I recently read that Anbessa bus increased its fare.
I was trying to find out how much the increase was or what the current price is; you see, I never used bus in Addis; I did however as young as I was use the taxi by myself, as I probably mentioned when talking about the wueyete.
What I do remember is that I would sit and watch as the Anbessa bus would make its frequent route up CherCher godanna, or Churchill Rd which ever name you prefer.download photo courtesy Dannyhabesha
I did here stories, the pick pocket stories, or how packed and muggy it gets. I was recently reading a novel written by an Indian American and remember his thoughts on a train ride somewhere in the middle of India.
India as big and as populated as it is, the major form of transportation seems to be the train; the problem is that it gets more packed than the Anbessa bus in Piassa during rush hour. And thus the rail is prone to accidents. 100s die every year.
So the details of the fare increase were not clear since the article was written for Mathematicians or something. It said “Enterprise has raised the tariff for long distances by 0.03 birr per km while the fares for rides under 12.4 km will remain as is.
Anbessa bus serves 3 quarters of a million people each day. It’s been around since 1943. It is the heart of the Addis’s transportation system. I hope I get on it some day, without my wallet ofcource.
Published by February 27th, 2008 in Social.Send this post to a friend
Really? Even after you have left and come back for a visit… just for the experience if nothing else. big problem! one must experience country as is as long as you dont perform war dance like all the lunatics. Mandatory three stay starvation for you now.
LOL “CherCher godana” where did that come from?
I’ve only taken the bus once, and that was like 10 years ago or so when they ordered new buses and a coupla friends and i thought it was a cool idea, and i was dizzy for one reason or another … and never tried it again … I think it was like 0.25 cents or something then … wonder how much the raised it.
Lol what i remember is the buses being full at rush hours and people still not giving up and pushing each other to get in and then the bus finally takes off and there’s like on iGir sticking out from the door…
I’ve lost a brand new watch that i got for my b-day in one of those buses. I’ve seen guys rubbing themselves on girls and blaming it on the crowdedness of the bus. I’ve seen people fighting for chair space. It was much more fun to travel by bus, so much drama goes on those buses. Our version of Jerry Springer show. I have no idea how it is now though.
I don’t know much about the fare hike but that is a very cool pic. When was it taken? Must be during some government mandated curfew b/c I’ve never seen Addis so free of congestions & overcrowding - cars, people & jack-asses of all stripes…
I used Anbessa Bus for an entire summer, from Arat Kilo to home (Bole Medhanialem)… No. 9, I remember. I was young and I loved it. I had no problem at all. I was about 12 years old at the time but looked 8.
I thought it was quicker than the taxi and cheaper too….I didn’t have the patience to wait for the taxi weyala yelling “Yemola! Yemola!” and he only has 3 people…gena!
Man I miss those little things.
[quote comment="131828"]LOL “CherCher godana” where did that come from?
[/quote] I am sure everybody knows it come from “Winston Churchill Rd”, Yagere Sewu “CherCher Bilotal”
I remember saying “I don’t ride bus” is being a pride thing and being better than most people. I even remember people saying “I smell like Hizib Hizib after riding Anbesa Bus”. It is not fair.
I think, the price was 35cent for normal distance five years back. There is Anbesa bus from Addis to Debre Zeit that most of the middle class uses for 2birr. That was a brave idea by the corporation. There were a lot of commuters everyday paying 4birr per ride. I have no idea about now though. May be the gas price is he reason for sudden increase.
You never used a bus?????????? AMAZING!!!!! You missed out…..
I hope to pack myself with the cheapest currency in the world and board that bus a pocket full. I would like to find out how skilled these pickpockets are.
It will be nice to lose $4.00 and piss-off some pickpockets.
http://www.abesha.wordpress.com
Nani
why would they give up ???? you know for some people it is the only means of affordable transportation.
Nolawi
Make sure you cut your hair off before you get on the bus …In case…just in case some fellow bus rider sees you from behind and thinks he can get away with rubbing you the wrong way
I vaguely remember riding the Anbesa bus. That was a long long long long time ago. Oh God I’m beginning to worry now I am getting old.
