【Adventures in Ethiopia and Djibouti】-下集 楊達倫

9. Korean Airlines Flight #007

On September 1, 1983, a Boeing 747 passenger plane, Korean Airlines flight 007, was shot down over Russian airspace. I happened to be in Ethiopia at the time. While on international travel, I would bring some electronic gadgets for entertainment and to keep in touch with outside world. These included a Walkman cassette player, a boombox for playing music, and a good-quality shortwave radio to receive international broadcasts. Unlike nowadays, I did have to spend a lot of effort to transfer music from CDs or records to cassette tapes to bring with me.

After the Korean airplane was shot down, the whole world was curious as to what had happened and whose fault it was. I, with my colleagues, were tuning into available shortwave radio stations for news reports. These included English stations from the US, UK, and Russia, as well as Chinese stations from China and Taiwan (could not find Korea station). Every station seemed to present a different version of the event. The Russian source declared that a civilian aircraft equipped with spy gear violated Russian airspace and flew over sensitive security sites. It was shot down after failing to respond to signals from Russian fighters. This was naturally supported by the stations in China. The American stations asserted that a civilian passenger plane accidentally drifted off course and was shot down with no warning. It appeared that the BBC from London seemed to have a more objective stand; different theories were presented and were qualified as postulates. I didn’t know whom to believe. Where is the truth? What caused hundreds of passengers to perish? This experience taught me not to blindly trust news reports made by any single source. Some research and verification would be necessary to gain a more reliable understanding.

Figure 19 - Flight Path of Korean Airline Flight 007

10. Life of International Consultants

On this trip, we met many international consultants working in Ethiopia. We learned quite a bit about this unique breed of professionals. One of our project members, Mike, was from Chicago; his wife was from Nicaragua and traveled with him. First, Mike didn’t have to pay US income tax. He told me about the “physical presence” test”—your tax liability is waived if you stay at least 330 full days in foreign countries within a tax year. Mike therefore takes only consulting jobs that are done outside of the United States. He and his wife essentially live in foreign countries all the time. While we all stayed in a hotel in Addis, the couple lived in a nicely furnished house with a servant. Once Mike accepted the job in Ethiopia, he searched through his connections for an empty house, typically the residence of a diplomat that is on home leave for several weeks. They were just house-sitting for the diplomat while keeping the servant employed. What a win for all deal!

11. Schnapps, Tej and Grouder: Drinking Experiences

We met an engineer from Sweden. He worked for Ericsson, a large telecommunications company in Europe. We became good friends. He had a difficult divorce a while back in Sweden. He took the assignment in Addis, a remote branch office far away, to escape from his home environment. He had been dating a nice Ethiopian girl. But her parents were against the relationship. One day, our friend was very happy to announce that her parents finally changed their minds and allowed her to move in with him. For celebration, he invited a group of friends for a simple dinner at his apartment. There were six people in all, including Ken and me. I volunteered to whip up a dish using whatever I could find in his fridge. I ended up making scrambled tomato and eggs (番茄炒蛋), a simple but popular Chinese dish.

 When we sat down to eat, the host pulled out a bottle of Swedish Schnapps, a spirit I had never had before. It was a clear liqueur produced from potato or grain. I had a few refills and thought it was like a fortified wine. After dinner, when we were ready to go back to the hotel, I could hardly stand up. With Ken’s help, I managed to get back to the hotel room and collapse into bed. The next day, the ENSCO team was invited to the home of our Ethiopian project manager for dinner. His wife made us home-cooked Ethiopian food and brewed coffee with freshly roasted coffee beans. The brewing process was very interesting: coffee beans were roasted on the metal tray on a small charcoal fire next to the dinner table.  We enjoyed the aroma in the air. She also served a homemade Ethiopian honey wine called Tej. I could only take a sip of the wine; my head was still aching due to the schnapps from the night before. Coffee is a major export commodity for Ethiopia. I also found that every bar, restaurant, and hotel has excellent espresso machines and serves excellent coffee. I didn’t know if the five years of colonization by Italy during Mussolini’s time had an influence.

