Dorothy Rankin on trip to Guraferda, Ethiopia, 1973, side 1.

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    [Rankin, Dorothy L., speaking] [Rankin, a foreign missionary from Xenia, OH, First United Presbyterian Church] You
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    know i'm from it looks like that.
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    I never get caught up on correspondence with you
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    folks. So much has happened that i can't remember it very
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    well. And would never get it all written down so i'll try this and wish you a
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    Merry
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    Christmas and a happy wedding day. Mal [Vandevort, Malcolm S., Jr.] wants to give you his greetings. You could
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    shout them over, Mal. Hi!. [Rankin speaking]
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    Mal and i are at a place called Guraferda. Which
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    is west southwest of Gech'a,
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    some miles. We're not sure but it is at least sixty kilometers
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    by air. And we've done it on foot. We've come with
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    two mule men and Otto Tatose and Otto Esiaqua, the evangelists.
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    And with four mules.
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    Everything is gone quite alright so far and we're very thankful for it.
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    We traveled three and a half days to get here. And this is the longest trip that I have ever
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    made. And, I'm enjoying
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    it rather much, though it is tiring. By the end of the day
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    it seems like we are having trouble putting one foot ahead of the other. Our
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    last days travel yesterday was uphill for about two
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    thousand
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    feet. And, that took a lot of the umphh out of us and
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    some out of the mules too. But today we have taken a day off and
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    are resting and getting really refreshed. And all
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    of us have decided that this was very much in
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    order. Guraferda is
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    is fairly high up on the mountain about five thousand
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    feet. And it is a government headquarters for
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    one of the western parts of Kaffa province.
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    There's a governor here. And.
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    There's another man who has a big man in this
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    area and. There are two government teachers.
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    A school of four
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    grades with grass roof and poles.
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    Here it's
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    almost entirely out of the question to have a
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    tin roof because everything has to be carried in.
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    And I'll describe the route a little bit later. The government police
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    post and governor's office has tin roof. And, I think there's about one other tin roof in the town.
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    People were very surprised to see us.
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    And, we were received very graciously by the teachers and
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    by the governor himself who's been sick. He's had a bad nosebleed
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    and we gave him what we could in the way of aspirin and vitamin
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    c. He seems to be better today. Rather young man.
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    We came, went to call on him last night and
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    in the course of that had supper with him in general and
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    what. We're camping on the
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    school ground or in the playing field which is a lovely place for the animals
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    to pasture.
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    It's a bit chilly at night, but
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    we sort of double up in the tents and that keeps everybody warm.
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    I'd better go back and give you a little description of the journey over here
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    with our party of four mules and six of us.
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    We left Gech'a about noon on Monday and went as far as
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    the other end of the Mizan E.l. airport.
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    And stopped to see the Canadian mineralogical team that are
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    serving, I suppose, its Kaffa province and
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    some other areas in the vicinity
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    to try to find out whether there's any mineral wealth in this part of
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    Ethiopia or not.
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    They work with helicopters. And they dropped in to Gech'a [or possibly Gojja]
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    to
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    a couple days earlier in the week. I think on monday and wednesday again
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    they came. Monday just to visit and the other time to bring a
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    rabies vaccine up from the airport for us. They're most
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    congenial folks and we enjoy contacts with them.
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    We stopped in there particularly to have a chance to look at the map that they are making of the area.
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    They've taken the photographic maps made several years
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    ago and are plotting
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    them on a smaller scale. Or do you call it a larger scale?
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    I'm not sure
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    which. On one map
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    and putting in all the water courses. Course that's rather definitive when you
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    get to
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    looking at the map from the air. On so we could see a little bit of
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    where we were going and try to mark out our course in
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    our minds that way.
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    The first day we traveled. I mean the next day we travelled was largely through
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    plantation. There is one plantation Atano,
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    a group that have very very large holdings in the area. We travelled
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    most of the day through their plantation. And then there's coffee
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    along the
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    roads. And, somewhat back from the roads, there is a
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    large coffee cleaning and shipping center in the middle of the
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    plantation there. We stopped and just gave our greetings to the
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    Italian manager of that. And we went on and camped about
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    the end of that area. At a place called Bendera, just under the forest trees.
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    It was nice, cool and refreshing place with water
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    nearby. And the only animals that we had
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    any awareness of were the Calabash monkeys that make a
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    tremendous noise, but it's a pleasant noise when you know what it
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    is. We spent the night very
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    happily there and moved on the next day.
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    Keeping on a kind of a road that is suitable for a car in some seasons.
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    Therefore it was rather an open
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    path. When we left Bendera
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    we got into a bit of rather closed path, but not too
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    difficult for a while. We got to a
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    place called Biftu, which means "baboon." More plantation
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    there and.
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    We also got some oranges. Bought oranges there. Most welcome on the trip.
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    After Biftu, then we began to get into a real forest.
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    Closed in on us some of
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    it rather narrow. Actually if the forest is not cut.
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    We have a better path than if it has cut back because
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    the grass grows up very quickly and closes in
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    the path when it is opened up to the sun.
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    The forest is beautiful. Huge trees. Massive trees in many
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    areas. And, the contours, and the shapes, the
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    light and shadow of the bright sun coming through are fascinating.
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    Ferns of various kinds.
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    Not many flowers with color, but the shapes and the forms are
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    the delightful thing along there. The going was not very
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    difficult. It's not a great deal of up and down, though we had some hills to
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    do. That whole day we traveled through forest and
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    all of the forest area in there and some of what we had the next day are elephant country.
