Love in the Land of Barefoot Soldiers by Frances Vieta

Author:Frances Vieta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

IN AUGUST, A GROUP of American engineers came to Addis. They had been sent to survey a possible site for a much awaited dam on the Blue Nile as it issued from Lake Tana. The group had traveled into Lake Tana from Khartoum in the Sudan, then nine hundred miles along the river and then come down from Lake Tana to Addis by pack mule.

“Don’t get overly optimistic,” Rutherford told Ceseli and Standish before the three men arrived. “I have been working on this dam project ever since I got here. In 1933, they were already projecting a cost of twenty million dollars. I have no idea what that would be today.”

Ceseli had flown over Lake Tana on the return trip from Axum. The lake covered one thousand four hundred square miles and formed the headwaters of the Blue Nile, or the Abbay, as the Ethiopians called it. The river ran for five hundred miles in Ethiopia, most of it through one of the world’s deepest and most dramatic gorges, before it joined the White Nile at its junction near Khartoum.

The three Americans were welcome company. Robert Evans was the leader of the group. He was a big hardy man with a fanatical memory for facts and figures. His two assistants, Larry Peters and John Connolly, were both young and both from New Jersey where the company’s headquarters were. This was their first trip so far from home, let alone Africa, and they were happy to be back to civilization, even if it was only Addis. A hot shower and a cup of coffee had done wonders for their spirits. It had been refreshingly American to see them playing touch football in the garden.

The evening was cool as Ceseli walked up from her tukul. She was wearing a black cotton skirt with a man’s white shirt belted by a piece of Ethiopian cotton cloth that doubled as a headscarf. Her hair was combed loosely down her back and she wore soft leather boots made for her at the market.

The table was nicely set with tall white candles, and incense was burning in small earthenware holders. In the background, Ella Fitzgerald sang from the Victrola. The meal was American with some Ethiopian innovations. According to the chef’s preference for roast beef, it was nearly raw, the potatoes were tiny and mixed with baked eggplant and the tomatoes cut in slivers and served with ground teff.

“The Blue Nile begins in Lake Tana,” Evans said between mouthfuls. “It’s a very rich agricultural area. The land bordering the lake has oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, and bananas. The lower valleys produce corn, teff, indigo, and doura. Barley and wheat flax grow on the highest plateau.”

“What will the British say to this dam?” Ceseli asked.

“I understand they didn’t have any objection when the idea was broached several years ago,” Evans answered.

“It was at least three years ago,” Rutherford corrected.

“Is it that much?” Evans questioned. “But the situation has not changed. If the Americans are going to build this dam, the British will lose out.

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