Not far from the Ras Hotel we stayed in Addis, there was a basement bar that all visiting foreigners know about and congregate in at night. Its name is simply “College.”.  Bar staff spoke good English and other foreign languages. Popular current Western music was always played in the background. Foreign visitors, more Europeans than Americans, congregate at the bar to enjoy drinks, snacks, and meet friends old and new. We sometimes us went to the basement bar to unwind after a day of intensive work. Imported drinks were outrageously expensive; people usually drank local beer or wine. Aside from the local beers, we discovered that the popular Ethiopian red wine “Gouder” was quite drinkable and inexpensive. The bar was always busy, like a madhouse. We were curious as to how the bar owner knew about and possessed the recordings of current western pop music tapes. We went to the back room and met the owner, an Ethiopian lady that was married to an American. They established the bar together and then got divorced. She continued to run the bar with the total knowledge on how to cater to western visitors. Quite an impressive, successful business operation in a depressed economic environment.

One evening when we arrived at the bar to order some drinks, the bartender said that we owe money from the night before. What he demanded was not an outrageous amount, but we would not be served unless we paid up. This would be an unthinkable situation back home, but when this was the only game in town, we had no choice but to pay. We learned later that bartenders had to cover any deficit at the end of the day if the register does not balance. It would be too heavy a burden on their moderate salary; trying to collect from customers to cover the deficit from the night before is their common practice. Most of the customers would end up succumbing to the demand like we did.

12. The Taiwan Market

During some chats with local Ethiopians, I mentioned that I was originally from Taiwan. To my surprise that they all knew of Taiwan. They told me about the “Taiwan Market” and took me there for a visit. It was an area just north of the edge of Addis. An open field with stalls and tents setup to sell cheap household stuff, clothing, shoes, rubber slippers, etc. Most of the merchants were from Taiwan, travelled halfway around the world to make a living. There were very few stalls that sell more costly items such as electronics.

In fact, due to the shortage of imported goods, anything I brought could have been sold locally at a good price. An Ethiopian friend insisted on buying my boom box, I had to sell it to him and buy a new one on my second trip. There were offers on everything I had, shoes, jackets, shirts etc. That’s how a merchant could have made a killing if the right stuff were shipped to the right place at the right time.

13. A False Alarm of Robbery

One day, a group of us was walking from the hotel for a stroll near the hotel, chatting and looking for a place to have some coffee or a snack. As usual, a crowd of kids was all around us, hoping to get some handouts. Suddenly, Mike shouted, “He stole my wallet!”. The kid next to him started to run, as well as all the other kids. Mike was a big guy and not athletic; he did not try to go after the kids, but a few of us did: Ken, Doug, and I. We chased the group of kids that were all running into the bushes along a riverbank. At 8,000 ft elevation, we all lost our breath after a short distance and reluctantly gave up the chase. We walked back to Mike and felt apologetic for not being able to catch the thief. Mike said, “He didn’t get my wallet; I just thought he did; his hand was in my pocket.”

One of us, especially me, being older, could have suffered a heart attack from the violent chase—something we did out of instinct without thinking.

14. Trading of T-Shirts

A group of us was travelling on the train from Ethiopia to Djibouti. A congregation of Ethiopian police came through the train to check every passenger on tickets and other certificates. Being foreign visitors, we were all being asked to present multiple types of documents and paperwork. Our project leader from Luis Berger was a retired US railroad official. He got impatient and a little upset. He started to argue with the head of the Ethiopian police group, saying, we are Americans hired by your government to help improve your railway. Why are you giving us a hard time being here? We were all concerned that this could lead to a bad situation, but nobody was able to do anything to change the situation.

Ben, one of ENSCO’s track inspection crew, was in the group and wearing a T-shirt that has an orchid and the caption: “I got Leid in Hawaii.”.  All the policemen wore T-shirts that said, “Ethiopian Police.”.  Ben approached one of the policemen and made the hand gesture that he wanted to exchange the T-shirt with the policeman. The deal was successful; the two guys pulled off their shirts, exchanged them, and pulled the new ones on. Everyone on both sides saw that and laughed loudly. All the inspection routines were waived, and the police group moved on without giving us any more trouble. This was such a trivial but memorable event that I will never forget.

