Ziway Rift

The cacophony of birdsong woke me this morning - that, and a rising light from our east facing window.  I quietly scrambled out of bed so as not to awaken Ermias, my roommate at the Haile Resort here in Ziway (owned and named after Ethiopia's most famous distance runner), a getaway from the city to visit a Spanish supported ECUSTA affiliate trade school and degree program, and an escape southwest from the City into the Rift Valley.

Sunrise over Lake Ziway

A broad, long and fairly flat valley, the result of an ancient uplifting of crust, followed by a sudden settlement of part of that risen mass.  Many peaks are pyramidally shaped volcanic cones, now dormant, but seeing these in the hazy distance with a foreground savanna dotted with broad acacia trees, can send one's mind far back in time - even to Lucy's time - though she was discovered farther northeast in the Afar region.

Storks and White Pelicans

This resort is in stark contrast to the surrounding village and countryside - a western style resort with sharp young attendants, clean crisp rooms, pool, spa - you get the picture.  Yet beyond the walls of this compound are some of the poorest rural populace - for many a subsistence existence from their nomadic forebears, now settled into a rural agrarian pattern.  And yet, I did not notice the beggars, and movement was by foot, two wheeled cart, and quite a few bicycles (with dusty roadside fix-it stalls).  People get by, or so it appears.

Contemplating the morning's catch

The rising light illuminated a fairly dense haze over Lake Ziway.  I made my way along a narrow channel to an observation post at lakes edge to witness the rise of the dim orange red sun, in the company of many storks, white pelicans, ibis and ducks - the source of that waking cacophony.  Looking across the short bay, I noticed cart and walking activity on a distant road, quite beyond the compound walls.  This is my normal routine - striding beyond the compound.  So I left through the main gate and easily found the road and followed it toward the lake.  At the shore, the local fisherman were bringing in their catch, with men standing around as tilapia and catfish is dumped on the ground from crates and sorted, bagged up, and hauled away on the carts, hastily toward the city center, for as I later found out, it was market day.  Certainly I was a curiosity as the only white person, though this should not be uncommon adjacent a well known resort, but when I greeted with "selam", I was returned a warm smile and greeting in return.  A smile is excellent common currency for human engagement.

Fisherman plying the waters

I was travelling with Ermias, Besrat and Zenebe.  After a continental breakfast, we took a boat ride to cruise the small islands and shallows.  This provided an excellent perspective of the valley and the ring of mountains. One such island, Tulo Gudo, is a fairly large volcanic cone that during the earlier Christian settlement period of the valley, became a monastic refuge from a tyrannical Muslim king seeking to banish or destroy all Coptics (has a familiar ring to it).  To this day, the island has around 2000 inhabitants living very much as those many centuries earlier, speaking a different Alhambric dialect originating from north Ethiopia, and still hosting a monastery.  It is said that this monastery hid the Arc of the Covenant, and some believe it is still there.  And, for the first time, I saw hippos in the wild!

Hippos!

Bringing dinner - and puppies!

A good day

This was a marvelous diversion - I would have liked to escape longer to hike the mountains, or to explore Tulo Gudo.  Another time. Instead, we headed back to Addis, allowing me a second view of the towns, the bustle of people, livestock, carts carrying all manner of goods, vegetable and charcoal stands, trucks full of sand for the Addis concrete plants, and choking traffic jams coming back into the city.  And as I write this on the terrace, a thunderstorm threatens to bathe the city.  A good day.