Every mosque here has a different call to prayer, starting at just a slightly different time. This is one thing Amman definitely has over Hargeisa- uniform calls to prayer! I know you're thinking yeah, yeah, yeah, what's the big deal, so I'm going to come over and play this video in YOUR ear at full volume at 4 am tomorrow morning (when the morning Ramadan call to prayer sounds), and then we'll talk.
Apparently, the mayor schedules trash pickups for wealthier areas of town and has the trucks redistribute the trash to poorer areas instead of dealing with it appropriately, like, you know, putting it in a landfill. This means there are areas of the city covered in trash, especially with that great scourge of every developing nation, plastic bags. The goats seem to appreciate it, at least.
There's a river, where's the water? For the handful of days each year when this river flows, drowning is a big problem, since most people can't swim and aren't about to let a little water stop them from their shortcut. Not surprising given that the dry riverbeds act as roads and major pedestrian thoroughfares, and most of the major highways even run straight through, yes, through, not over, riverbeds, making transit around the country unreliable in the rainy season.
Speaking of driving in the riverbeds, oh no! Sarah Palin seems to have been here and left another bridge to nowhere! This was a big deal project a few years ago, and many citizens, including school kids, donated money to help build it. Mysteriously (hi, corruption!), funds ran out with the middle segment still AWOL. So people just keep driving across the riverbed in the shadows of the almost-bridge. That's where we were driving when I took these pictures.
But rest assured--should you find yourself in need of medical assistance after an unintentional riverbed swim, the public hospital in Hargeisa has helpfully padlocked the doors to its emergency room.
And don't even get me started on the traffic jams (that's a donkey-drawn cart in front of us, as we drive through a riverbed, just off to the side of the bridge to nowhere.) The donkey carts are largely used to pull barrels of water around to the areas of town that don't have other good access to water, like in the areas with lots of refugees. I'm just kidding about the traffic jam here, but there is actually very bad congestion in the central market part of town, with donkeys certainly a part of it. I've heard rumors of a traffic light in town, but I certainly haven't seen evidence of one. A perk of being with Edna: everyone knows her. We were headed to dinner the other night in heavy traffic and a police officer directing traffic at a small roundabout literally leapt in front of a truck, hysterically waving his glow-in-the-dark traffic baton around to let us through when he realized it was Edna herself!
Hargeisa has done a remarkable job rebuilding in the last 20 years, but it clearly has a few things it needs to keep working on. Nothing really insurmountable, just the need to identify things as problems and commit to resolving them (no problem at all, right?).But on the whole it's a lovely, interesting city, filled with lovely, interesting people, and I really can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be right now.
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