Preparing for Somaliland

The next morning I awoke and had nice chats with some volunteers and learned about their awesome experiences.  One was a young Canadian fellow who had been working on water irrigation projects in many different areas...sounded very interesting! 

Eventually, I headed out, taking some local minivans to the embassy area of Addis.  I was hoping to get a Somaliland visa for a later trip to that "pseudo-country."   It boggles me that a region with its own democratically elected government, currency, army and who knows what more, is not recognized as a distinct country.  But that's politics....sadly...

Anyway, since I  had skipped breakfast by this time my stomach was telling me it need filling.

  So I found a small restaurant and decided to taste typical Ethiopian cuisine.  After getting some help deciphering the menu ..."just what is this dish?", I  ordered the Quanta firfir which consisted of injera bread cooked with dried meat.  "Are you sure I will like this?" In fact the dish had chilis in it so had a nice twang and was quite tasty....just perfect for me!  After my filling meal, I headed off in search of the embassy.  I had to ask a few people for directiions but fortunately I did not have to wander long in the hot sun.  So there I found myself in front of a big black metal gate with the only identification being a small sticker bearing "I heart" and  the Somaliland flag.  Once inside, the application process was quite easy and after returning about three hours later I was all set to visit Somaliland via the city of Hargeisa.  "This should be great!"  I also met some very friendly Somali men who were getting help with a UK visa application....very nice people! They were sure to tell me how safe Somaliland was and about the interesting sites.