The Story of Our Trip

We had the best time in Ethiopia. I do not know where to start. We started the week by visiting family and eating good food! One week of adjusting and getting over jet lag and enjoying ourselves. The boys loved their grandma's four dogs and allowed one of them, Fluffy, to sleep in the bed with them. Two others were white puppies named orange and lime in the Amharic language and the guard dog who is short but does his job well, loved the boys. We took the boys to the Zoo as their first adventure. The lions were so close and there was a cute little monkey who thought he was in show business because he knew how to entertain the crowd. In the same day we went to Addis Ababa University that was converted from the Emperor Haile Selassie's Palace, at his request. Here, there was a Museum of Ethiopian culture and history of music and religion ranging from the BC era. We then visited Sodere where there are bath houses and showers of hot spring water that continually comes from the earth. It never runs out. It was awesome being one with nature as the showers are outside in nature above the Awash river. The boys went swimming in the pool (which of course was nice and warm from the spring water) for two consecutive days and after my husband gave me a few quick lesson to improve my swimming I dived off of the diving board for the first time; exhilarating! Then we visited a beautiful lake called Langano. I was surprised at how beautiful it was. At sunset the water is purple. They say it is due to high calcium deposits in the water. white horses freely roaming around, an array of bright colored flowers and trees that I had not seen before, camp fires for families to sit around and chat under the moonlight on the beach water and of course the beach with black sand and mountains, literally 40 to 50 feet away. The restaurants were fabulous. Friends took us to Fasika Restaurant with traditional cultural dance and live Ethiopian music and of course good food. American Christmas and Ethiopian Christmas (1/7/10) was good. They were spent with more family who put together a feast! I wish I took a picture of the food spread. We went shopping for sulveniers the next day and that was fun seeing all the art work and beautiful scarves.We eventually, on more than one occasion, visited only two of the Donation Sites as one of them was difficult to find and way out of reach from where we were. So we were able to give the money collected from friends and coworkers to the other two organizations. They were so happy. Happy does not even describe their gratitude. It was like someone rich finding you from the other side of the world and handing you money to continue your good works. They probably thought how did you even know our little organization existed. They were such sweet people and the children so behaved and eager to do homework. I will post the pictures, the receipt and thank you letter within a few days. We all have tans and jet lag. I had culture shock with the cold weather in NY. I was at work today daydreaming about being under a hot spring.