Ethiopia

I have been here in Ethiopia for the past week.  We arrived from Liberia friday night about 10:30 pm.  We left at 6:00 am from Liberia.  Once again we had a challenging time at the airport.  Thankfully, we were there early.  They don't have computers!   The airline personal tells me that she can not find me on the list, shoves me the paper to show me that I am not on the list. I find my name,  then she claims my ticket number is wrong. She does decide to process me, the line behind is growing.   Finally, it looks like everything is done and we realize she only checked us to Accra not Addis Abba.  Fortunately, our luggage hadn't been sent on the conveyer.  The baggage tickets were changed and we easily make it through Immigration. The plane ride over is in a small commuter plane.

When we arrive in Accra,  we have to get our boarding passes for Addis Abba.  The computers are down in Accra so it is open seating on the plane.  We were fortunate to get seats close to what had originally been assigned and we both had aisle seats.  The lady who was in the window seat in my row was really strange.  I was relaxing in my seat when all of a sudden I realized that someone was crawling over me.  Instead of asking me to get up to let her get out she just thought she should crawl over me.  I had to tell her that it was okay to ask me.  To top it all off, after they finish serving dinner and come through with something to drink, she decides to go to the bathroom.  Here I am juggling my tray.  I think the flight attendants trapped her in the back.  I was able to finish my dinner.  It was a 5 hour flight to Ethiopia. There is a 3 hour time change from Liberia, bringing us in to Addis at about 9 pm.

It is the New Year, 2005.  Ethiopia has 12 months of 30 days and the 13th month is 5-6 days depending on leap year.  The year ranges lasts from 7-7 and a half  year difference from the Gregorian calender.

In Addis they do not allow you to leave the airport without X raying your luggage.  We get through Immigration. A friendly Nigerian chats with us along the way.  We get 3 pieces of our luggage, the 4th the heaviest and largest piece did not come with the other 3.  Elaine gets someone to check and fortunately the 4th piece is located.

It is a long line to get our luggage xrayed. You can guess which bag they want us to open .  Elaine and I were carrying in 100 pounds of curriculum to Ethiopia. It was 10:30 by the time we got to the hotel.

The next morning we were picked up by the Village director to go to the village outside Mojo which is about a 2 hour drive in horrible traffic.  It was worse than 2 years ago.  The roads are not to great.

The country side is beautiful.  It is the end of the rainy season and everything was in it 's prime.  Ethiopia is very beautiful outside the city.

I really love the Village here in Ethiopia.  The children are thriving.  They have 45 children and 5 being processed for admission.  There are 5 national mamas and 5 substitute mamas.  They are very blessed here to have good national employees who are becoming more indepentant in there jobs.  They have an excellent dependable head cook, kitchen staff and housekeepers as well as a strong dependable National as an assistant director.

I celebrated my  70th  birthday here in Ethiopia. September 27 th is a national holiday, celebrating the "true cross" or  Meskel.  It also is the end of the rainy season.

On Wednesday, everyone gathered outside and they burned a cross. Seriously, this is part of the celebration. It has something to do with the finding do the cross that Christ died on.  

Thursday , there was the coffee ceremony.  Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. The ceremony consist of roasting then grinding the beans and finally boiling them. The coffee is strong, it is sweetened with sugar and served in smaller than demitasse cups. Popcorn is also part of the ceremony.  

The children were all dressed in the traditional garments.  They did several skits and then invited  Elaine  and I to come to the front. Each cottage had made a picture to present to us.  A special blessing.

We had dinner with one of the ROS family, I even had a candle.  I will remember this very special 70th birthday.

We are back in Addis for the night.   We are in our same room.  They were going to put us on the 4th floor, but we requested the same room.  We laughed because we had music from the bar till 10 pm.  At least it was pleasant to listen to. 

The traffic in the city was really bad, 3 cars driving where it is 2 lane.  They were also doing a lot of construction.  

It is the 29th here and this afternoon we will be at the Missions to the World Guest house.  We have no idea what we will be doing but we are ready for our next adventure.































































The line to have our luggage xrayed is long.  Elaine and I are carrying in 100 lbs of  curriculum in to Ethiopia. You can guess which piece they wanted us to open, the heaviest.  We finally get to the hotel around 10 pm.  We are pretty tired to say the least.

The next morning we are picked up for the 2 hour trip to the village.  Did I say that Monrovia had bad traffic?

The countryside is beautiful. It is the end of the rainy season here, everything is lush and green. It is the height of the season.  We had a rainstorm come through on Sunday, but we have had beautiful weather here.  This is a huge contrast from Liberia .

The children here are precious.  They are healthy and thriving .  They now have 45 children  with 5 more being processed to come in. There are 3 cottages of boys and 2 cottages of girls.   They have 5 national mamas.

This is my favorite village.  It is a thriving village. They have been blessed with good workers who are requiring less and less direction.

I celebrated my 70 th birthday here.  The 27th is a national holiday. It is the celebration of the "true cross" or Mesker.






















Now, Elaine and I have 100 pounds of school curriculum for Ethiopia, we get all our luggage through the Xray. You can guess which one they want to have us open.

We spent the night in Addis in same room we always get when we are here.  It is clean and comfortable and we are tired.

The next morning we do some shopping and about 10:30 we are picked up to take us to the village.  The Village director takes us to a nice place to shop, we have lunch at our favorite restaurant before leaving Addis. It is a 2 hour drive to the village.  Did I say Monrovia was bad?

Other than the traffic, it is beautiful in the countryside.  It is the end of the rainy season, everything is lush and green.  The contrast is stark from Liberia.

The week is spent doing physicals on the children and staff.  The Ethiopian children are thriving and joyous.  They have grown a lot since we saw them 2 years ago.  They have 45 children.  I love being at this village.