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    We saw elephant footprints and dung and paths
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    along the way. I suppose they use that road a good deal because it is open and
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    makes it easy for them to move around. We saw no
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    elephant at all. They say that is the usual thing. You see the signs but very seldom
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    does anyone coming along the road see the animals themselves.
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    Coming through the plantation area, we met a few people, workers on the plantation.
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    But there. It's rather sad to see them because they
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    are more or less drifters who come and go. They are
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    displaced persons in a way. And, they are a mixed lot without any
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    home ties particularly in the area in which they're working. At
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    least some of them come from east of the the Gamaro Mountains. Some come
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    from other far places. So that they are
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    not a homogenous group that would be easy to work with.
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    And when we get on to the forest, there are very few people there.
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    When we came out of the forest at the end of our
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    second and a half day, we came to a grassland and pitched our
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    camp near a small water course. Grassland
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    is made up of sanballet, which is very high grass,
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    well over our head when we're riding and can be rather
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    sticky. It wasn't really too bad this
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    time. After we spent the night, we started
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    out and found that we went from grassland, "bettaha" they call it,
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    translated "desert," which isn't desert at all,
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    but the grassland. We go for a patch of that with its own particular kind of tree.
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    Like camels foot tree and occasionally big gardenia
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    tree and then other things called "combretum and terminalia" [bushwillow plants]
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    with the grass. Those are fire resistant trees. Then.
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    From those patches we get back into the real forest trees in ravines and glades
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    with sunlight filtering through
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    again. And, we were quite refreshed. I was surprised
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    how many trees of one kind or the other there are along this path, which is said to be through the grass.
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    We had a good deal of respite, even though the those fire-resistant
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    trees don't give a great deal of shade.
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    This last day, the third day. That is, the third full day,
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    was traveling up and down small inclines
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    until about the middle of the day. Well,
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    past the middle of the day. Because we didn't start until ten,
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    Nine thirty or ten. I guess, nine thirty
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    maybe. And then we began the ascent
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    up to Guraferda
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    Mountain, Guraferda we could see from Gech'a. And, I've wondered about it and
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    looked at it and tried
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    to think what it might be like over here. And, therefore i was glad to get this chance.
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    But on the edge of the for. Real big forest we came to the Shenna
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    people and, as we crossed this
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    grass area, we didn't find very many people at all.
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    It's not an inhabited area. Coming up the hill
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    was a real pull and hard. And even the mules were tired and.
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    We were pretty well hanged. The men with us weren't near as tired as we were.
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    But by putting one foot down and picking up the other one, we made it up the hill
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    by about three o'clock.
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    I was quite
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    surprised to be arriving because we get estimates of how much time there
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    is. And, we can't
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    really be sure who is right. Sometimes they give estimates
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    as three hours, and it takes us four. Sometimes they say it's eight hours and that
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    means that you will arrive at eight
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    o'clock in the day which is our two o'clock. And so. I was almost
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    surprised when we leveled off on the top of the plateau in which this town
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    is. It was a good relief and.
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    After I got back on the level, I was
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    ok. So we got into the town and
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    went to the police post, registered and let them know that we were there and planned to see
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    the governor the next day. And people met us. School teachers
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    came out. And, one of them is a cousin of the dresser at Mazanne. and he
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    has helped us out a great deal and made us feel very welcome. I think
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    that some of the children of this area have never seen a white person. And, I certainly
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    haven't seen one here. They just don't come very
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    often.
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    People gave us bitterje, which is honey water, offered us edge, which
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    they call
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    wine. And then. We had coffee a couple times
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    and then finally after we had pitched camp and
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    gone back up to see if we could give the governor any medical help,
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    we had supper with him.
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    The reason for the trip is to find out what people are in this area. And, we
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    have learned a lot. Mal was here fifteen years
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    ago and has found one or two people who were
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    here at the time and remembered that people had come through. Other people
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    have memories of
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    Dr Reed [Reed, Glenn Patterson] and Donnie [McClure, William Donald] coming, Donnie McClure coming through this area.
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    Oh, I don't know. It must have been ten years ago. On a long
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    walk, which Dr. Reed [Reed, Glenn Patterson] wrote up in quite detail. And,
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    we must get out and read it again. They found people up here they said that they
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    didn't know. Donnie took to the. Talked in Anuak, but they weren't that.
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    And so we were trying to find out where those people are and who they are. The area in which we are
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    on the east side of Guraferda Mountains seems to be Sheko people entirely.
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    Well they reach over from
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    here along to the north of here, I believe, and on
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    right up to Gamira area. And there are two
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    schools this year in Sheko over there. But there are none over here.
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    In fact this one government school is the only school in the very large area over
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    here. We just took time out to go to the
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    school to play a tape in their language, in Sheko
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    language and made an effort
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    to teach them a new song in Amharic. It was a lot of fun anyway; whether it was very
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    successful or not, I don't know. But, one of the teachers here knows the song himself.
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    and so it won't be hard for him to follow up with it.
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    He comes from Sadamo, which, I think.
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    Where I think he must have had some contact with S I M Mission and church.
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    He seems to be quite willing to teach bible in the school if we send
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    him some help for teaching, which I hope to
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    do. There's no teaching at all out
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    here in this area.
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    And, the only reason that we can see for having a government post out here is to
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    collect taxes.
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    The main product of the country is some grain, enough to sustain them here.
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    Not for export. And honey.

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