Day 2 – Taxi tour of Addis Ababa

View of the street as we drove around. It is definitely a free for all, but somehow works.
The beautiful view as we drove to the top of Entoto.

Boys playing soccer in a field. My boys would have joined right in.

My friend Wagamedon who asked me, "How is it in Obamaland?" and gave us Eucylyptus.

Vendors on the side of the road and the way down the mountain.

A Good Friday service going on outside of a church.

Here's Lucy!

The Sheraton where you go to completely forget you are in Africa.

The view from behind the Sheraton.

After we left Hannah’s Hope we went on a taxi tour of Addis Ababa with another family. Sisay was our driver for the afternoon. When we got into the taxi he had Dolly Parton music playing that he said he chose just for us. This sweet gesture made us laugh. He drove us out of the city into the countryside called Entoto. We drove up to the second highest mountain and at the top was the first church established in Addis Ababa. This weekend is their Easter holiday so today was Good Friday for Ethiopians. We watched as hundreds of people walked to and from church services. It really was a beautiful sight to see as we watched the women wearing white shawls (the custom) and realizing how far these people had to walk to get to church when we complain about finding a seat on Sunday mornings. There were people everywhere. Kids were off of school and people were walking around with dead chickens. Ethiopians fast for 48 hours prior to Easter Sunday and they don’t eat meat for 2 months leading up to Easter. When we arrived to the top of the mountain we got out to take some pictures of the countryside. While we were doing that some kids came up to talk to us. The boy who talked to me was named Wagamedon. He told me he was 16 and in grade 11 and was applying to university next year and wanted to be a doctor and live in the United States or Canada. This seems to be a common dream for the people here. The kids also offered us some Eucalyptus plant to sniff. They told us that it is used for medicine and I was hoping that it would make Matt feel better since he has been sick. Our driver told us that the Eucalyptus tree was brought over by Ethiopian King Menelik who returned with one after a trip to Australia. It has been very profitable for Ethiopians as the trees grow very fast and are then cut down and used to make essentially everything from housing, scaffolding, cooking supplies, .and other common uses. We passed a number of Eucalyptus tree farms on our drive.

We passed by the Emperor’s palace and the Prime Minister’s palace. They do not allow you to photograph these buildings. Our next stop was the National Museum which held Lucy’s bones. For all of you non paleontologists, at 3.2 million year old Lucy is the oldest discovered humanlike person. Brian knew all about Lucy, how she was discovered, and the science behind them testing the age of the fossil remains. When he began telling us all about the science behind the carbon testing, I was beginning to feel really stupid until he told us that he once had to write a paper on the topic. That was a relief. It was great being with him because he taught us more than the little plaques did on the displays. When we got to “Lucy’s room” we were cracking up because there is Lucy in a Plexiglas case with no alarms surrounded her and no real protection for the 3rd most significant archeological find in the world. In the US there would have been ropes around it, alarms, guards, etc. What a difference! Our last stop was to the Sheraton Hotel which is the nicest hotel in all of Ethiopia. The only reason we stopped there was so that Matt and I could get some more money and they had an ATM machine inside. It was very beautiful and when we asked what the rate was they told us beginning price was $415 a night and the highest price was $6000 a night. We went out to the courtyard and faced the beautiful gardens. Then we simply turn our bodies around and face the other way and see a tin shack separated by barbed wire fencing that represents most of the real Ethiopia. As Brian put it as he videoed the discrepancy, “For $415 a night you can be protected from this.”

Our day was fun and interesting but little K’s cries lingered in our ears and we really just wanted to be with her. My heart ached to go back and be with her. We are only able to be with them for three hours each day which goes by so fast! When we finished our taxi ride we connected with the other family here and ate dinner together. I have enjoyed the food so far, although I know that I will be tired of it by the time we leave. I was not tired at all and stayed up to work on my blog while Matt went to bed. I was just about ready to post when my computer battery died! I didn’t sleep as well tonight and had about an hour and a half of wake time during the night. This was fine with me as it gave me a good stretch of time to have some good prayer time with God. I mostly prayed for our children and my parents back at home and for K to somehow have an easier time separating with us when we leave each day. I woke up refreshed and feeling ready to go for day 3!