went into each place for one beer then out to another. we went to one that plays traditional music, just like another we just came from, had 5 beer total and they said they wanted 25 birr each b/c i was a tourist, when price is 6 but these music bars charg 8. this would be like going to a bar and being charged 95.00 - 100.00 for 5 beer in Winnipeg. they asked 4-5 times the normal price. well it was shitty, we both refused to pay it, we agreed on 10 birr, which was what we paid at last exact same bar. i went outside and he argued for over 10 mins, i told him lets just pay 50 and leave. i went up to owner paid her 50 then i left, waited outside, then finally he came n we left.

piss me off, really charged 4-5 times the price, even for the local beers b/c he was with a tourist. crock of shit. i dunno it is like some people have a hatred or jealously that they are so poor and tourists have so much, which i guess sadly is sorta true, that they have a vengeance to try and screw tourists over as much as they can.

even taxi, my hotel owner said 2-3 birr for a ride to museum, i just asked 3 guys 2 said 20 1-said 25. that is 10 - 15 times the price for a local! quite an increase eh? other countries they ask a bit more(like india/s.e. asia/cent America) but it is a bit more n fair so u don't mind it. but here it is total gouging. 1 street guy, the ones that piss me off. i ask them Questions of things i know the real answer to see what they answer, then i know who is truthful and who is lying. 1 guy told me the 45 birr ride i just took 3 days ago costs 300 and that if i give him money he can get me picked up at hotel. so he would pay 45 to van driver and pocket 255 for himself! quite and inflated price

also i am pissed off that everyone i ask tells me different stories about me getting to the next town, about how long, what type of bus it is, price, where it spends the night. so who do u believe?

the consensus does seem that it will take 2 full days in bus, then sadly another 2 full days of busing to capital city, where i fly home from in 5 days. 5 days till i see my babe Laura! can't wait actually, n our lil Abby too! Laura said we'd go to a buffet to celebrate, yer the best babe!thanks. anyways i am so sick n tired of bus riding, finally things went my way and i bought a plane ticket, discounted rate cause i flew into Ethiopia with Ethiopia air. so my plane ticket is about 36.00US or 2 full days busing, plus hotels and food. 1 street guy told me he get me a bus ticket and asked for 30.00, obviously lying by a huge amount.

so i am very happy, something actually went my way, and for that price it is a no brainer. although first time ever....ever i fly internally when backpacking, i always go overland for the exp, so i almost feel a bit like i am taking easy way out.

i still gotta get from that town to cap city which is 2 full days busing staying in a sketchy town overnight my book says n flight on march 16 is sold out, so tomorrow soon as i land i gotta find out about bus transport , might just have to ride bus 2 full 10 hour days back to back!yikes. then the other thing, stupid taxi drivers, if they want 20 or 25 birr to go 15 blocks to church, the airport is 29 kms and takes 45 mins to get to. airline guy told me pay 7.00 US no more, but that is local price..............tourists never get local price, so i will go and argue and try to settle price for ride tomorrow at 6:45 am, then do it all again when i land in the most touristy town in all of Ethiopia....lalibella.

i almost dread going and just bout skipped it as there are soo many bad people n cheats here, it will be worse there, i know it will be. hope i don't punch someone as i felt like that last night when they told us 5 times the normals price! speaking of that i am to get together again with that guy, he is barber. but i liked when i asked him how much was haircut, he said for u .70 and .56 for locals. telling me i would be charged more. i like honestly not sneaky cheating. oh well

maybe i'll hand out more bread coupons, try some roasted lamb or lamb tibs/local style. even go see church before dark

getting really fed up with the [people coming up to me trying to pressure me to into spending money oon things so they can get commission. like i said, some actually raise their voice getting angry telling me that i should go on mountain tour or hire their friend as taxi for the day and such! it is really starting to get to me, plus the heat doesn't help!, but mainly it is the extremely inflated prices like 5 - 8 times the prices when i know real price, then i get mad and tell them what real price is, they just say no mister u r wrong, i give you good deal!

well will see 13 churches dug out of the rock connecting with underground tunnels tomorro and be hassled like mad no doubt, say a prayer for me, i'll need it!