What I remember is the bus was always packed like a can of sardine the operator who sold the ticket had a small booth towards the end of the bus. I think the fair was 15 cents ( I am not sure )I also remember the smell of ( yesegur kibe) ( some women would put butter on their hear they would of course cover it with a shash but it would still have that nauseating odder. Oohh it use to make my stomach turn. Wow it’s funny how my brain stores some memories. I guess there are some things we won’t ever forget ….
I came to America 21 years ago and have not returned yet. I wish I could go.I miss Addis Ababa.
[quote comment="131933"]I vaguely remember riding the Anbesa bus. That was a long long long long time ago. Oh God I’m beginning to worry now I am getting old.
What I remember is the bus was always packed like a can of sardine the operator who sold the ticket had a small booth towards the end of the bus. I think the fair was 15 cents ( I am not sure )I also remember the smell of ( yesegur kibe) ( some women would put butter on their hear they would of course cover it with a shash but it would still have that nauseating odder. Oohh it use to make my stomach turn. Wow it’s funny how my brain stores some memories. I guess there are some things we won’t ever forget ….
I came to America 21 years ago and have not returned yet. I wish I could go.I miss Addis Ababa.[/quote]
same here, i haven’t gone back yet because of lack of time. 17 years ago.
Nol,
Here is some giTim the pickpockets make:
Tatani foqani yej sira molto
Sew endet yinoral Jonya gotito
Interpretation:
Tatani is yehuala kis….Foqane is yederet kis….
So they’re basically saying they’d rather be a pickpocket than Kuli. If u don’t know what kuli is, time to go to addis and upgrade ur vocabulary….
Cheers,
Ohh.. i may be “ye habtam” lij.. but the fare is 50 cents.. and guess what.. you don’t have to pay. u buy the ticket from outside and walk in. once in a while someone comes by to check your ticket and if they catch you .. you pay double.
most kids don’t pay.. they play the odds on the packed bus.
Later
[quote comment="132049"]Ohh.. i may be “ye habtam” lij.. but the fare is 50 cents.. and guess what.. you don’t have to pay. u buy the ticket from outside and walk in. once in a while someone comes by to check your ticket and if they catch you .. you pay double.
most kids don’t pay.. they play the odds on the packed bus.
Later[/quote]
that is so funny.. so its roulette huh
Dinich, I speak better amharigna than you and your family combined… puhlease… Kuli mts….
Moki,
I have your watch! Since there is no lost & found place I kept it. Do you still want your watch? If so wait for me @ 23 KUTER ANBESA AUTOBUS gare.
Nol,
There is an if in my sentence….
here is another Anbessa autoboos story I remember.
This guy with leprosy (we used to call them (Q…..TA) with a lot of Qusil on his hands boarded the bus and put the money on his hand right on the Qusil and all the half fingers and asked the ticket lady to pick it up from his hand.
She refused and he said….kalfelgsh teyiw and walked right in….
This is the sort of scene I miss man…..
I remember a long long time ago. We use to take the bus at Piassa or Giorgis after school and mine was the # 3 bus. The Lepers will take the same bus because their place is by the old airport. They will ask if it was the # 3 bus and we will answer as a group “aydelem # 9 newe”. I feel bad about it now. I know now you never get Leprecy by touching. my heart goes out to them. What a life.
[quote comment="132065"]I remember a long long time ago. We use to take the bus at Piassa or Giorgis after school and mine was the # 3 bus. The Lepers will take the same bus because their place is by the old airport. They will ask if it was the # 3 bus and we will answer as a group “aydelem # 9 newe”. I feel bad about it now. I know now you never get Leprecy by touching. my heart goes out to them. What a life.[/quote]
Forgive my ignorance but how does it transmitted then? Here is what Wikipedia says,
The most widely held belief is that the disease is transmitted by contact between infected persons and healthy persons.[16] In general, closeness of contact is related to the dose of infection, which in turn is related to the occurrence of disease. Of the various situations that promote close contact, contact within the household is the only one that is easily identified, although the actual incidence among contacts and the relative risk for them appear to vary considerably in different studies.
never been on a city bus, but a frequent flyer on the ‘lonchina’, especially if i’m going to Debre Zeit. i find that it’s safer to take the lonchina, as crazy as it sounds, instead of ‘megafat mengedlay’ with them, be one of them. and ever since traffic police check that they don’t overstuff them, it’s been quite comfortable. make sure not to open the windows though, too many complaints of ‘bird yimetanal!’ and ‘mirkanaye tefa, abo!’
