Bus ride to Piassa, another intrepid adventure with Sandy and Carole

On Monday Sandy and I decided to take the bus to Piassa as we are accustomed to doing but just for fun we thought we should also find our way home by bus also instead of having Trusty Dawiit drive us . The adventure begins, we climb aboard the Higer bus and off we go . When we get to the area that has many butcher shops we see a dead hyena on the road. We have been told that they are rarely seen near town but this is the second one we have seen dead in the road in this same place. I’m not sure “rare” means the same thing in oromo that it means in english.


Next we come to the detour around the new road construction, We’ve been stuck on this hill before. Our fearless bus driver determines not to wait for the the traffic jam on the hill to disperse and instead he turns down a narrow side street. Ok this doesnt look so good, it is so tight that only about a foot of space was between the bus and the walls of the compounds lining the street. The bus rounds a tighter corner and comes to a stop. We are caught between a rock and a hard place quite literally. Some men get off the bus and I decide to try to get some film of the problem.

I climb up to the front of the bus and shoot some film, now there is a large group of men in the street and they are chanting what sounds like an old work chant. I managed to squeeze out the door just in time to catch a few frames of the crowd and the road is cleared. Back on the bus , a few more tight squeezes and our bus is back on route for Piassa.

We arrive at our destination without further troubles and disembark the bus to wander happily about the charming treets of Piassa. We tried a new cafe for lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and the the cleanliness of the establishment. We even found our way to the Blue Supermarket and Shoa Store for our much needed supplies .

Only one challenge left, where do we catch the bus back to burayu? Well ask a total stranger of course. Wasn’t it Scarlet O’Hara who said ” I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. A nice gentleman in line with us at the Shoa store gave us excellent directions. Just go straight up that really steep hill and cross over to the corner. No problemo! Have I mentioned the elevation here is over 8000 ft. Huffing a little we crest the hill, find our bus and off we go for home with all our delightful purchases in hand. We have been cautioned about the buses but I must say that we always meet very friendly people on them and have adventures we would not want to miss. I encourage any intrepid traveler to take full advantage of the inexpensive Higer Buses. Just dont be in a hurry to get anywhere. And pray. happily serving our LORD and SAVIOUR in Burayu, Carole and Sandy.