Urbanity Gives Way to Rurality

Our first stop was at a restaurant called "The Lime Tree," a spot which catered to Westerners in a newly erected building.  There we met with Daniel, an Ethiopian who works as a coordinator for Wycliffe Bible translators.  Over burgers and pizza, he explained to us that although the Bible has long been available in Ethiopia's most common languages, such as Amharic, the country has over seventy different languages, and his team is working to translate many of the different versions (NIV, NLT, The Message, etc.) into these many languages.

Following lunch, it was time to head south of Addis Ababa on a three hour journey to Butajira en route to a community/organization called Project Mercy in Yeteban.

Butajira labeled as "Butajera" slightly southwest of Addis Ababa

Meskel Square, one of the main venues for special events in Addis

Ethiopian National Theater

Haile Selassie and former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Even Ethiopia has Johnny Walker

Urban Ethiopia and rural Ethiopia were essentially two different worlds.  Whereas the city was densely populated with people and high-rises, the countryside had a more pastoral feel.  Blue skies full of white, billowing clouds filled the horizon, meeting the rolling green hills below.  The air, too, no longer smelled of ash and fuel, though it did occasionally smell of livestock and manure.

Thatched huts lined the sides of the road, occasionally giving way to expansive vistas and magnificent landscapes.  Animals took the right of way on the highway, and many a cow, goat, and horse calmly crossed the road, oblivious of the cars quickly approaching them.  These cars would be forced to a screeching halt in order to avoid damage to the bovine (or caprine or equine) traveler.  In Ethiopia, apparently, animals have legal protection- any driver who hits an animal in the road (except for dogs because apparently no one cares about dogs) is subject to a fine.

Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the journey was the sight of a few young children, no older than five years old, grinning from ear-to-ear clapping and doing a dance akin to the Party Rock anthem shuffle as they saw our car approaching.  The lasting memory of such unadulterated joy left smiles on our faces for long after.

 Young boys leading their blind grandfather around- something we hope to find out more about on this trip

As night fell, we stopped at a hotel in Butajira for dinner before continuing onward to Project Mercy for the night.

The Arrival

After leaving home in Orange County at 4 am the morning of June 18, I found myself haggling with an Ethiopian immigrations officer nearly 30 hours later, about 8 pm Ethiopian time the night of June 19.  The officer vehemently insisted I provide an address for my place of residence while in Ethiopia and held my passport hostage until I was able to provide one.  The major impossibility in this conundrum was the fact that addresses are largely non-existent in Ethiopia and in fact most streets don't even bear names.  I eventually dug up the phone number of a nun I would be staying with and the immigrations officer finally acquiesced, letting me on my way.

The thirty-some-odd hours in between California and Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, had taken me through Chicago, Frankfurt, and Sudan, resulting in a somewhat-discombobulated version of myself stepping off the plane. The smell of fuel exhaust mixed with the smell of burning trash reminded me of similar olfactory pleasures in Kyrgyzstan and the slightly ramshackle nature of the airport, at least by American standards, brought me back to some of the provincial airports of China.

Dr. Larry Thomas, director of Tropical Health Alliance Foundation, met me outside the baggage claim, joined by filmmaker Sean and recently graduated pre-med Joey.  Together, the four of us followed our driver, Ayu, into the Ethiopian night outside the airport, which was permeated by the smell of car exhaust.  The smell and the sights of neon signs and half-constructed buildings gave me the strong sense of being back in Wenzhou, China- where my family's China tour had made an emergency landing over a year prior.  Along the way, Joey informed me that in Ethiopia, a surprised gasp meant "I understand" whereas "yes yes yes" meant "I don't understand."  In my sleep-addled state, I accepted this paradoxical custom without a second thought.

When we finally arrived at the gated compound of St. Mary's School, where we would stay during our time in Addis, it was already time to turn in for the night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the guest rooms at the school offered soft beds and hot water.

It wasn't until the following morning when I would meet the sisters of St. Mary's School.  Sister Mary, a lively Irish nun whose stage 4 ovarian cancer was now in remission, busily cooked us a hearty breakfast consisting of fried eggs, Ethiopian sausage, and porridge to provide us sustenance for the day's journey into southern Ethiopia.  After determining our plans for the day, Dr. Thomas, Sean, Joey, and I left the gated compound en route to the city proper.

I'll be updating this blog over the course of my 8 weeks in Ethiopia this summer, so bookmark this page or add it to your blogroll if interested!  Stay tuned for more...