Dear ECS – Harar trip

Dear ECS,         

Welcome back home dearest one.

I know you are happy to get home from our first weekend getaway by the squeal upon waking up in your crib in our house after falling asleep in the taxi home from the airport.  It is heartwarming to  hear your visceral excitement about being back in our home.  Being parents that have disrupted your life and have a non-traditional path for the foreseeable future can be guilt inducing.  Is guilt inducing.   So, your happiness upon being back in our house was very gratifying to your parents.

So what was the weekend?  We went to Harar, to the west of the country.  It is an old city -- began in the 7^th century as a trading municipality.  Harar had 72 emirs before it was conquered by the larger Ethiopian kingdom in the 19^th century.  

Harar’s colorful history includes periods of occupation by both the Egyptians and Italiasn.   Similar to Fez in Morocco, the medina is a maze of tight little cobblestone streets with 40k residents, all packed into about a square kilometer.

Despite being a UNESCO heritage city, there is not an airport that serves the city directly, so we flew into Dire Dawa about an hour and half to the East.  This felt like a pain, but turned into a feature of the trip as the drive proved to be so pretty.    We started out in a desert climate, and quite hot and then climbed up through an escarpment to the higher elevations.  You had a great time pointing out all the animals along the way, including some massive camels.  Camels along the side of the road, we are not in Kansas anymore Elle!

Then we got to the Harar around dusk and settled into a guesthouse in the old city.  It was bare bones compared to our travels since we became a team of three.  Before then, your mom and I have stayed in some truly terrible and memorable places.  Places where we got sick, places where we got robbed, places where we just waited for it to get the first light of dawn so we could leave, places that were actually buses so we saved money by combining travel and accommodation for a night bus.  You get the picture.  

So it was a bit of an adjustment and one you rolled with happily, jumping around on the rugs and pillows that permeate a traditional Harar residence.

For dinner we went to this cool local spot overlooking the main bustling square, with people dashing to and fro in little mechanical tuk tuks zipping around.   

We ate these versions of rotis, made basically the same way but with egg cooked inside.  We had the normal version with spice and some vegetables.  You had a version with just egg, and it was a huge hit.  It felt so relaxing in a weird way to have gotten out of town and be sitting on the patio looking out on a new city to explore over the weekend.

A familiar feeling of anticipation came back, and that feeling is one of the primary reasons I like to get out and explore.

Thanks for being up for the adventure. 

love,

dad