Our first days in Ethiopia have been fast paced, full days. We arrived on Friday December 28 about 8:30pm, we only spent a few minutes in line for immigration and our luggage arrived and in less than an hour of stepping off the plane, we were leaving the airport. Thanking Jesus for such a smooth time and luggage!!
We arrived at the guesthouse where we were warmly greeted and shown to our room. We settled in for the night and prepared our overnight qbag to leave Saturday morning for our trip to Southern Ethiopia. Saturday morning was full of hugs with missed friends.... The beautiful woman who prepares our meals, the receptionist who helped us prepare to leave and then our social worker and her colleague from our agency. What a way to starts our day!
We felt like we were.... home.
We headed out for a long ride... 5 hours at least. We drove out of Addis.... And the we drove through towns, then barren land.... Then another town.... We had to stop for cattle crossing the road, swerve to miss a goat, crowds of people selling their vegetables at their town market. Each town between Addis and Halaba had similar scenes... As we drove more produce was for sale along the roadway... More animals being hearded by young boys and girls or by adults...one thing is for sure, everyone in the family has a job to do and they are doing it.
As we got further South, a sight was becoming more common... People of all ages, even the very young, walking carrying their water jugs, water jugs strapped to a donkey, water jugs on a donkey driven or horse driven cart. After a while, we saw the water station.... And just as far as they walked or rode with their empty jugs, they had that distance to go back with full water jugs. We looked at each other, and realize clean water is something we take for granted. We go in the kitchen and turn on the tap... Water comes. we brush our teeth and let the water run.... Water is something we take for granted when there are others who have to labor to get water.... Water.
We arrived for lunch in Shashamane at an outdoor restaurant at the Rift Valley Hotel. After lunch we made our way to Halaba and then before we knew it we were there. We stopped to pick up a man who worked for the orphanage and who knows Tariku and his family. He would be our second interpreter since they speak yet another language in Halaba. We drove down the main road and then we turned off the main road down a dirt road. We continued to drive and then soon we turned again and drove down what looked like nothing more than a foot path. We drove a ways more....more into the remote and then a row of traditional Ethiopian houses with children playing and running after the truck, shouting, waving and smiling as we continued to drive.
This was it. The moments we had been going over in our heads and the conversations we had with each other about this day were suddenly here. We were about to meet Tariku's grandfather.
He was resting on a blanket under a very special tree. He rose to greet us not with handshakes but with hugs.
To be continued.....
We arrived at the guesthouse where we were warmly greeted and shown to our room. We settled in for the night and prepared our overnight qbag to leave Saturday morning for our trip to Southern Ethiopia. Saturday morning was full of hugs with missed friends.... The beautiful woman who prepares our meals, the receptionist who helped us prepare to leave and then our social worker and her colleague from our agency. What a way to starts our day!
We felt like we were.... home.
We headed out for a long ride... 5 hours at least. We drove out of Addis.... And the we drove through towns, then barren land.... Then another town.... We had to stop for cattle crossing the road, swerve to miss a goat, crowds of people selling their vegetables at their town market. Each town between Addis and Halaba had similar scenes... As we drove more produce was for sale along the roadway... More animals being hearded by young boys and girls or by adults...one thing is for sure, everyone in the family has a job to do and they are doing it.
As we got further South, a sight was becoming more common... People of all ages, even the very young, walking carrying their water jugs, water jugs strapped to a donkey, water jugs on a donkey driven or horse driven cart. After a while, we saw the water station.... And just as far as they walked or rode with their empty jugs, they had that distance to go back with full water jugs. We looked at each other, and realize clean water is something we take for granted. We go in the kitchen and turn on the tap... Water comes. we brush our teeth and let the water run.... Water is something we take for granted when there are others who have to labor to get water.... Water.
We arrived for lunch in Shashamane at an outdoor restaurant at the Rift Valley Hotel. After lunch we made our way to Halaba and then before we knew it we were there. We stopped to pick up a man who worked for the orphanage and who knows Tariku and his family. He would be our second interpreter since they speak yet another language in Halaba. We drove down the main road and then we turned off the main road down a dirt road. We continued to drive and then soon we turned again and drove down what looked like nothing more than a foot path. We drove a ways more....more into the remote and then a row of traditional Ethiopian houses with children playing and running after the truck, shouting, waving and smiling as we continued to drive.
This was it. The moments we had been going over in our heads and the conversations we had with each other about this day were suddenly here. We were about to meet Tariku's grandfather.
He was resting on a blanket under a very special tree. He rose to greet us not with handshakes but with hugs.
To be continued.....
1 comment:
Wow! Tears already!
The suspense is too much...I want to know more, but I also know you are very tired.
So sweet dreams and God bless!
Love you much!
Xoxo
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