>Wondo Ganet isn’t terribly far from Shashemene. The road is
>the same smooth road from Addis and I hear this road can
>take you straight to Kenya! On both sides you get to
>appreciate the wonder Nyame’s creation. The landscape
>changes considerably. It’s just open field, fields of tef,
>cindi (wheat) and piccolo (corn). There are circular
>natural homes with thatched roofs that often have a pointy
>object at the very peak. In Maharishi architecture this is
>very important as it focuses energy, this can be seen
>throughout Ethiopia. There are young girls carrying large
>bundles of sticks on their backs the way the women of Entoto
>carry the bundles of eucalyptus. Sometimes there are
>collections of houses surrounded by hedges. Some houses
>have been decorated with paint, some say ‘welcome’ on them,
>others have geometric designs reminiscent of Zulu design. I
>also saw some tombstones like those on display at the IES
>that I described. They had pictures painted on them of a
>person, sometimes it was a person atop a horse with a sword,
>which reminds me of the pictures i have seen of St. George
>here. Yes, a smooth road until you get to an intersection
>which separates the way to Wondo Ganet and that to Awassa.
>There was a sign turn left to Wondo Ganet, 14 km. Ha! 14km.
>When you visit Ethiopia you will notice that people
>sometimes get teens and ties mixed up. That is, you might
>have to say four-zero when you mean 40 because 40 and 14
>sound similar and people often get them mixed up, hence the
>saying of the individual numbers for clarification. Well let
>me tell you, I fear they have made that mistake with that
>sign because trus’ di I when I say, that 14km feels like
>114! The road to Shashemene has made you thoroughly spoilt
>and makes the unasphalted road to Wondo Ganet slightly
>annoying. Bump bump bump! Somehow land cruisers manage to
>speed their way through this area, leaving a cloud of dust
>so thick sometimes we had to crawl to a halt because we
>could not see in front of us. Sometimes it’s a truck to
>your left, a horse-drawn cart to your right and you in the
>middle. There is a section of winding road on the side of a
>mountain that reminds me of tv shows I’ve seen of people
>driving on the coast in Cali. To your right and down (way
>down) is grass of varying shades of green, more traditional
>homes. The view is really beautiful so it makes up for the
>road. But then the road gets really really rough. There is
>mostly red dirt in this area and you can’t go more than
>5km/hr. Up up up you go. There are some false banana plants
>lining the road. There are homes in this area so
>neighborhood children can keep pace with you, going so
>slowly. Some are selling papayas, others, guavas, some
>aren’t selling anything at all. Just as I thought I could
>bear the bumping no longer we spotted the blessed sight of a
>light blue sign with white lettering. It had 2 arrows, one
>pointing left for Wondo Ganet hotel and restaurant and the
>other right to the springs.
>
>We went left so that we could take a sit down and eat
>properly. We went up the path leading past the hotel and we
>parked. The area is really beautiful with several tall,
>trees with overhanging branches. Their roots are thick and
>there is one tree that sits in front of reception that would
>take several people to encircle it, so thick its base. There
>is another path which leads to the restaurant. It is lined
>with beautiful flowers. It looks out of place though, with
>its spaceship-like architecture. You can sit on its roof
>and enjoy the view of the mountains in the distance. My
>hosts said that the food at the restaurant wasn’t that hot
>so we made sure we were prepared. We had packed dabo (baked
>that morning!), fruits, peanuts and peanut brittle and a
>roasted barley snack that is particularly popular here. We
>then sat on some stumps that partially encircled a tree. On
>the tree the staff had put a little garbage can. We got our
>food out of the vehicle, unwrapped our dabo and got some
>cookies out and water. Then we had an uninvited guest. A
>little monkey decided it would join us for lunch. We tried
>shooing it away at first, it backed up then moved forward
>again. The people at reception called out to us and said
>“dabo, dabo, dabo!” oh it wants dab huh? We gave it pieces
>of dabo and it ate. Then its friend or cousin or something
>jumped on the vehicle and tried to go inside! After getting
>it off of the vehicle it joined us too. 5 min later there
>were no less than 7 monkeys around us. They had been in the
>large trees. Some were still there. Some were small and
>brown-grey. Some were large and black and white. The black
>and white ones are called Guereza and the brown ones I
>believe called Vervet, so look that up so you can see what I
>am talking about. I myself had never seen monkeys that close
>up. I watched them, it’s interesting how human-like they
>are. We gave them bananas. They peeled them, ate the inside,
>put the peel down and wiped off their hands in some cases!
>Other times when we had already eaten part of the banana
>they ate what was left before throwing way the peel. I
>watched them eat orange. They took the wedge ate the inside
>of the orange and took out the white skin; the part that I
>eat myself apparently is not good enough for them. They
>didn’t spit it out either, they used their hands to take it
>out and put it down. They ate our peanuts, they didn’t too
>much care for the peanut brittle, oranges, bananas and dabo
>and were looking expectantly as if they expected us to give
>them some water and a glass. The brown ones were more polite
>than the black and white ones. They would just come up to
>sitting on their rump and look at you, sometimes crossing
>their hands. The largest of the Guereza came over and we
>could not shoo it away at all, it even tried to grab some
>food! Well I snapped some photos while they were there.
>Afterwards we packed up all the food and put it back into
>the vehicle. My host wanted to take some pictures of them.
>Well let me tell you, after the food was gone, so were they.
>I don’t mean they weren’t on the ground anymore, I mean we
>couldn’t even find them in the trees! It was like they
>completely disappeared. So, no photos for her unfortunately.
>After taking a little tour of the grounds we set off for the
>springs.
>
>The springs are a stone’s throw away from the restaurant, we
>parked got out and went to the entrance. It costs 5.25 Birr
>to get a private room, I don’t know how much for the
>communal place. The manager got the key for my room and
>unlocked it and gave me a small bar of soap. The tub had
>already been filled and the water was still going. At the
>bottom of the tub is a large wooden plug. You can take this
>out and let the water run out and opt to take a shower or
>you can just sit in the tub. I closed the door, removed my
>clothes and stepped into the tub.
>Just as quickly, I stepped back out.
>Obviously I was going to have to do this gradually; the
>water was scalding!!!!! I put in one foot at a time and
>ever…so….slowly…I lowered the rest of my body inside,
>oftentimes having to start over because I just couldn’t take
>the heat. About 5 min later my whole body was immersed in
>the water. Aaah! The water felt great. I spent about 30-45
>min in Wondo Ganet’s healing mineral waters. The water is
>channeled from the mountain, I hear further up the mountain
>the water is about 10 times as hot. They channel the water
>into about 5 or 6 private rooms, an outside area, one side
>for men, one for women, where the water comes through pipes
>and off the rocks onto you. There is also a large pool you
>can go swimming in. when people need healing, they stay for
>a number of days and take the baths everyday for the
>duration of their stay. I let the water out of the tub and
>took a shower in there, washing my hair. I felt really good
>when I finally emerged. We all did. We then hopped in the
>vehicle and off to Awassa we went.

"The camel never sees its own hump but that of its brothers is always before its eyes"- N.African proverb