Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Qat - Now THERE's a story for you - When I was preparing to board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, I was struck by the very high level of security - to the point of pat-down as we went up the steps from the Tarmack to the plan; they even lifted my Tilly hat ;-) and looked inside it. Well, the flight to Djibouti was uneventful. When we landed we were told we would exit through the rear door. Fine. But as I walked back through the cabin I noticed that the seats were empty in the rear half of the plane. Well, they weren't really empty - each and every seat was filled most of the way to the top of the seat back with cloth bags of qat! I was on an official Ethiopian government sanctioned drug delivery flight. ;-) (And, yes, the people were nice. But I was stuck in Dijbouti, Djibouti, by weather and political instability, awaiting a break in the weather so that I could hitch a U.N. flight into the top of Somalia. But the weather never broke and my editors in NY told me to find my way back to Nairobi... - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Tarek Charara Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 2:02 PM To: Leica User Group Subject: Re: [Leica] Repairing 21mm Viewfinder On 06.05.2002 17:57, "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> wrote: > I spent the longest four years of my life there over the course of four > days - ;-) - in January, 1993. Pouring rain the entire time,sewage > everywhere, hotel running out of food, deformed crabs on the beach because > the water is so polluted - in fact, you could look out at the incoming waves > and see the sewage. > > Somalia was far more pleasant. :-) > > B. D. That must have been a nightmare. I probably had better luck... I spent 10 marvellous days "exploring" Djibouti. They have some of the toughest mosquitoes I've ever experienced! I slept in tents & huts and the food was very rudimentary. Some spectacular sights. The people are nice and I almost got lynched while shooting the qat (local drug) arriving from Yemen. :-) Tarek - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html