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3/28/1957 - Where the Asphalt Ends by Smith Hempstone Jr.

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS SH Whre Asphalt Ends Addis Ababa Ethiopia mailed Nairobi Walter S Rogers Institute Current Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New Yo Dear Rogers Nany streets Addis Ababa paved Ten miles outside roads diate capital spokes wheel asphalt clock turns thousand years Ethiopia begins Our first through fashion Ambo Vallega country Lekempti distance about miles It surplus again spinuing along Shoan plateau country green under misty rains spring We armed letter governor Lekempti vided Lij Habte Selassie Teffesa loving American edcated press officer imistry Foreign Affairs Th hours Ambo passed quickly through smalI villages houses wattle built square rather roared prosperity owners Each village complement scrawny chickens naked children strewn street villagers clustered around usually dressed white jodhpurs shawl hanzma_ gossiping about women politics crops The women before their houses picking their spinning cotton At Ambo which spring three hotels popular social Addis Ababa stopped glanced through Tie refueled pressed toward Lekempti After Ambo character country changes There gradual itude becomes muggy uriant creepers banana trees turns black Shoan plate Georgia There fewer villages scravner herds goats abtuudance baboons The become utted heavy trucks We reach Lekempti Or before A cover these miles I square where governor lives thatis impossible locate Norwegian Lutheran ission None speak English Italian school presents hirself ssion As about leave policemah comes demands letter per_ission visit Lekempti I I always operated theory behave reasonable polite fashion others reciprocate This Ethiopia Such behavior taken weakness invitation every small official around By I routine I breath enough proper apoplectic shake stful letters bearing Imperial policeman The exception Habte Selassie governor completely irrelevant The policeman satisfied He proceed I proceed governor And immediately He backs where We shake hands And mission The missionaries within their compound their guest house We sleep following morning governor office The chief municipal officer yoking twenties tells governor married grand daughter Emperor hunting today He governor assistant The governor assistant short haired official school Despite I letters though governor because personal He writes serial nurabers letters passport number tells municipal officer speaks little English governor On municipal officer Tigre college doesn Lekempti governor assistant hopes scholarship America study planning He Wallega Gallas hopelessly complish little stres mlining municipal admin istration during Lekempti The governor house large story affair outside The gover0r still hunting receive We ushered presence under rhomboidal shaped duenna The governor princess right addressed about twenty Sh educs ngland speaks decidedly British accent She reserved uncormaicative Ve sorry missed governor three years younger I Cambridge graduate allow municipal ficer around She assents leave The municipal officer Lekempti crashingly place At decides might interested seeing governor hunting preserve We sounds grand drive track funeral procession dressed their clothes walking column hillside miles Beneath stretches several miles thick green growth grass edges Our friend tells place leopard monkeys kinds gazelle I people grass eaten He occasionally Later short market other principal buildings police station school gasoline station Some streets paved heavy cobblestones This tells during governorship present governor grandfather Lekempti seems always their country We thank guide scholar Stats drive Addis without incident Our longer Lekempi journey south Kaffa province birth place coffee Jimma Here again going through Galla country began horsemen mountedn brilliantly caprisoned horses mules carrying lances spears The animals shied badly Crossing Ghiie River shallow turgid stream which later changes Omo empties locked Lake Rudolph Kenya borde found ourselves slowly descending until again vegetation became greener weather humid Here coffee forests begin after tropical forest coffee trees camouflaged useless shrubs thorny trees At Jimma usual amount trouble finding someone could jointly Ethiopian government Point IV Agricultural School usual ceeded eventually The Director school Hugh F Rouck guest house occupied showed where could invited attend class evening school ninth grade We cooked seedling protection downed hasty dinner hurried assembly where presented The plays which parodies WALLEGA W0N SPINNING AI ZARA SI A MERCH T Lekempti Ambo NORWEGIAN GIRL AND FRIENDS DAWN IN KAFFA PROVINCE Lekempti SH INSTRUCTOR PUPIL COFFEE OLD TII ROPE KING Bishoftu ARUSSI GALLAS GOJJA OUNTAINS Blue Nile Amharic Ethiopian lsted three hours belly laughers start finish Here first found Ethiopians capable laughing themselves The effect heightened ninth graders their twenties sported mustaches goatees The following around school history velopment which dealt subsequent newsletter U S technical military assist Ethiopia Again scared guide areund Jimma which developed during Italian occupation agricultural marketing center largely deserted It Sunday shops closed despite majority Gallas Iuslims T government allow business Christian although Copts lowed their shops Friday sacred uslims After return Addis Ababa stocking canned larder struck again through Arussi country Awash River Passing Swedish force academy Bishoftu Dutch Wonji sugar plantation M oggio crossed Awash first headed south thrbugh sandy desert toward Asella Here first impassable roads particularly frustrating because completed Imperial ighway Authority American trucks almost exclusively hurned crushed surface We turned In future choice continue Back tracking Nazareth turned again toward Awash eastward point reachable Addis Ababa motorists wishing drive Addis Ababa Djibouti Harar ogadiscio their railroad Awash Dire Dawa Here climbed series mountain ranges spilling plain covered acacias grass Very natives camels gazelle guinea In afternoon Arussi driving camel whose flanks covered blood As approached chased skinny protruding blood She giving birth Arussi carried sized spear curved knife apparently intent getting young camel would spend first night h_ugry A miles another large SH camels Among almost white camel We stopped Kitty pictures I Arussi herdsmen candy cigarettes They asked water I They refused their pictures anyway That night camped outside Awash railroad center importance Franco Ethiopian Railway Company which country French Somaliland Djibouti Addis Ababa fueling Ethiopian Airline planes Because Addis Ababa altitude EAL Convairs fully loaded international flight We quick following morning headed Addis Ababa Our north Addis Blue Nile across Gojjam Northern Shoa beautiful country flowers growing beside green pastures great trees herds groomed horses Few people You could easily think Blue Grass country outside Lexington The loose fairly rough We camped night crest ridge mountains about miles Nile As cooking supper stopped A police officer wanted usual things where going wanted there given permission travel there He finally dinner The great gorge Blue Nile drops almost pendicularly mountains river It Us almost Come terrified trains When We reached bottom police bridge would pictures bride further Gojjam other river They asked would taking corporal mountain village We On stopped monasterz Debra Libanos famous spots Ethiopia possessed magnificent hordes baboons people almost every morning there bodies outside monastery We covered miles looking paring learning eager chance digest wheat Sincerely Received New York