First Impression of Ethiopia

First Impession of Africa
by Frieda

I arrrived in Gondar in the north of Ethiopia on the 13th of October. I had a conection fligt via Addis from Frankfurt which worked out perfectly fine so that I arrrived in the morning at the tiny airport in Gondar. I have never been to such a small airport which is basically just a small hall and an asphalted ground the size of approximately 4 Football fields sourrounded by agricultural fields in every shades of green. You just walk from the plane to the hall and wait there for your luggage. There are no security or immigration checks you just walk outside the open door as soon as you have your luggage.

In front of the Airport I waited a few minutes for Daniel who came to pick me up. While waiting some tuktuk drivers asked me if they could take me anywhere but it was easy to decline their offers.

The first thing we did was to get coffe, which Ethiopia is famous for, directly in front of the airport. It was very delicious but also very strong. I felt that the people were extremely friendly and very interested in how the newly arived farangi (foreigner) would like the national drink.

On the way to Gondar I learned how important it is to negotiate in Ethiopia. Luckily Daniel is already rather good at it. He reduced the price to one third of the the first offer which was propably still double of the real price.
During the ride I got the first impression of Gondar's beautyful sourroundings. Green and fertile agricultural fields in a hilly landscape. In the first village a lot of tuktuks, minibusses and horsecarts of poorer people from the countryside filled the street.

My first impression of the people in Ethiopia is that they are very friendly and i didn't feel scared or threatened at any moment. On the other hand a lot of people try to make some money out of you. By either suggesting absolutely overpriced rides, giving you “advice”or guiding you arround. To trick you into such scams they have several clever or less clever techniques. All of them are based on a trustful relationship which often makes you feel very bad when you thought a person likes you and afterwards he just wanted to make some money out of you. That makes me feel that you have to keep constantly a little bit emotonally distanced in case you are getting scammed by a person who appears to be your friend. This is a little bit of a challange for me because everyone seems so nice at the beginning and also not everyone is trying to scam you. I think this the most challenging part of travelling in Ethiopia but i im positive that I will find my way of coping with it.