My name is Ramadan. I was born and raised in Harar. Fluent in diverse languages like Amharic, Oromic, Harari, English and having a quite good level in French as well, I’m a 15 years experienced tour guide. I spent my early childhood playing in the old city “Jugol”, in the colorful beautiful alley streets where the light painted walls are in complete harmony with the blue sky. From almost every lit
tle way, an amazing view on the mountains takes you to the brightest dream. The pastel color walls on each side of tiny streets look like a window open to the majestic mountains or like a door open to a new world where you can let your imagination go…. Your eyes can only rejoice as you find yourself in front of such a shiny landscape…. You feel freedom and peace. As a young boy, I was blessed to spend my time in this paradise, and, naturally, my passion for this city appealed inside of me the desire of sharing its beauty with the local population as well as with foreigners. Consequently, I must admit that accompanying my guests to touristic places, and teaching them about Harari culture and history brings me a great satisfaction. Through this job, I also get a wider knowledge about the diverse countries where my clients are from. So you can figure out that learning and sharing experiences are huge. As human beings, I feel that it’s what we are all about: learning from one another’s backgrounds, history, cultures, religions, and origins (etc….) with the common aim to understand each other to the maximum. I got to know myself better through the years and thanks to that, I can say today that I love my job because I love mankind from all over the world. Within the complexity of this universe’s creation we are all at the same time very different but also so similar…
I’m used to treat my guests more as friends. Very often, after their first trip, whether they come back or at least we keep in touch, always building nice relationships and sharing more and more experiences about life around the world. I show them the typical touristic places like the national museum, Arthur Rimbaud’s house or the feeding of hyenas, which is unique in the world, but also I take them to local areas where they have a chance to get closer to the population and discover the diverse ways of life in Harar. Most of them are surprised to see the rich melting-pot of cultures as Harar is located bordering to Oromia and Somali regions. Being the owner of a minibus 2007 model, I’m also flexible to pick up my clients from Dire Dawa or even Addis Abeba Bole airport and drive them back afterwards. At a time, I enlarged my experience guiding tourists all over the country but nowadays, I’m really specialized in the eastern side of Ethiopia, more especially in Harar. Since I graduated from university, my business partner David Game and I run our own tour operator company. I strongly believe that working hard for a project and building it up from its roots with honesty, humility and open-mind is the secret to be successful in life and my carrier as a tour guide and tour operator is the best example I have.
