37

I had my birthday yesterday (solasa sabbat (37)), and other than the few cards I got from the post office last week, and a phone call from home… No-one celebrates birthdays in Ethiopia, except for young children. I went for a long walk to the point where two rivers join again. The last time I did this, I was hacking through tall reeds and undergrowth and hitting a few dead-ends, but this time I could basically walk where I wanted as the whole area had been burnt down in the recent stubble clearing. The deforestation in Ethiopia is quite scary. Everywhere I have walked around here has huge areas cleared for crops and now with the burning, it doesn’t seem that much more than a barren wasteland. I’m sure it affects things like the temperature: without forests of trees transpiring, and now much of the land being black.

I walked up-river to the large waterfall which, using a piece of string with a branch tied to it, I measured as 9m high. Then on the way back I crossed to the other river and walked over the rocks to the rapids. If I can get to it, it’s going to be very interesting to see what the river level is like in the wet season. I crossed many dried-up streams during my walk, which will be difficult to cross after the rains.

I was quite exhausted when I returned, and even though I took and drank 3.2 litres of water, I was still dehydrated… I’ll have to take more next time. The total distance I walked according to my GPS was 18km.

As you may know, I have a kind of long-term experiment running to show how co-incidences are nothing more than chance and the human brain’s power for spotting patterns. It’s a bit like Ethiopia. As soon as I knew I was coming, I kept spotting and hearing things about it – they were always there, just that your brain tunes in to them more. Anyway, my experiment was to choose a number (I picked 37) and see how many times it occurred in my life. When you are looking for it, it does seem to appear a lot. The number of times I look at my watch and it is 37mins. The room I was in at the Akaki Campus near Addis was room 37, in one of the Psycho films, a priest says he has seen “It’s a Wonderful Life” 37 times. I was watching “Signs” the other day and a girl says she cursed 37 times. Yesterday as I was looking at my GPS on the walk, I discovered that sunrise on my 37^th birthday, here in Gilgel Beles was 6:37. Now, if you were superstitious you might attribute this to some mystical power, but I know it is just random chance and this is what this experiment shows.

I had my favourite tuna-filled pancakes for dinner, and then, lined 37 candles up and took some photos – blew them out and made a wish…

At around 22:00, it rained and through the night there were some reasonably heavy showers – nothing like the “heavy downpour rain” (flashback to “The Rain Makers”) but fairly substantial. It does mean the humidity has risen this morning – sweat is taking longer to evaporate, towels are taking longer to dry.