till almost 5 am. And it is currently 8 pm here and we haven't had a
nap. I think we might actually be on ET time now. YEAH.
So, let me begin by saying that Dan and I really did pack light this
trip. We each only took 1/2 a suitcase for all of our clothes for two
weeks. If I had to do it again I would have brought one less donation
for the CHSFS care center in order to have more room for
undergarments. We had bought this traveling type of undergarment that
is supposed to dry in 2 hours...and it may...some place else. But, in
Addis, it doesn't. I will leave this story with the
remark...sometimes it is better to pack too much than to little
because there isn't a kohl's close by.
Today, we went on an incredibly long drive to the Blue Nile Gorge. By
long I mean 11 hours roundtrip. On the way there we stopped at the
Debre Libranos monastery. Today was the celebration of the Day of
Mary, the day Mary was born, and so the monastery was actually open
and monks and the like were doing a prayer service both upstairs in
the church and downstairs in what I would call the prayer room. The
prayer service was an awesome thing to watch and listen to. I only
saw men there and so I felt very out of place but the guide didn't
seem to think it was a problem so I went with the flow. We were told
that the nuns, monks, and practicing religious folk generally wear
three colors, yellow, black and white. The yellow is for HOPE. Hope
that they will soon make it to the afterlife. Black is for something
like nothingness. The don't care about this life because it is
nothing and they are just waiting to get to the afterlife. The white
is for purity. Their soul is pure and they are ready for the
afterlife. This church has been around for what seems like forever
and while it definitely didn't have as pretty mosaic windows as
Trinity and its outside wasn't as pretty as St. George it still was a
terrific church. It had an aura about it that was peaceful.
Afterwards we got back in the van and started driving north.
Immediately after getting out of the city you could see some of the
magnificent landscape Ethiopia has to offer. WOW - it was so
beautiful. The gorge reminded me between a cross of the Yosemite
Valley and a very green and lush grand canyon. We drove for 4 hours
and finally made it to the bottom of the gorge and to the Blue Nile
river, which is the river that leads into the nile river (Egypt).
Just a quick note - the blue nile was very brown and not even in the
slightest blue so the name must come from something else. We went
through lots of small villages with people walking on both sides of
the streets. Our guide, who we find out is really named Gesoth
(spelling still), said that most of thes people were famers and had
trouble making ends meet. I don't know about Dan but I had difficulty
figuring out if the people were walking someplace or if they were just
milling around. We saw lots of young boys, maybe 6 or 7, herding
cattle. It made me wonder what Tadiwos did during his day with his
family. I am not convinced he didn't do some type of work with his mom.
The drive was like going to yosemite - lots of winding steep roads.
When we were about 20 minutes away from the gorge bottom, where we
were supposed to eat lunch, we ran into a problem. The road was
blocked by two huge hauling trucks. At first it was difficult to see
what the problem was but the GETTS travel guide and driver both went
down to assess the situation and it appears that the heaviness of one
truck caused the road to sink and so it jack knifed a bit and couldn't
move. Then the other truck decided it would just go around but the
road wasn't paved in that area and it just kept spinning its wheels.
It took us 30 minutes of waiting for them to finally get one of the
trucks moved and for us to pass. We then ventured across the gorge
using this bridge that was very old. Japan, to build their friendship
with Ethiopia, has built another bridge next to the old one but it
won't be in service for another couple of months. We couldn't take
pictures due to security concerns but the new bridge was very pretty.
Gesoth said that it was the best bridge in Africa. It wasn't very
long, shorter than the carquinez (spelling again) bridge. But, I
still held my breath going over it. After seeing some of the buildings
being built in the city I wasn't completely convinced it was safe. I
looked at Dan and he didn't seem to be having the same thoughts going
through his head so I didn't mention it. We were safe both time we
crossed.
When we stopped for lunch, which was included in the cost of the tour,
we sat near this small waterfall with lots of other Ethiopians who
were taking a lunch break from working on the bridge or something.
Boy, were we stared at. It is hard to eat your lunch when 1) the food
isn't very good 2) people are watching every bite you take. We ate
enough of the food and then took pictures o the waterfall and after
too short of a break we got in the car and headed back. Oh - let me
mention that there was a women in this area who had a business of
serving coffee and tea. She was so efficient and her area was very
clean. I think she was doing okay in her business.
The drive home was 205 KM, which is turns out is about 4 hours.
Luckily about 2 hours into it we got to get out and stretch our legs
and see the Portuguese bridge and a water fall. Access to both was at
this Ethiop-Germany Park hotel that was still being constructed. It
is called Ethio-Germany because a german woman married and ethiopian
man and they are building the hotel. Here we looked at a valley that
goes into the gorge. I could never quite understand the name of the
valley but it was gorgeous. The guide said that the area was not
always so green but from July through October it is very green because
that is rainy season and rainy season. We picked a good time of the
year to visit (like we had any control!). We then hiked further along
the valley to the bridge whic was constructed with the help of the
Portuguese bridge. This is a walking bridge not a driving bridge and
it looked old but very stable. By the time we got to the bridge,
maybe a 10 minute hike in, we had more than 10 followers. The men
were telling me that they were married with kids and that their family
members made these knick knacks they wanted to sell to us. I was very
uncomfortable during the entire walk. I was worried for my safety I
was just irritated that I couldn't enjoy the magnificent view because
I had to be on my guard about the sellers. I shouldn't have been so
bothered because this is just how things are done here in Ethiopia.
People make stuff and try to sell it to everyone, especially the
foreigners. I gave them chocolate when we got back to the cars but I
think they would have appreciated money more.
We then drove another two hours home. AH - I finally got to see some
crazy traffic. It was rush hour and there were cars everywhere. Our
driver did an excellent job maneuvering through everyone, especially
considering we came in off the north west side of Mount Entoto and
needed to get all the way across the city to the south east side where
our hotel is located.
couple of random thoughts -
1) driving an infinite G35 or BMW 3 series to the gorge would have
been SO much fun. while the scenery was beautiful and I am glad we
did it my back is still sore from sitting in the van the entire time.
2) We decided to book another tour on Thursday. I was really happy
about this because checkout is at noon and we have to be at the
airport at 7 and had no plans for the 7 hours between. Plus, I was
concerned that with all the milling around I was going to go stir
crazy wanting to see Lincoln Tadiwos.
3) My thought was wrong - we are still not completely on ET time. We
went to bed around 8:30 on Wednesday night and it is now 2 am on
Thursday and we are both awake. I am sure we are both a little
anxious about the life changing events that are happening in just a
day or so now.
4) There are 5 million people in Addis and about 80 Million in all of
Ethiopia. I think we saw at least 20K of them just on the roads
walking, talking, working, herding animals on our way to the gorge.
We saw lots of kids playing fuzball and ping pong. The little kids
were all so cute playing and working it was both nice to see them
having fun and sad to know that they probably will live their entire
lives in poverty.
I am sure I am missing some details of the trip but at over a page of
typing I am sure you are all tired of reading it. So, I will close
and go pack. Tomorrow night we start staying with the other adoptive
families and on Friday we meet Lincoln Tadiwos. YEAH!
Take Care,
Lyn-Dee
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