Exploring the ancient city of Harar

Saturday 4th October

I woke up to find I had totally lost my voice which was rather embarrassing when meeting project leaders for the first time. We started the day by travelling by road to Harar, which is about 1 hour from Dire Dawa. The road between the two towns was recently surfaced by the Chinese which made the journey much easier than it used to be. The drive was stunning. The surrounding areas were very rocky and mountainous and the sun was strong. Chat seemed to be the crop of choice and was being grown all around. We passed through a few suspect bandit towns that seemed to survive on chat-growing, selling and transporting. Chat is legal to grow and sell but not to be transported between regions. There seemed to be some smuggling going on!

Camels and donkeys competed with us for road space. The villages we passed though seemed much poorer than Dire Dawa and overall the surroundings were much more what I expected Ethiopia to look like before coming. However, the land was much more lush and fertile than I imagined it would be. We drove by some beautiful lakes which provided a stark contrast to parched red soil found elsewhere on the route.
Harar is an ancient, walled city and one of the most holy Muslim cities on earth. We made our way through the hustle and bustle of the market outside the city walls before following the road to the new part of the city to visit the newly-built Fistula Hospital. The building is beautiful and almost finished. They are expecting their first patients next week (although we were under the impression they would already be there).

We walked back to the market area then through the old city gates into the old town. The area inside the city walls is an absolutely maze of alleyways - over 368 alleys in 1km2 ! It felt a little like the medina in Marrakesh but was painted in bright vivid colours. Green buildings (to signify peace) were abundant and cars were hardly seen as the roads were too narrow for them to pass by. We were greeted with 'Selam' by everyone we passed and eventually bumped into John's Ethiopian friend, Tedi. He was overjoyed to see us and promised to take us to feed the hyenas that evening.
After a game of table football with some local kids on the street we hired a guide, Abdul, to show us more of the city. He took us to Rad Tafari's house in which a dozen or so ancient manuscripts are kept, alongside weapons, jewellery and old artwork. We passed by the basket weavers and tailors in the 'Maccina Gir Gir' district and visited Rimbault's (the French poet's) house. It was built in a colonial style and was much grander than the other buildings around.

We walked on to the meet market where birds of prey were swooping down to feed on the left-overs. Abdul took us to a traditional Harari house which resembled Aladdin's Cave. It was absolutely full of ancient treasures. We went on to a coffee processing house and bought some of the Ethiopia's world-famous coffee. What a fantastic smell! He then took us to a catholic missionary where 60 orphans were being looked after and a nun showed us around her little church. Harar is proud of its peacefulness. Mosques, Orthodox churches and Catholic churches sit side by side and there are no hostilities between them.