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      "body": "Congratulations @beantownboy! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@beantownboy/birthday3.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 3 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@beantownboy) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=beantownboy)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "In Part 1, I introduced the rather unique experience of hitchhiking on airplanes in Somalia.\n\nPart 2, however, is my very best (and true) experience of such hitchhiking.  As in Part 1, this episode too was with our English client.  He had come down to Nairobi and absolutely had to get up to Hargeisa, the capital city of the self-declared, independent, nation-state of Somaliland.  This was on a Monday.  I managed to get us on the UN flight to Mogadishu, and that is where the problems began.  There were no scheduled UN flights to Hargeisa until Thursday and I had to be back in Nairobi by Thursday evening for two reasons.  First, our dear English client was scheduled to return to London on that Thursday evening flight, but much more importantly, Diane (my future wife) was flying in that evening from the US, so I had a very real incentive to get back to Nairobi in time for the arrival of her flight.\n\nWe were a bit stranded.  We had two choices; forget Hargeisa and return to Nairobi, or see if there wasn’t a way to get up there in advance of the Thursday flight to Hargeisa and take our chances on somehow getting back down to Nairobi.  The Englishman was insistent, so I contacted the Administrative Officer; our first bit of luck.  “His” UN-provided Learjet was flying up to Djibouti on Tuesday, the following day, and he would be happy to have the pilot land in Hargeisa en-route so we could get there.  For once (and probably the only time) I was glad that part of my tax dollars were going to support the UN!  I couldn’t believe it—a Learjet no less! Can you imagine!  My confidence restored, the following day we went to the Mogadishu airport at the proscribed time and were escorted in grand style aboard the jet.  It was a very pleasant, if short, flight up to Hargeisa.  We landed, thanked the pilot, disembarked and watched him turn the jet around, taxi down the runway and take off.  As he departed, I remember thinking, “I do hope there will be another flight out of Hargeisa in the next couple of days”.\n\n![](https://vgy.me/djT4Mo.png)\n<center>Learjet (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)</center>\n\nNow, the first thing you did when arriving in Hargeisa was to check in at the UN office—for three reasons.   First, a usually reliable third party would know you were in the “country” and what your plans were in the event of an emergency of any sort.  Second, they would frequently permit you to stay at one of their “guest” houses and feed you (nominal charge, thank you very much).  Finally, you could inform them of your desired departure and they would be able to let you know when flights would be coming in and leaving.  As we already knew, there were no scheduled UN flights until Thursday.  I wasn’t too worried because I knew there were frequently flights bringing in AID workers, consumer items, medical supplies, etc.  These were not on the UN schedule, but the pilots would always check in with the radio controller in the UN office just to inform them.  I told the office we were looking to leave later that day or the following one, Wednesday, which would get us back to Mogadishu in good time to make our return to Nairobi by the Thursday evening deadline.   We went about our business, finishing late that afternoon and then checked by the UN office; no flights.\n\nThe following day (Tuesday), we returned to the UN office with our bags packed and ready to depart on a moment’s notice.  The day passed and the moment never came.  Now, I was beginning to worry a bit.  Even if we did manage to get on the flight to Mogadishu on Thursday, we would be too late to catch the UN scheduled daily flight to Nairobi.  Our options were to wait; or, to wait.  Tuesday and Wednesday came and went; finally, mid-morning on Thursday, the radio controller told us that a CARE flight was just arriving and would then be flying on to Mogadishu—plenty of time for us to get back to Nairobi on the UN flight that day.  We asked him to tell the pilot to please wait as we were on our way.  Our spirits soared as we jumped into the back of a pick-up truck and started off to the airport which was about a 20 minute ride.  Located on a plateau above the city, we climbed up the steep grade and made it to the airport just in time to see the plane taking off!  We never found out what happened, but our spirits really sank and I began to get a very empty feeling in my stomach. \n\n![](https://vgy.me/Io3qtb.png)\n<center>Somalia and Somaliland</center>\n\n\nAs I looked around, I spotted an old Russian Anatov aircraft that had just been unloaded with all sorts of consumer items.  I turned to my poor English colleague who was looking extremely dejected and decided, well, why not, what have we got to lose.  I approached the three rather burly and, as it turned out, Russian  crew members and asked if any of them spoke English; one did and I asked where they were going—back to Djibouti was the response.  My mind began to race ahead.  While Djibouti was north and in the wrong direction, there were certainly many more flights out of Djibouti than Hargeisa.  