15. The Chinese Restaurant in Addis and Frozen Ducks

It seems that every city of significant size has more than one Chinese restaurant. Addis is no exception. Since the revolution that overthrew the Haile Selassie monarchy, Ethiopia has been ruled by socialist/communist leaders. We knew of two Chinese restaurants in the city, “China Garden” and “Hong Kong.”.  When we went to “Hong Kong” to try it out, I found the menu to contain a good list of Chinese dishes with authentic names printed in Chinese and English translation. The food we ordered turned out to be quite good and appeared to be authentically prepared. I was quite convinced that the owner and the chef were Chinese. I asked the Ethiopian waiter to take me to the kitchen to meet the chef. To my surprise, the chef was a big Ethiopian fellow, and the owner was Giovanni, an Italian. We visited the restaurant often and learned from Giovanni that the original owner, Mr. Sun, was indeed from China and taught the locally hired chef how to prepare all the Chinese dishes. During the turmoil of the socialist revolution, Mr. Sun was concerned about safety. He sold the business to Giovanni, who just continued to run it without changing anything. Mr. Sun and his family fled to Djibouti and started another Chinese restaurant. Giovanni stayed in touch with Mr. Sun. Djibouti used to be a French colony before becoming independent in 1977, and it continues to be closely associated with France, both culturally and politically.

A couple of weeks later, my work on the D-E Railway took me to Djibouti, the capital of the country by the same name, one of the hottest places I have ever been. I made an effort to find Mr. Sun’s restaurant, enjoyed the food, and had a nice conversation with him. He was very happy that I brought the best wishes from his old friend in Addis. He told me that Giovanni complained that he could not find ducks in Addis to prepare some of the popular Chinese dishes. He asked if I could bring a duck to his old friend on my way back to Addis. He promised to minimize my trouble; he will wrap the frozen ducks nicely and deliver them to me at the airport right before departure. I reluctantly agreed.

Mr. Sun kept his promise; I received two frozen ducks from him when I just got in line for the security check. When I placed my carry-on bag plus two packages on the conveyor belt, the inspector asked me, “What’s in here?” I told him, “Frozen ducks for a friend.”.  The inspector reached into the package and felt the cold and squishy duck; he quickly waved me through. Upon arrival, after the short flight, I had to take a taxi immediately from the airport to deliver the thawing ducks. The delivery made two people very happy.

Looking back, it was a somewhat risky undertaking. You never know what the authorities would do in a foreign country when you violate some unknown rule. Having the ducks confiscated would have been the least damaging outcome. Another risk we all took in Ethiopia was exchanging money on the black market. When crossing the border, the customs agent was supposed to check all the currencies you have on you, your local money, foreign money, and your exchange records from government banks (to ensure a consistent balance), which seems an impossible rule to enforce. We never got into trouble on that one.

16. Disappointing Outcome of the Study

After the project teams finished the on-site work and returned to their respective home bases, it took many months to complete the final report. It was a thick volume of several hundred pages with numerous foldouts. The report addressed every aspect of the railway business, including the status of the infrastructure, the operation and maintenance, the organization, and the finances. The report identified deficiencies and suggested areas that require critical investment. We received very little feedback on how the report was received or if it produced any results. The war intensified in the northeast, and conflicts with Somalia continued along the southern border. The northeast corner of Ethiopia eventually split into an independent country, Eritrea. As far as I know,

Ethiopia was not able to secure any significant funding or loans to repair the railway. The railway system continued to deteriorate for decades. For all the effort spent by the project teams, the result was very disappointing.

17. Subsequent Development of the new Addis-Djibouti Railway

Starting in 2011, Ethiopia secured loans from banks in China. The funds were used to contract with Chinese railway construction and railcar manufacturing companies to rebuild the entire railway. Design, construction, and testing took many years. The new railway, now named the Addis-Djibouti Railway, opened for service on January 1, 2018. It uses electrified, standard gage tracks that allow a maximum speed of 120 km/hr. The total length is 759 km; it is single track except for 115 km of double track in heavy traffic areas.

Figure 20 - The New Electrified Ethiopian Railway

Figure 21: Celebrating Successful Completion by China Rail Corporation