Well, leprecy (Hansen’s disease) is caused by Mycobacterium leprae (similar bacteria to TB), that multiplies very slowly and mainly affects the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes. Worldwide, 1-2 million persons are permanently disabled as a result of the disease. However, persons receiving antibiotic treatment or having completed treatment are considered free of active infection.
Although the mode of transmission remains uncertain, most investigators think that M. leprae is usually spread from person to person in respiratory droplets.
Risk groups are close contacts with patients with untreated, active bacteria , and persons living in countries with highly endemic disease. (this means within a family, child from mother etc). You have to be in contact for a long time.
Most of these mothers get treated.
From what I learned in Microbiology it takes a very long time to get the disease.
1. Most of the lepers we see in Ethiopia are being treated (the damage in the skin etc is already done in the people we see church etc.a) but the bacteria is under control.Persons receiving antibiotic treatment or having completed treatment are considered free of active infection.
The leprecy hospital in Ethiopia does a very good job in providing free medication. It is well funded.
2. That is the reason we rarely or never see children or young people with the disease in Ethiopia.
3. The bacteria multiplies very very slowly in the body. So it takes a long time for the person to show the effect of the disease.
When I learned this in school the first thing I thought was how a disease that is treated with a simple antibiotic can affect so many in poor countries like Ethiopia.
Tsedey, I hope this helps.
I am so sorry, it is Leprosy.
I have to also add.
It is transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth of untreated patients with severe disease, but is not highly infectious. If left untreated, the disease can cause nerve damage, leading to muscle weakness and atrophy, and permanent disabilities.
Leprosy can be easily treated with a 6–12-month course of multidrug therapy. The treatment is highly effective, and has few side-effects and low relapse rates; there is no known drug resistance.
Thanks Hana, it definitely helps!
It’s been over 20 years since I left Addis and haven’t been back since. I discovered Bernos a couple of weeks ago so you can imagine my obsession of reading every single blog - so nostalgic… seeing the pictures of the bright red and yellow Bus has reminded me that I’m way over due for a trip back “home”. I was smiling as I read the posts of my fellow Addis Ababians and their Ambessa Aootoboos experiences and it brought back memory of a traumatizing experience I suffered on my first and last trip on the bus when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My young uncle was assigned to take me to my weekly ‘waana’ lesson at Ghion. The bus was packed as you can imagine and people were pushing to make space. My uncle was holding my hand as we attempted to board the bus and the doors shut when I was half way in. I was stuck between the doors, one side of my body completely sticking out. I remember my uncle and others shouting for the door to open as the driver continued on… I rode the Ambessa crying till the next stop. Although I remember feeling some pain from the pressure of the doors, I think I was more embarrassed that pedestrians and other drivers were watching me. And gods forbid if one of my snotty little school mates found out that I was riding the bus…There was a certain level of image consciousness even at that age in my school, and the bus was definitely a no-no. That evening I remember my mom hugging me as I cried and told the story of how the big bad bus tried to chop my head off, how people laughed at me, how I was almost blown to smithereens by other cars, how they shouldn’t allow kids on the bus… And now, years later exactly at this moment I would pay a fortune for the experience to be in that city, with all the beautiful people, in a packed bus – with my limbs sticking out… I miss home!
Mtss, one kid i saw riding alongside a seriously packed and “yetengadede” bus - he was probably nauseous from the lack of breathing space or something but he had his head stuck out the window puking his guts out while at the same time keenly observing the city “wore” as the bus sped along..
love how he was keenly watching the “woré”…lol Sinko!
MM,
Speaking of puking a guy once has puked anate lay…at Addis Ababa Stadium…..yakk
Dini, that’s just awful:(:( - uffff imagining it erasu betam yikefal!
