Tuesday

Lake Awassa

An eventful day…..We left Awassa at 9 am, it is truly a gorgeous place, and it didn’t hurt that we stayed in a luxury hotel…. Today we headed north to Nazareth, a larger city near Addis, and clearly a favorite of Alemu….

View of Nazareth

I found a new setting on my camera and hope my pictures are less blurred…. The amount of animals in the road is amazing- herds of goats, cows, dogs and we saw a herd of camel today- and dodged a enormous bird…. Mom asks what type of birds, every time she sees one….Alemu answers either a big one or Ethiopian birds, I appreciate him…. We stopped again for a traditional Ethiopian Lunch of Injera.

Celebration Lunch :0

Today marked the end of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church fasting… a month of no meat- many people were celebrating the holiday including our driver who along with Alemu ate raw meat dipped in hot sauce for lunch, I am somewhat outgoing and others tried the raw meat- me ….yeah right!!! not a chance…. I did eat the cooked sheep, no doubt you are impressed! Nazareth is a busy city and we are quite the sight….7 white Americans with our Ethiopian driver and a guide… truly a minority… this does however speed us through the road security checkpoints…. I was struck again today of the loving nature of Ethiopians- they share such a friendliness with their neighbors as well as strangers- I find Americans usually hesitate to attempt a foreign language in country – Ethiopians will often greet us in English and this is most impressive when it is obvious they are not versed in English. We visited a government run resort this afternoon, which had two natural fed spring water pools, one was an Olympic size and the other international size. The larger pool was closed today as they drain and refill them weekly- Mom swam in the warm pool as did some others and then experienced a hot spring shower… I wandered and took pictures with Elsbeth. We were introduced to a beautiful yellow birds nesting area by a security guard carrying a rifle- Again they are such a proud and generous people. After a few drinks we headed to a light dinner… about the food- we are seriously overfed! All 7 of us declined dinner but Alemu insisted…. Tomorrow we visit Gemechu’s birth town. All three families’ children are from Allessa so we will see the town and meet birthparents- an emotional day to be certain. On a side note, Elsbeth’s son is not only Gemechu’s crib neighbor but they also arrived from Allessa to Addis together. Besu’s birthday is January 7 and Gemechu is January 8. Although Besu will reside in the San Francisco Bay area we have already chatted about staying close for the boys- another precious gift along the way.

We waited for the herd of camels to cross the road.