The afternoon Thursday UN flight out of Hargeisa  would get us to Mogadishu too late to get to Nairobi, but there was a chance, albeit a slim one, that we would manage somehow to find our way to Nairobi from Djibouti in time to meet our deadline for that evening’s flights.  I asked the English speaker if we could catch a ride.  Wiping the grease from his hands and flinging the small dirty towel over the shoulder of his yellowing, sweat-stained T-shirt, he broke into a broad, toothless grin and said in his halting English, “of course,” and waved us aboard.  But, first, the crew had to strap a couple of seats onto the floor of the plane as it had been loaded with cargo.  This completed, we were invited to sit, offered coffee and began to relax again.  I turned to my English colleague, toasted with the coffee, and commented, “just as good as British Airways.”  He managed a weak smile, but was apoplectic and, I am sure, beginning to think we would never make it back and why had he listened to this crazy American in the first place.   I’m sure that feeling was further supported a few minutes later when the pilot came back and said he couldn’t get the plane started; but, not to worry, it happened all the time and he knew exactly what to do; what a confidence builder!  My English colleague got a panicked look on his face; clearly, he was beginning to have second thoughts.  I managed to calm him.  The pilot disappeared from the aircraft and returned about 15 minutes later, again wiping the grease from his hands proclaiming rather proudly that the problem was fixed and we would be off in no time.  Apparently there is a starter engine in the tail of the plane accessible from the outside and he had gone back to attend to it.  After a couple of sputters and coughs, the propellers began to whirl and soon we were taxiing down the runway.  As we lifted off and Hargeisa disappeared behind us, I began to think ahead.  I had absolutely no clue what we would do when arriving—Visa-less—in Djibouti.  I quickly raced through the options in my head.  We would somehow have to get through customs and immigration, but I pushed that aside to deal with the more difficult problem—getting to Nairobi by that evening.  It was now early afternoon and we were fast running out of time. \n\nI came up with three options.  The first was that there just might be a scheduled flight to Nairobi; not likely, I surmised.  Djibouti is a small city/state and while it does have a rather busy airport, I thought that any flights to Nairobi would most likely be only weekly or twice a week at best and what were the chances that Thursday late afternoon would be one of them.  I moved on to option two.  We could try to charter a plane to take us to Nairobi.  Again, I had no idea what we would have to do, or the likely costs, but I had remembered from previous visits that there were always a number of smaller, presumably private, planes parked around the tarmac.  Finally, we could try to get to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.  I knew there were more frequent flights from Addis to Nairobi and, who knows, we could get lucky.  As we began the descent into Djibouti, I decided that we would have to go for option two initially; failing that, see about getting to Addis.  \n\nAs we touched down, I began to ponder how to deal with the ever difficult customs and immigration officials in my very, very halting, in fact, virtually non-existent, French.  As we taxied to the end of the runway and off into the parking area of the tarmac, I peered out the window to see another plane landing.  As that plane came to a stop about 50 meters from us I noticed that it was a turbo-prop, with the International Red Cross symbol in bold red emblazoned on the fuselage.  There was a fourth option I had not considered.   Again, my mind began to race ahead; maybe, just maybe.  I practically leaped off the plane and, much to the surprise and mirth of our Russian friends and to the astonishment of my English colleague, I sprinted over to the Red Cross plane in time to meet the pilot and co-pilot as they disembarked.  I casually asked where they had come from and whether they were staying or going on.  They had come in from Addis as I recall and were leaving in just a few minutes; came in to pick up some passengers.  My hopes began to rise.  Now the second question; where are you going, I asked somewhat more urgently; while it was only seconds, it seemed like an eternity before the pilot answered, “Nairobi”; I wanted to hug him!  Then, the final and most important question; could we catch a lift I blurted out.  The two of them looked at each other, smiled and the pilot simply said, “kind of desperate, huh?”  All I said was, “Yeah, sort of.”  The plane was a 12-seater.  They had nine passengers, three of whom were getting off; if no more than four passengers got on, we would be more than welcome to fly down with them.  It seemed like hours for the next 15 minutes to pass while we waited in the oppressive heat, standing in the little shade offered by the plane’s wing.  Finally, we began to see people emerge from the terminal and walk toward the plane.  One, two, three—that was it.  There would be three empty seats; I was elated and clenched my fists, pumping them up and down while silently repeating over and over to myself, YES, YES, YES!!!  The pilot turned to me, smiled and said, “Guess this is your lucky day, come aboard”.  He had  absolutely no idea.\n\nMy poor bedraggled English colleague who had shuffled across the tarmac to join me in a near catatonic state, sweat dripping from every pore in his body, brightened immeasurably and, for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me, or the pilot!  