I traveled a la carte (i.e. without a group, thankfully) to Eastern Ethiopia to meet up with the Ogsadey family. You know them as the Harar Horse exporter, who has had a strong relationship with Royal Coffee importers for many years. They offer some of the best Harar coffees, and have a mill in Dire Dawa where they do extra cleaning and hand-sorting of all lots. The central person in the MAO business is Abdirasid Ogsadey, a cousin of the patriarch Mohammed Abdullah Ogsadey, who passed away several years ago at the ripe age of ... well, nobody can quite agree. The sons of Mohammed Sr. are Abdullahi and Ledon Ogsadey, who mainly works with the trucking side of the business. Dire Dawa is on the rail line, and is the hub for coffee trading and transport to the sea containers of Djibouti. Harar city has no coffee trade, but the greater region of Harar, called Hararghe, is where all the coffee is grown that we call Harar. I learned a lot on my trip, and am indebted to my hosts, who had just started fasting for Ramadan and were miraculously able to drive around with me far and wide. I spent a time in historic Harar city alone, to give them a break. -Tom, September 2008
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