Saturday is a Hashing Day

On Saturday, I joined an out-of-town hash. We traveled south of Addis (details to follow since I can't seem to remember the name of the place we went), and did a leisurely walk by a river. The walk itself was quite lovely and the least strenuous of all the hashes I have been to so far, but I can't speak so highly of the trip there and back. The scheduled departure time was 8am, but didn't leave until almost 10am. This meant that we cancelled the en route breakfast (luckily I had brought peanuts), and headed straight there. I would speculate that the bus didn't move faster than 25mph the entire trip. I could be exaggerating, but for the majority of the trip (2.5 hours each way) there was so much traffic or the road was in such poor condition that it was not possible for the bus to move faster.

The scenery along the drive was quite beautiful, and luckily I was sitting next to a couple of lovely ladies with whom I had some great conversation. I brought Stefanie to the hash for the first time. She is an intern at the US Embassy with the State Department. I met Louise on Saturday. She is from the UK and works for PricewaterhouseCoopers with the Environmental Protection Agency on Ethiopia's Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative. I had a very interesting conversation with her about her work and efforts to track climate finance within Ethiopia. 

After the painful bus ride (quite literally...i have bruises on my knees from the lack of leg room :) ), we were given some red t-shirts to commemorate the hash. I was expecting a tough hike, but it turned out to be a very leisurely walk. I was able to take pictures of the river, birds, crocodiles, and the sea of hashers in red making their way around the countryside of Ethiopia. Upon our return, we were served some almost cold beer and some injera mixed with some kind of sauces/meat. It was rather delicious. We chatted, drank beer, and watched the traditional hash rituals before heading back to Addis. On the way back, the bus ride was quite rambunctious with both young and old who had enjoyed the libations a bit too much. In the back of the bus was a rowdy game of truth and dare (unfortunately i was the victim of a kissing dare), and in the front of the bus there were a couple of older men who refused to sit down and kept drinking beer all the way to Addis.

All in all, it was a great day. It was wonderful to enjoy some sunshine (even if it means that my skin is a tad bit red...in my defense, it was overcast when we started the walk), and breathe some fresh air. AND, the trip (including the bus, food, and drinks) cost me 100 birr (or $6).