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Moyale in Kenya and Moyale in Ethiopia - two differents worlds.

One Year Africa: Moyale and Moyale

Maarten de Boeck
2006-05-01 16:54:01

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I never visited a place where the cultural border is so physical as in Moyale, a border town on the frontier of Kenya and Ethiopia. You have Moyale and Moyale. You have Moyale in Kenya and you have Moyale in Ethiopia.
Actually it is the same place, one part of it lies in Kenya, another part is Ethiopia.
But there seems to be a world of difference between them.
Once you cross the barrier and head into Moyale Ethiopia, everything changes. The atmosphere, the people, the food, the tea, the language, the signposts.

I vividly remember the day I arrived in Moyale. It was bloody hot. The truck I sat on slowly drove up the hill. Two long days I had travelled from Isiolo. It had been a tremendous journey on top of a crowded cattle truck, on an impossible road, through the barren landscape of Northern Kenya.
The truck stopped in front of the border. I clambered down the vehicle. Three weeks had passed since I had arrived in Nairobi. I had spent some time with a Kenyan family I had become friends with and I visited the Cherangani Hills. Now I stood at the fringe of Ethiopia, my adventure in Africa had kicked off for real.

At the Ethiopian immigration my luggage was unloaded, my stuff stalled on a table and examined. Twenty minutes later I strode up the hill to Ethiopia. A bunch of young men swayed me, trying to change money, trying to sell me chat(1), trying to get me into a certain hotel. I tried to ignore them but they were exceedingly persistent. Especially one bloke, named Tony, a chat chewing, goatee-bearded, Rasta type of gent. 'Leave me alone!', I muttered. 'You don't want to talk?', he answered 'No, I don't want to!' Tony was not to be sacked. Persistently he kept on boring me, telling me stories of journeys he had undertaken with ...