Monday, March 31, 2008

Ethiopia


We didn't know a lot about Ethiopia before we started this process. One thing we discovered is that it's very mountainous. The altitude of Addis Ababa is 7900 ft, the third highest capital in the world. It's also very beautiful. Since we traveled during the dry season, we had beautiful sunny days in the upper 70s and cool nights in the 50's.

This is a view from the rooftop of the guest house. All the houses we saw had 10-foot cement walls surrounding them with coils of barbed wire on top. Only the wealthy had homes like this--maybe 10 % of the population. Most homes were "constructed" of propped up corrugated metal and random scraps of plastic, wood, and metal. The streets seemed to be a free-for-all for cars, buses, pedestrian, and animal traffic. We saw many goat herders on busy urban streets allowing their goats to graze while waiting for people to purchase them to take them home for dinner.

2 comments:

Tara & Brian said...

Berie is a beautiful little girl! Bri and I can't wait to meet her. Thanks for sharing parts of your trip. It seems like it was definitely a life-changing experience, both for obivous reasons and those that you didn't expect. I'll love to hear more about it!

Unknown said...

What an angel! You can see the fire and passion in her eyes. I can't wait to meet her. Congrats on your new addition.