An Ethiopian good Samaritan helped me in my hour of need

Okay. I really, really love trains. So, I was determined to ride the new Chinese-built railroad from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the port at Djibouti, which is another country in the horn of Africa. But, this is not a story about trains.

The route started out in the lush, green 150-kilometer-long valley that runs from Addis to the city of Adama. Going south and east, and downhill, the land gets drier, becoming hard desert by the time you reach Djibouti 12 hours later. I had planned to sleep some on the train. But, I could not take my eyes off the Ethiopian landscape.

The ride was perfect, until we approached the Djibouti border. It was dark by the time we reached the station in the tiny town of Dewele, just inside Ethiopia, where a team of Djibouti immigration inspectors boarded the train. A very professional, English-speaking Djibouti officer - with the uniform and attitude of a French gendarme - looked into my cabin.