I remember riding a Gerry Cart only once. This was after a visit to Madame Abeba's restaurant. The mode we rode wouldn't be imaginable anywhere back home. There were three of us unpleasantly singing dirty songs, which luckily no one around could understand and each had two beer bottles drinking at random. Otherwise we used Russia UAZ "jeeps", Russian trucks. A logistics Major in Asmara drove an Italian "jeep".

I was 22 when I came to Asmara, other guys, I mean interpreters like myself were either the same age or slightly younger or couple of years older. (I do not know for sure how many Russian military personnel were stationed in Ethiopia in early 1980s, but to give you some idea, I was one of 40 interpreters who arrived to Addis Ababa onboard one flight). We used to visit the brothels, too. I remember a guy, an officer school cadet aged 18, who came to Ethiopia for 6 months of field training. According to tradition, the new-comer's must was to fix drinks for the older comrades. After a few glasses he felt nostalgic and plunged into recent memories of his life in Moscow. He said his best wish at the moment was a dance with a girl. We said, wait, in a very short time you gonna have quite different problems.

Those proved to be prophetic words, in about a month he reported to a colleague of ours, a guy who worked as interpreter to the team of Russian military doctors at Kagnew hospital. Long and close experience with practicing physicians (the Kagnew hospital wasn't his first station in the medical field) gave him skills to cure venereal diseases. Clearly, the cadet developed one, but the hospital guy happened to be a real expert. The cadet was cured and I never heard him speaking about dances again.

A close friend of mine had to use medical skills of the hospital interpreter-healer once. I was lucky enough to escape the fate. Although, once I picked up some nasty bugs from a girl in a bar we stopped in with an Ethiopian Captain on a bar tour. The man had FIAT car and we managed to get a beer in an indefinite number of bars. The last stop was at the place where I got those bugs. I discovered them about a week later when I already returned to the Tikse valley where our 3rd infantry division was stationed. (Surrounding mountains have been occupied by Eritrean and Tigrean guerilla brigades. Among tactic's they used had been deployment of so called "nomadic tanks". At that time they did not have too many tanks, in any case much less then our forces had. The tanks cruised behind friendly lines occasionally shelling positions of the governmental troops. Once a shell hit a truck loaded with 130-mm artillery projectiles. That was an impressive sight). Back in Tikse valley I managed to get rid of those bugs using cheap Eau de Cologne applying plenty of it to shaved private parts, which didn't cause a pleasant sensation.

On top of this page I mentioned the vehicles we used to drive. Eritrea became the place where I learned how to drive in the do-it-yourself manner. It was in the vicinity of Afa-Beth, a place not far from Keren where I spent some four and a half months. Among a few pass-time activities was hunting. Although it was easy to buy a goat or a sheep, sometimes we felt like having a rabbit. We didn't have any proper hunting weapons, of course. Thus AKs and AKMs (Kalashnikovs) had been used. When you hit a rabbit with a 7.62-mm bullet you can't expect much to left of the victim. In order to get something suitable for cooking and eating you got to aim at the head. As my sharp-shooter's skills couldn't match this delicate mission I had been left to guard the jeep while the other guys undertook a search for rabbits. I decided not to waste time and try and see if could cope with my first drive.

After a couple of efforts I managed to start. First I moved backwards and halted successfully. Then forwards. First, second, third gear went smoothly, but when I tried to slow down and switch from third to second forgetting to use clutch with my right foot paralyzed pressing gas, the situation began developing into a nightmare. Suddenly the jeep hit something and came to abrupt halt. That was a tremendous relief. Left front wheel was flat and I had to run some two kilometers to where I knew was our division tank battalion stationed. I also knew that battalion commander rode the same type of vehicle and I hoped he had a spare wheel, which proved to be true. It was my first experience changing car wheels.