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I will go to Mekele, try to join a salt caravan and with them I want to go to the Danakil Depression.

One Year Africa: Maybe the Hot Season

Maarten de Boeck
2006-05-01 17:15:05

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an appointment with Senay, my translator, who was about to join me to Bera Ale the next day. Earlier that day, he had told me he wanted to discuss something with me. I already had a slight suspicion what it would be about, money. Earlier we had made the deal that I would give him 75 birr (about 10.5 USD) per day to act as a translator. But now, on the evening before departure, he asked me to raise it to 100 birr a day (about 14 USD). I could not grant his request. I felt 75 birr was a reasonable payment. I found it a bit too opportunistic of him to turn up with this the evening before departure. We had a small discussion with Kebreab. I made clear I would not resolve to pay more. Afterwards we shook hands, 'no hard feelings', and the issue was off. Later, in Bera Ale, I gave him 100 birr, as a gesture of appreciation and because I had to employ him only one day while I had expected he would be with me for at least two.

On my return from dinner that evening, the streets were illuminated with lightning. Few raindrops were falling already. At night there would be a storm above Mekele. Sitting in my small room, I thought I would go to a radically different world, where everything would be the opposite of a rainstorm.

The way down the escarpment was rough and beautiful, squeezed in the back of a covered pick-up, driven by a reckless driver. I was smashed with my head against the roof a couple of times. A little girl was crowing with pleasure each time it happened.
It was cloudy when we arrived in Bera Ale. It was raining a little bit. Soon it began raining harder. The last thing I expected here was rain. I even had contemplated about leaving my jacket in Mekele.

The building of the authorities wasn't actually an office. The shed was surrounded by a small wall of loose stones. There was an improvised gate to enter the walls perimeter, not more than a ramshackle plate of iron. There was only a bed in it and a small table.
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