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1995

Djibouti - Cairo to Capetown

Bec
2004-09-20 13:04:35

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as far as Yoboki when enough passengers can be found. We went to the "cité Arhiba" (a Soweto like slum) early in the morning, searched for a van, waited, negotiated, changed from one van to another and waited some more until about 2 PM when everything finally came together and 19 of us left stuffed into a 12 seat mini van. I was lucky to get a window seat for I had some air in the sweltering heat.

Yoboki
We got to Yoboki village around 7 PM in the white and red van with the overhead load of empty plastic containers. Yes, there were 19 of us in that van including the driver and his helper. Yoboki is a very small place, you can see more than half of it on this photo. The place with the blue front is the local restaurant and "hotel" (people sleep on the floor and on the tables of the restaurant). It was primitive but I must say that the goat meat stew dinner was excellent.

The children of Yoboki lost no time to come and look when the word got around that three westerners had arrived. They were curious but wary. Some were a bit frightened and on the defensive.

I spoke to them in French. The small one with the red shorts asked me point blank. "Are you the enemy?" I told him I was a friend and asked him who the enemy was. "The Issa are the enemy, they want to take our territory" said the boy who could not have been more than 10 years old! No wonder tribal conflicts are hard to resolve, they are passed on from generation to generation with mother's milk!

Finally the kids warmed up to me and brought me to see the nearby camel caravan loading contraband merchandise from India bound for Ethiopia. It was really bizarre, the goods, mostly cheap textiles, travel from the port of Djibouti to Yoboki by truck then they go by camel to Desiocho inside Ethiopia where they are loaded on trucks again for the trip to Addis Abeba.

Steve, Tam and I managed to sleep not badly at all, we had our own private corner in this room where a dozen other persons also slept. Breakfast of tomato sandwiches in the five star Yoboki Mansions Hotel.

After breakfast we got on another van for the 40 km drive to Galafi on border with Ethiopia. This salt lake was about half way there. I sat next to Mektum Mellas, the owner of the merchandise crossing the border by camel caravan. He explained to me that everyone knew about his contraband operation and that he had paid off the border guards but that he had to use camels for the actual border crossing because trucks would be too visible in Galafi!

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