Wondo Genet - A hilltop paradise

Saturday, 29 December

By shortly after 7:00 we were on our way, back up the rough and bumpy road. It was a long, hot, dusty day. Giggles and I played clapping games, we played word games, we played rhyming games. We played "hungry bear" and "monster walrus" with her stuffies. She napped; I napped. She played with Laolao; I told her stories. Slowly the miles passed.

We stopped at Wolaito Soto for an early lunch (the same place we'd stopped for lunch on the way down) and at Shashemene for tea. The last 20 or so km before Shashemene were on good road again so the going was much smoother. From Shashemene we turned east into the hills, towards Wondo Genet. The roads here were bumpier again, as it was once more off the main highway. But it was only 20km, so it wasn't so bad. And we knew that rest and relaxation were waiting at the end of it.

Around 3:00 pm we pulled into the hotel compound. It was immediately obvious that this was a relatively classy place. (Still not quite up to the hotels we'd stayed in at Bahir Dar and Gondar, but close.) The gardens were beautiful – many flowers, trees, hedges and even a few patches of grass spoke of a well-watered place, a place where one could feel at ease. This had apparently once been the private retreat of the Emperor, Haile Selassie. Since his demise (and possibly since the fall of the Derg government? – I'm not sure) it has been turned into a "resort" hotel. (Laolao said if this was supposed to be a resort, it was sorely lacking, but I figured it was a wonderful African resort. The bathrooms were the nicest of all the hotels we'd stayed in, except for Lalibela.)

As we were checking in, we had another surprise: the couple working with MCC, whom we'd met at the Christmas Menno potluck dinner on the 23^rd and again at the Christmas Eve service on the 24^th, arrived to check in as well! Turns out the MCC staffers were having their annual working retreat here; they had just arrived and were staying for three days. We arranged to have supper together that evening.

We took a few minutes to freshen up, then headed off for a swim at the hotsprings, a short walk down the hillside. The change-rooms were quite basic, and the showers appeared to be simply diversions from the hot springs, too, so four heavy spouts of water cascading over the cliff edge, down onto the slippery concrete floor. But lovely warm! The swimming area consisted of three pools. One was a shallow pool, which was also a bit cooler – just right for Giggles to play in. It was not large, but only three or four other kids were there, so it wasn't bad. Beside it, a medium-sized, much hotter pool was about right for grownups to stand in (I could just keep my head out of the water by standing on my tippy-toes – but I'm rather short!). We all felt it would have benefited from some benches along the sides that one could sit on to relax and soak up the warmth – but it did have a set of steps at one end, so we used those for sitting for a few minutes. The third pool was also quite warm, and deeper yet – one had to either swim, or hold on to the bar that went around the outside of the pool. The four of us stayed mostly in the kids' pool, playing with Giggles, or in the mid-depth adult pool.

We basked in the pools for over an hour, letting the day's dust and bumps and fatigue fall away while our bodies relaxed and grew calm. Giggles would have stayed longer, but we promised her that we'd come for another swim tomorrow morning before we left, if we woke up in time. (Though I wasn't about to set the alarm clock to ensure we did so.)

Back at the hotel grounds, Giggles found the three daughters of the couple we'd met checking in and joined them in play, running around the gardens and feeding the monkeys. (They didn't like Ritz crackers, but loved the bananas I gave Giggles to feed them.) I sat with the grown-ups and chatted. At 7:00 we all went for supper, and after supper fell into bed and a deep and weary sleep.

(Continue to 30 December: Back to Addis again)