Friday, August 03, 2007

A day in the life in Southern Ethiopia

As Layne and I traveled to the southern region of Ethiopia, near the village where Levi and Jesse's Ethiopian family live, we observed many things out the window as we drove. We were traveling to meet Aster and Assefa, their birth parents. What an emotional day. We will NEVER forget this beautiful couple and their love for the LORD and Geremu and Habtamu. We will tell the boys about this day many times throughout their lives. I just wanted to record what I had journaled as we traveled in the Range Rover to get there.


A baboon running on the side of the road

little children playing soccer by the road

mostly grass thatched roof homes

homes made of thin sticks and a metal sheet roof, built at a slant so water runs off

many people walking by the roadside and some wearing white shawls. It is Sunday, their holy day. White signifies this. Many families visit each other on Holy day, says our driver in very broken English

a man walking on the side of the road in the rain using a HUGE leaf as an umbrella

a man standing outside his hut under the cover of his grass roof awning. His hut had puddles of water around it

a donkey pulling a cart by the side of the road

a woman gathering water by a puddle near the side of the road

many people with sad serious faces

most barefoot in the mud

children carrying mangos, corn, and vegetables on their backs in large baskets to market in the rain

naked little children standing in the doorway of a grass hut

signs indicating that certain villages are under the jurisdiction of Ethiopia

MUDDY creeks that look like a trickle, but the people act as if the trickle is a huge river

our driver honking at birds that stayed alongside the road

sometimes very thick fog

beautiful green moutains

one mountain had 3 stripes all around

lots of little boys ages 5-9 pushing carts with big loads or tending a cart pulled by a donkey

tarps are very useful here

the water that is running in creeks and under bridges is very brown, almost orangish in color

Saw a woman with a load on her head, kneeling down and collecting water from a puddle

very rocky red soil

boys using the road to play soccer (quas)

a lot of corn growing in patches all over, some tassled, others knee high

mosque in the village

some sections of roads not paved and very muddy and rutty.

We nearly hit a man walking by the side of the road who was using a cane

little boy 5yrs? dipping water from 2 small buckets on a porch

Amharic news on the radio while we drive, it blows my mind we are in Africa and almost to the area the boys are from

It's raining, with out this newly paved road we would not be able to travel in these muddy conditions

When crossing bridges we slow WAY down and drive over a big ridge where the road meats the bridge

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