African Adventure I

Part of our trip included an opportunity to travel south from Addis Ababa about 200 km to see the Hosana region where George Tsedeke was born. Children's Home Society has a regional orphanage in this region where George lived for 6 weeks before going to Addis Ababa. We left Addis about 5am and loaded into a Land Rover caravan. It took about 4 hours to go the 200km given the rainy weather and marginal roads. Also, pedestrians in rural Ethiopia have little regard for their own well-being; goats and other livestock seems to all be pretty suicidal as well. Our driver hit the horn often, which seemed to negate any liability for hitting someone/something.

Anyway, we made it all the way south and we're returning north after a great trip. We had stopped to see a traditional home of the region. Our driver hit a bump and the next few seconds were eerily reminiscent of the Chris Farley motion picture "Tommy Boy." The hood of our SUV flipped up smashing/obscuring the windshield of said vehicle. Our intrepid driver slammed on the brakes hoping to arrest the forward momentum of our accelerating death machine. We fishtailed a few times and then performed a 180 degree spin. Our truck then slid sideways and tipped over on its side. At this point in the narrative, I should add that seatbelts are a first world luxury. Julie came to rest on my side, and our driver was unconscious--but his concealed .357 was rolling around the floorboards. There were 2 SUVs behind us with other adoptive couples on the trip. They both stopped and came to our aid; however, Julie had already opened the door and hopped to safety like a ring-tailed lemur (Leaving me for dead, presumably). The engine was smoking and our friend Ben appeared at the door yelling, "It's gonna blow." After I nursed my bruised wrist and changed my boxers, Ben pulled me to safety. By this time, the locals had descended on the accident scene from parts unknown and had surrounded the carnage. About 50-100 people converged to see if any ferenji (foreigner) had died. They helped the driver out and helped right the fallen vehicle. The battery which had previously been torn asunder was returned to it's socket, fluids retopped, hood bungee-corded, and the fallen vehicle was reborn and driven back to Addis Ababa (minus Julie and Kevin who had found passage in another Land Rover). This is all pretty funny now, though not at the time, though as I type this I realize my wrist might indeed by broken. See attached photos.