Dayum Dini…visualized it and eeeeeeeeeew!btw, how are you these days? looks like BP dying killed a lot of communications…mts!
oof, Diniye, M’lady, Rahwi….good to see u r around….miss you all. At least, I get to hear from Rahwi sometimes
Dinich, I can relate to your puke fest. I was just puked-on very recently coming down on the escalators from the mezzanine level of my office building. A gentleman standing behind me started coughing and then just emptied his guts out on me. I was covered from the neck down. Had liquids running down my back under my shirt - you can imagine the horror. I had nowhere to run and my favorite suit was soaked in his lunch. He profusely apologized and kept on saying that is was just water. I was caked with a risotto and spinach looking mixture that he maybe thought was part of my attire? I was pissed!
I have this memory when I was young like 5 or 6 years old, I was scared of standing alone on the bus and would clutch unto my grandmother so tight.. also.. one time, my grandmother foot got stuck between the doors and I remember crying… distant memories of the anbessa city bus..
I went back after 20 years and drove in my nice SUV and saw people jam packed in the bus with no breathing space and wondered if they would continue to take the bus if they had alternate means and then I thought it’s all relative.. I am just as jam packed in Toronto buses and someone is probably feeling sorry for me wondering if I had alternate means.
I think I have taken the ambesa autoboos once. It was many years ago but I clearly remember it was after our eight grade minestry exam. My friends and I were walking home and there was the bus and we got on and it was empty. It must have been the time of day or something. It was uneventful. But as a child when I use to ride behind those precariously leaning buses I used to wonder how all those people would get out if the bus were to topple over door side down. I figured it would be easy if it was door side up. How many people it would take to push it right side up, what if it fell on top of another car, or some one…things like that. When I went back many years later I didn’t see any leaning buses. They all looked kinda new. The old busses used to be all Mercedes the new ones are DAF I think. Which was all good but I kinda missed the old leaning buses.
Ewwweeeeeeeee…….Bus ,Hell No…..
I hated bus. Even when I had money enough only for a bus I prefered walking. The Idea of that much people suffocating together …….Sorry ,But hated it.
On the contrary ,My mom wouldn’t consider another means of transportation for a million dollar.
The original article cited rising oil prices on the world market for the fare hike. I also think this could have very well been the result of subsidy cut by the City government, which is increasing the costs of operation for the Anbessa City Bus Enterprise.
I miss all those chaotic scenes at the bus stops though.
hey Helen…I love your interesting twist of nostalgia for the leaning buses..;)
Helen,
Ur post reminded me of all the cars backhome that seem to be going diagonal….the body and the wheels are so misaligned that they look like they are going diagonal when u see them coming…..
Rings a bell? anyone?
Buchela loves washing his bibs. I love that he loves washing his bibs. It means no pent up toddler energy ready to explode into a tantrum during cold winter days when playing outside is out of the question. It means an occupied Buchela when mommy needs time for herself. It means a tired little guy at the end of the day. ….
http://aazun.blogspot.com/
Ye-Inatu-Lej re your Feb 29 post
I can just imagine your horor yene wendim… yesw puke!!! yak 10x… I would have screamed in shock and probably puke or faint
Did you find a rest room? Did you dry clean your suit? or threw it away?
Next time you know not to get too clothes to ppl.
Ayzoh
clothes ( i ment close)
I still ride the bus…….not. But we do have some newer chinese made buses these days…
Hi folks,
I didn’t ride a bus in Addis! You know why? I had no 25 cents to pay for it. I had to walk on foot the whole of my childhood life. I was so jelous of people who could afford to pay for an autobus!
I left Addis when I was 14yrs old, and I lost count on how many time I’ve tooken the bus to school, to see my mom, and also to the doctor. I know than it was only 25cents, the one thing I remember the most was being so small I used to get steped on or don’t get the chance to buy a ticket before the bus fills up and I end up walking or try to pick up a used ticket when some one gets off the bus and try to sneak on and hope I don’t get cought. I cant wait till I go back home to see what it like now. Been in U.S all this years also this my first time on Bernos. ONE LOVE
[quote comment="135528"]Hi folks,
I didn’t ride a bus in Addis! You know why? I had no 25 cents to pay for it. I had to walk on foot the whole of my childhood life. I was so jelous of people who could afford to pay for an autobus![/quote]
You are in the majority. When you take that trip down memory lane, you dont see me, but I’m right there beside you… smiling