As we settled into our seats, I reflected back on the day and could only smile to myself and shake my head.  So many things could have gone wrong (and, by and large, did); but so many things had to go right (and, most definitely, did).  I knew it was a day I would never, ever forget; and not one I would likely ever be able to match.  \n\nNeedless to say, we made it to Nairobi in time.   It was only much later that I came to learn that our poor Russian friends had been the ones to suffer.  Just before we had landed in Djibouti, the pilot had radioed ahead and informed customs and immigration that there were five on board; the three of them and the two of us.  We bolted, of course, without saying a word to anyone and the guys to whom we owed a great debt for making it possible for us to get to Nairobi had some tall explanations to make as to the whereabouts of the other two passengers!",
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      "body": "Yet another excellent post @kiligirl!  So, when do we get to the \"difficult parts\"!!",
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      "body": "Hello @kiligirl; another thought-provoking post.  While a positive development is the increasing level of African governments' financing into their own infrastructure, it is also a bit worrisome.  I think it important to ask the follow-on question of: \"What is the source of that financing?\"  I doubt it is internally generated, meaning it is likely borrowed; pushing countries deeper into \"red\" ink.  A partial answer, I think, is for the governments to realize that they do not need to \"own\" the infrastructure assets; become much more pro-active in creating environments conducive to private capital inflows; and, thereby, freeing more of their very scarce capital for investments into \"social goods\" that others are not in a position to finance.  I continue to read your posts with great interest!!",
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      "body": "You're right; the pics are not simple; but then, neither is the subject!  Certainly cannot absorb all of them in a single sitting.  On another subject; Lusaka, huh; about 100 years ago I lived there for 13 years!  Interesting, interesting place--hope you had a productive visit!!",
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      "body": "In the early 90s, living in Kenya, I was working for an aggressive African merchant bank.  You may recall the rather infamous “landing” of the US Marines on the shores of Somalia in 1993.  Well, I thought there might be some opportunities for business given the fact that literally millions of USDollars were being poured into the country on a monthly basis by the UN and other donors—there must be something we could do to help manage the flows at a minimum!   Notwithstanding the human tragedy of it all (and believe me, it was a tragedy of gargantuan proportions), it was actually a very exciting and adrenalin pumping time.  \n\n![](https://vgy.me/iOYT21.png)\n<center>Somalia</center>\n\n\nAt its peak, the UN was flying into Mogadishu from Nairobi an average of twice a day.  All one had to do was call the UN office; ask if there was space available; and, if so, you were on the flight!   I would work Monday through Friday in Nairobi; fly to Mogadishu on Friday or Saturday; and return on Sunday or Monday.  \n\nI did this for about nine months and some of the stories I could tell.  For example, it is the only time in my life that I have ever flown free—I didn’t even have to use my precious frequent flyer miles!  And, it is the only time I have actually been able to “hitch-hike” rides on airplanes!  Here’s the way it worked.  After getting on a UN flight to Mogadishu, you then had to be concerned about getting to other parts of the country, or back to Nairobi.  There were two options; wait for a UN-scheduled flight to your preferred destination, or (and this was the fun part) check around the airfield for other departures.  You see, many Western nations had contributed to the cause and had “donated” the time and equipment of their respective Air Forces to the peace-keeping (or “peace-making”) effort.  Each one of them had its own position around the airfield, and all you had to do was walk around and ask where they were going and when.  If they had space, you were generally welcome aboard!  \n\nI will never forget one time when some of our executives came to visit in Nairobi and I insisted that they accompany me to Mogadishu.  I was trying to get us involved in a telecoms deal—after all, the telecommunications system in the country was an absolute disaster—and wanted to demonstrate to the UN and other players that we were serious.  Needless to say, our executives, while supporting me from long distance (they were based in New York), had absolutely no desire to go to Mogadishu—it was a country going through a civil war; what, was I crazy!  Here’s the irony of it all, these executives were African themselves—but living in New York!\n\nAt any rate, I managed to convince them that they had to go; so we did, UN flight and all.  By that time, I had become good buddies with the Administrative Officer (I think that was his title) from the UN in Mogadishu—the senior UN civil service official in the country—and he sent his car to the Mogadishu airport to pick us up.  All of a sudden, my “stature” jumped up in the eyes of my superiors.  Our meetings went well and we returned to the airport with these guys still glowing from the reception and ready to do any deal I would propose.  