Sunday, September 20, 2015

Home and Reliving My Trip

I can't believe I've been home for a week already. In some ways it seems like so much longer. I arrived home on Sunday and Monday I was absolutely worthless. Thankfully David worked from home and left late that afternoon for Miami so he was able to help with the girls. He left Monday night and Tuesday I was back in full swing. I enjoyed a lovely Axum latte and a decent bike ride. I attended my dog class Tuesday night with Tasha and she was a star. Wednesday went along as normal until Wednesday night when I was practicing a drill with Tasha and we tripped over each other...landed right on my knee on the sidewalk and thought I was truly hurt. Thankfully I was banged up but no trip to the ER was necessary...Thanks to Dr. Cox and his lovely bride who did a phone consult :) On top of that I was coming down with a cold thingy in Ethiopia that hit me full board around Thursday so that meant I was laid up this weekend. As of today I think I will live and life moves forward with David traveling all week and home on the weekends for the next month :( I just say I earned my trip to Ethiopia...13 days traded for 25....I'm still ahead :)

I couldn't post much while on the trip because the wifi was so spotty. The problem is that the wifi out here where we live is spotty too so I am trying to get this done with pictures while I have some extra help from David's mifi.


Day One in Ethiopia-
I'm going to try to start over and record a little about each day. I will also post photos to go along with the post. I'm sure this is more for me than for anyone who may happen to read it, but it needs to be done so that I can begin to process all I experienced and try to gain some perspective now that I'm home.

After many hours in the air we arrived at our hotel in Addis Ababa. I don't remember much about the hotel because I was so tired when we arrived.  We made ourselves go get some food at a restaurant that Jack and Pam had visited before. I think they served American style food because I seem to remember someone ordering pizza and I got some sort of chicken which I'm pretty sure I posted a photo of on facebook. What I do remember about Addis is how much it reminded me of Delhi, India. The traffic was nothing like India though, nothing compares to India's traffic and horn honking. But right across the street from our hotel was some sort of village made of tin. It is like they found a spot and decided to make their home there and that somehow it just grew into a village of sorts.Those type of villages were all over Delhi. There were also people just hanging out a lot. In America you don't just see groups of men hanging out in the middle of the day unless you are in a downtrodden neighborhood. Ethiopia is definitely downtrodden.





It immediately seemed dirty to me. Hot and dry and poor. Though there are many wealthy people in Addis, being in a "developing" country just has a different feel to it. The wealthy may be behind walls and gates, but right outside their compound poverty awaits. It is everywhere. Escape is only temporary. The poor are very resourceful though. Look at this ladder...pretty amazing.

We went to bed early that first day because we had an early flight to Gondar the next morning.
That was Day One.
Grace and Peace,


1 comment:

Doreen said...

I was scrolling through my bookmarks today and came across my Blogger and then yours (as I followed you). I am in awe at your writing ability and the experiences you had in Ethiopia and at ORE. I plan (although I don't know how successfully I'll be) to update my blog and perhaps make it my daily diary for God, life and me. I hope to see you pick up again as well...

With Love,