My Trip, to Baardheere

[Murax]

1- The route of my journey
1.1 Air route
I departed from Amsterdam airport Schipol on 24th of May and made a transit at Heathrow airport where I flew later in the day to Nairobi Kenya. This was a non-stop long journey of about 9 hours and I arrived at 20:30 in the evening local time. Here below is the air route to Nairobi

1.2 Land route
I spent the airport almost an hour for immigration clearing and luggage collection and drove to Nairobi and boarded to a hotel. Abdifatah, HIRDA Somalia chairman was at Nairobi by the time and he and other relatives of mine picked me from the airport. They booked a hotel for me in advance. I stayed in the hotel for four days while Abdifatah finishing his business and left Nairobi on 29th of May to Bardere. I was lucky enough that I met Abdifath in Nairobi otherwise it would be very difficult for me to choose the means and the safest route Somalia.

We took a bus early in the morning from Nairobi to Wajir Kenya (see route above). The bus was fully backed with passengers beyond its seats and one can hardly get a room to stretch his/her legs. A very load music and passenger overload made my journey uncomfortable.

We arrived at Garisa town (map) 13:30 and had almost an hour for passengers to have a lunch and empty whatever load restrained during this section of the journey. We arrived at Wajir 20:30 in the evening and had a rest half an hour. A friend of Abdifath in Wajir had already arranged us rental car that took us to the border town.

We left Wajir 23:00 sharp and headed for Somalia and reached the border village of Gariley (Somalia side) almost 22:45. When we arrived at Gariley I was very scared because most of the young men there roamed around with guns which force you to exercise a low profile.

There we took a rental car escorted by gunmen to Bardere where we arrived late in the night Fa-fahdun a town equidistant between Gariley and Bardere and slept there a while. We left Fa-fahdun early in the morning and arrived at Bardere at midday and went to restaurant for lunch. After lunch we went directly to HIRDA office where I was introduced to the team for debriefing. After debriefing I want to a hotel to rest a bit and prepare for the next day.

[Murax]

Security
There are guns all over some used for protection of people's business and their privacy and some are owned by people especially young men for reason or the other. Despite too many number of guns in circulation incidents or fataliites were the lowest in the 17 years of civil war in the country.

Clan composition
Although Sade clan is dominant in Bardere, it has mixed communities with good co-habitation and that was the most beautful thing I observed in Bardere. I was first concerned if minorities were subject to abuse but I found that was not the case. I was but told that there were isolated incidents of abuse to some residents of Bardere town but that was immediately solved. There is a community elder parlament consisting of all the clans in Bardere and every community is properly represented.

Comunication
Communication was remarkably good. There were two communication companies operating in Bardere namely: Hormud and Nation. These two companies operate through out Somalia. They provide land line and mobile as well. There is an internet cafe where one can send mails and receive them. The telephone companies have their own generator for power supply but the internet cafe depends on city power supply which is not stable because of high demand, high fuel price and less electrical technicians

[QansaGabeyle]

[Murax]

Qansa I know why You're laughing.

Those Caghdeers at the border scared the shid outta this Guy, fulaysanaa.

[QansaGabeyle]

Qansa I know why You're laughing.
Those Caghdeers at the border scared the shid outta this Guy, fulaysanaa.

Haa saaxib but Geriley is not an Cagdheer town. I love the way he related the story but it is too short. I would like to see a longer version. Young men with guns are a focking problem that needs to be dealt with. Build football and basketball standiums and give them balls and feed and they will get off the damn streets.

[Voltage]

We took a bus early in the morning from Nairobi to Wajir Kenya (see route above). The bus was fully backed with passengers beyond its seats and one can hardly get a room to stretch his/her legs. A very load music and passenger overload made my journey uncomfortable.

We arrived at Garisa town (map) 13:30 and had almost an hour for passengers to have a lunch and empty whatever load restrained during this section of the journey. We arrived at Wajir 20:30 in the evening and had a rest half an hour. A friend of Abdifath in Wajir had already arranged us rental car that took us to the border town.

This is no longer the case Murax. The sharci right now is no one can stand up on the bus at least from Nairobi to Garissa (where the Law rules, after Garissa nothing ).

In my trip, we bought our tickets to the "Wamo Express" Bus and everyone had a seat. It was a comfortable ride with a lot of kaftan, discussion, and of course the loud music. We left around 6:30 am and got to Garissa round 11-12. It is funny how you see the actual physical separation between the Bantu and the Somali when you pass from Green, cloudy, foresty area to Blazing sun and dry arid land. The last major Bantu town when leaving Nairobi is the town of Mwingi and the first major Somali settlement is the village/town of Bangal.

Anyways at Garissa we got off for a thirty-minute lunch break and we at this hotel. We come back to the bus and the bus is over-filled to capacity and people are sitting in our seats. We tell them we paid for these seats and they get up however the bus is no longer comfortable from there on. It was over-filled, musty, sweaty, humid, and geeljire baa iska soo buuxiyey needing lift to their village. The other thing is the PAVED ROAD stopped at Garissa, and from there on was uneven, sandy road. The bus tipped over so many times you cannot imagine it wallahi, but it never reached the point of no return.

Murax sxb you cannot even handle Nairobi let alone law-less Somalia. Don't let all the romanticism we hold onto in the West especially us posers lead you on. One week here and you will say where is my good life in America.