October 29th: To Guji.

Today we woke slowly, which means I slept till 5 and Tiffany woke at 5:15. We layed around for 20 or so minutes before we both could no longer stand it. Out again for a pre-dawn walk we enjoyed watching the city rub the sleep from its eyes. Dawit and Akulelu are scheduledto pick us up at 11 to begin the journey south to Guji. Until today I thought those two worked in the Sidamo and Yerge Cheffe regions but after a long talk over flaming Tibs I learned that they actually work in the Guji region. Depending on who is asked, the Guji region is sometimes lumped into the greater Sidamo area, but the Sidama and Guji people will tell you that neither lies in the other. To my surprise Dawit tells me that three or four years ago the Sidama and the Guji went to war over a vendetta and grazing rights. The war only stopped when the tribal elders worked out the vendetta and the Ethiopian government helped settle the grazing rights. Just outside Awasa we watch our first "African" sunset. From the road the sun's golden orange and red light slowly faded behind a hill topped with a single tree returning the savanna to darkness. We had seen our the Planet Earth sunset. Entering Awasa the streets are the cleanest we have seen. The city is brand new. Bajajs (motorcycle with cart) in the 100s and much to see. We check into a hotel and make our way to a bar. There are 8 of us on this journey, our Captain aka Big Boss aka Akulelu, our Co-Captain Dawit, two coffee geeks + their companions and our kindred spirits from Germany. We arrive at a a classy establishment and start drinking beers and a few order dinner, in the middle of all this the power goes out in the entire city. Apparently this is normal as no one seems to notice and life carries on. For the faranjis we feel blind. Thankfully Dennis was there, he whipped out his headlamp and wore it like a champ. Less than 20 minutes later the power returned another true experience under our belts!