Unfortunately, things turned a bit sour at this point.  There was no other UN flight back to Nairobi that day and these guys had to catch a flight that night.  My fortunes were rapidly turning and I had to do something.   So, I did the only reasonable thing.  I told them to stay put and ran around the airfield trying to find out if any of the Air Forces present would be going back to Nairobi that day.  Luck was with me.  I’m not sure, but I believe it was the Aussies; they were flying to Baidoa to drop some cargo and then on to Nairobi, and, of course, we were welcome to come along.  There was only one problem.  It was a cargo flight; there were only four seats (outside of the cockpit) attached to the floor of the fuselage and they were reserved for some VIPs to be picked up in Baidoa.  We would have to sit on the floor of the fuselage and be strapped to the interior walls of the plane.  Hey, we had to get back to Nairobi, right.  I ran back to the terminal; gathered my rather vexed executives and returned to the Aussies.  The aircraft was one where the back end drops down and you walk up and in.  We did so and these executives were quite pleased to see the four seats that had been arranged; not so pleased when they found out that the seats were for others—but they could sit in them until we got to Baidoa, which they did.  At Baidoa, they had to strap themselves to the interior wall, sitting on the floor (if that’s what you call it) for the remainder of the flight.  Presidents and Executive Vice-Presidents don’t take kindly to such treatment; especially if they are African!  We made it back to Nairobi; they caught their flight; but, not surprisingly, we never did the telecoms deal and they never returned to Mogadushu.  Go figure!\n\nOn another occasion, I had suggested to one of my business colleagues in Nairobi, the Managing Director of CALTEX (a major U.S. oil marketing company) that there was considerable business to be done in Somaliland.  Somaliland, the northern part of Somalia, had declared itself an independent nation and was trying desperately to get recognized internationally as such, so it was doing everything possible to attract foreign businesses into the “country” to give it a degree of legitimacy.  One of our clients, an Englishman, had (or thought he had) a contract to manage the port at Berbera on the eastern coast of the “country”.  It was a deep water port that had excellent fuel storage capacity (historically having served as the principal entry point into the country for oil imports).  We met with the President of the self-declared nation, Mr. Egal, on a couple of occasions to pursue this deal and were advised to carry on—remember, nothing, nothing is ever what it seems to be.  I managed to convince the Managing Director of CALTEX to meet us in Berbera.  My client, his agent in Somaliland, and I drove down to the coast from Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared, independent nation.  It was a rather dusty, but uneventful drive; except, of course, for the teenagers manning the all too frequent roadblocks.  Here you had 14 and 15 year olds, armed to the teeth with AK-47s and, by midday, drugged to the hilt from chewing “kaat”, the local narcotic.  It can be a bit scary. \n\nMy CALTEX friend flew up from Nairobi in a private plane chartered for the day—ah, the luxuries of big, American business!  \n\nNow, everything, everything in Somalia (or Somaliland, for that matter) is done by, for, and through the “clan”.  And, guess what; the clans were warring over who exactly had control and, therefore, the ability to contract out the management of the port.  To shorten a very long story, CALTEX found that the legal uncertainties were just too much to deal with—especially because prior to the Siad Barre takeover,  Mobil Oil had controlled the port facility and CALTEX had obvious concerns about any actions Mobil might decide to take in the event CALTEX had decided to go forward.  I must tell you that it was, and I suspect is, a beautiful port.  The oil storage facilities were first rate and the dock extended far enough out into the harbor (we actually walked out on to it just to make certain) to permit ships with large drafts to dock and pump fuel into the storage tanks.\n\nBut, I am getting away from my story.  By now, it was late afternoon.  We (our client, and his Somaliland agent) had two choices.  We could take several hours to drive back to Hargeisa,  or fly to Nairobi courtesy of my CALTEX buddy.  Well, I can tell you how I voted; not to mention our client.  The problem was the Somali agent.  You see, by that time, Somalis had become “persona non grata” in Kenya.  Due to the civil war in their country, they were migrating in droves to Kenya and bringing with them weapons that they were trading for food.  Violent crime was on the increase and Somalia was blamed.  The pilot of the chartered aircraft advised us against bringing the Somali agent to Nairobi, fearing that he would be forced by the immigration officials to fly him back to somewhere in Somalia (which had not been uncommon) and was quite insistent that he could not accompany us back to Nairobi.  Our Somali friend had international travel papers and I, for one (still in my period of American naivte), was convinced that with his papers, surely he would be able, in one form or another, to get into Kenya for a short period.  We prevailed on the pilot and flew to Nairobi, landing at Wilson Airfield, one of the busiest airfields in Africa for general aviation traffic.  