Moyale border - a masterpiece of african reality

Hage and the girls, Moyale, Ethiopia

In this bus to Moyale at the border I got to know Hage. She is a Kenyan with Somali roots living in Nairobi. She has family on both sides of the border. She was in Yabello to fetch her daughters there. Her husband has brought them there four months ago. She told me, that he had taken them away from her. I have no idea, if this story is true or not. However, Hage has family also in Moyale, so I could stay with her and her family. Moyale is on both sides of the border and a rather unspectacular place.  On the Ethiopian side the infrastructure is slightly better. It was nice for us, that the family lives on this side as well....This night was clearly not one of my best - four people trying to sleep on two mattresses... Then, we continued to Kenya.

The border is a masterpiece of African reality - the Kenyan side of the border is open 24 hours, the Ethiopian side only 12... So, someone, who comes from Kenya can easily get stuck, if worse comes to the worst, 12 hours in no-man’s-land.... And this is not only named like this....But well, this was one of the few problems, we did not have.