"You you you you you!!"

Last night was an eventful one. We found out that we had parked our cars on an anthill, the kind of ants that bite. These things are vicious. They find their way into your shirt and pants somehow and cause you to jump around and strip right then and there. Luckily it was dark and we have all become accustomed to each other already, more than the average friendship perhaps, having traveled together for several days.

However, the night-guard that was perched in his little tree-hut above us was another story. I'm sure he found it hilarious.

Also, Matt had a terribly scarring experience in the middle of the night when he had to suddenly go to the toilet. His fear was compounded with the fact that he had to climb out of the tent and navigate his way through the ants in the dark. We deduced that the cheeseburger he had eaten last night was not exactly cooked properly; Chiho and Christoph, who also ate cheeseburgers, experienced similar results.

This morning we visited Jinka's market, only held twice a week. It was a colourful, chaotic place, with lots of livestock and cabbage for sale. It reminded me of when I used to live in northern Ghana and had to visit the local market every week for fresh produce, buying mangoes and onions from the same women so not to get ripped off. The smells, colours, and village chatter all came flooding back, and it made me nostalgic for the simple life again.

What I don't miss is the constant begging and asking. Here in Ethiopia it seems more severe. Kids and adults are incessantly shouting out: "You you you you! Give me pen!" Substitute 'pen' with 'dollars, money, Carmella (sweets, as they say in Italian), and Highland' (which we later found out refers to the big plastic water bottles), and you begin to dread who you'll meet around the next corner.

While driving in the afternoon, Christoph and Chiho's tire went flat, but they are so used to changing tires now they were finished in under 10 minutes. Matt and I have yet to change a tire on the road, but I'm sure it would take us just 10 minutes to detach the hi-lift jack from Foxy.

We arrived at the Green Hotel in Konso just as it was getting dark. For 30 birr/car and 90 birr for the use of a toilet/shower, we camped in their gravel parking lot. It was listed as the best camping option in Konso; we didn't want to think what the other options were like.

We walked into town and had dinner at Edget Hotel, where the "food is the best Konso has to offer". We devoured our first injera dinner in Ethiopia, along with a mountain of and tibs and eggs. Well, Matt and I did at least. Between the two of us we ate twice as much as the other three combined. It was delicious.

~ Happy Wedding Mike and Kat! Wish we were there with you all drinking champagne in Niagara Falls!


Start: Jinka Resort, Jinka, ETH. 13:30
End: Green Hotel, Konso, ETH. 18:30
Distance Traveled: 137 km
Road Conditions: lots of windy detours, average speed of 34 km/hr and max speed of 72.5 km/hr.
Temperature: camping at an altitude of 1450 m, very pleasant.