Well, I had been wrong in my conclusions.  \n\nUpon arrival, we were greeted by two of the most disagreeable immigration officials I have ever had the misfortune to meet.  They would not budge and wanted to incarcerate the Somali agent, and then send him back to Somalia at the soonest possible time.  Not surprisingly, my client was beside himself, so I insisted that we call the Chief Immigration Officer on duty.  He was at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the international airport in Nairobi.  A van suddenly appeared and we were whisked off to JKIA.  Once we arrived, the waiting began.  The Chief Immigration Officer indicated that he would have to speak with THE CHIEF IMMIGRATION OFFICER (CIO) who was not at home at the moment.  So, we waited, and we waited and we waited; if nothing else, Africa teaches you patience—much has been lost by a man losing his temper in Africa!  Periodically during our wait, I would go in to see the Immigration Officer to see what, if anything, he had learned from the “CIO”.   Finally, I could take it no longer.  It had been a very long day, it was after 12:00 in the evening and all I could think about was getting to bed.  So, I went in to the Immigration Officer’s office and told him that I fully understood that “special” visas did have a “cost” that we would have to bear and if he would simply let us know what that “cost” was, we would be happy to settle it and be on our way.  He still insisted that he had to make contact with the CIO and asked that I wait outside, which I did.  Very shortly thereafter, he summoned me back to his rather grungy office, full of smiles.  He indicated that the CIO had indeed approved the VISA application and we were free to go.  Miraculously, a VISA for a 48 hour period was stamped into the Somali’s travel documents and we were able to leave.  \n\nWhen I asked him what the charge for this “special” VISA was, he simply indicated that it was whatever I wanted to pay.  As I recall, I paid him 1500 Kenyan Shillings which, at the time, was about US$ 50. \n\nWatch this space for more on hitchhiking in Somalia!",
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      "body": "Thank you, @beantownboy, and that's an excellent question which you've gone some way to answering yourself. It will take more than the \"political will\" we've been hearing about for decades. After three decades in various niches of this vast ecosystem, I'm starting to think that a radical transformation in how finance works at consumer level is the best chance for transforming infrastructure service delivery. What do I mean by that? You refer to risk - as we've discussed in previous posts, creditworthiness of utilities and other bodies responsible for attracting finance is critical. But utilities sell infrastructure services at non \"cost-reflective\" prices, often below cost, partly because they know their end customers can't afford more. It's also due to the lack of creditworthiness of their customers themselves, and until African people can achieve a different level of financial independence, not necessarily in access to a new quantum of finance, but perhaps in how they access finance, they will not be considered creditworthy in the classical sense. This is an excellent case for the development of cryptocurrency ecosystems where micropayments can become the norm, not some futuristic vision. So perhaps I'm advocating even bypassing some of the \"soft institutional infrastructure\" as unnecessary and non-value-adding middleman.",
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      "body": "Another excellent and enlightening post @kiligirl!  So now, sit back and ask yourself the question: \"In Africa, why is it so very difficult to design, develop, finance and build infrastructure assets that provide services we all need?\"  All too frequently, I think, the answer is that the \"soft institutional infrastructure\" required (i.e., legal, regulatory, financial, political, etc.) is weak, poorly managed (or mismanaged) and, as a result, the perceived risks are simply too high to attract capital.  Let's talk energy, for example.  In order to achieve universal electricity access in Africa by 2030, estimates are that something on the order of US$ 1.0 TRILLION will be required--to invest in power plants, transmission lines, distribution, etc.  Governments, donors, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions (i.e., public sector) simply don't have deep enough pockets.  Attracting private capital is an absolute MUST.  But, absent the \"soft institutional infrastructure\" that is transparent and well managed, it is an incredible challenge!",
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      "body": "I just know this is all \"going somewhere\" @kiligirl; and when you get there, I'm equally certain the journey will continue!  In the short term, I'm looking forward to the instalment on \"financing\"!!  My guess is that's when / where \"Superkiligirl\" will re-surface!!",
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      "body": "Hi @cikxaijen; depends on the time of year and the altitude; during winter (which is when we did the climb--in July), it starts out quite cold at the base and the higher you go, the further the temperature drops (freezing level and below).  At least we didn't have any rain or snow!",
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      "body": "Hi ! Mount Kilimanjaro wow!\n\nmay i ask, what is the climate there when climbing?",
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