Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 7

Day 1 in Ethiopia Today we visited Embracing Hope, Strong Hearts, and Onesimus (Forsaken Children). All were excellent organizations, doing really great things. Orphan prevention is the goal of Embracing Hope. I fell in love with this term. Jerry Shannon was a dynamic guy with a golden heart. They offer support for single mothers in order to keep the family together and prevent the mother from having to give the child up. Strong Hearts has several projects, the most interesting was opening the second hospice center ever in the entire country of Ethiopia. Onesimus (The Forsaken Children) worked with street children and trying to integrate them back into family style living and getting them to go back home to their families. We were informed that the are currently 100,000 street children in Addis Ababa alone. #truthgrenade ... read more

After leaving Berbera, we got back into Hargeisa early enough. I had a multi entry visa for Ethiopia, but Jack and Joris had to get new visas. Unfortunately the Ethiopian consulate was closed, so we had to spend another night in Hargeisa, which was fairly uneventful. The next morning the two lads got their visas easy enough and we found a car to take us to the border. We had hoped to reach Harar that evening but we got into Jijiga too late and had to spend the night there. It had only been 5 days, but it was good to be back in Ethiopia and the beers that night went down very well! The next morning we got a minibus to Harar. Harar is considered the 4th holiest Islamic city in the world. The old ... read more

Selam! 13 hours later we arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!!! We are in the airport waiting for out connecting flight to Nairobi, Kenya. It smells just like I remember :) i am sitting here looking at the mountains in the distance, the sun is bright and burning off the morning fog. What time is it? Haha. Flight was great! Got to watch the African sunrise out the plane window as we were landing. Wow. It didnt even look real. God was flexing for us. :) Was entertained watching all the beautiful children running up and down the isles during flight! Their beautiful honey brown flawless skin, big brown eyes, giggles, and adorable hair styles......I just want to scoop them up and take them home. That sounds creepy. It is so cool how the whole plane looked ... read more

Henok drives slightly more carefully around the winding bends. We have 2000ft to descend from the mountain capital of Harar to the desert railhead of Dire Dawa. The road is steep, and we pass deep canyons. It is the end of the dry season and the earth and stone looks central asian. "Does this remind you of Afghanistan?” I ask Francois? “Yes some parts very much” He replies in his perfect if slightly accented English. Francois had decided to join us after all, and he sat in the left seat behind Henok taking it all in. The villages are scarce and extremely poor. We pass the same derelict 109 safari landrover that we saw on the way in. The Ethiopians are building an enormous cement factory, that acts as the mountainside guardian of Dire Dawa. The ... read more

The alarms were set for 4 a.m. to get the bus from Addis Ababa to Jijiga and we were in a taxi at 4.30 a.m., with our bus leaving at 5.30 a.m. This Selam Bus was the first proper coach I had taken in Ethiopia and was as good as the ones in Sudan. The road was also fairly good all along the way, which made reading possible and we even had a break for lunch. The scenery on the stretch from Harar to Jijiga was incredible, with lots of strange rock formations. This seemed to be a pretty poverty stricken area with a lot of people living in tents by the side of the road. It was about 5 p.m. when we pulled into Jijiga. We got a tuk-tuk to bring us to a hotel ... read more

It is Friday in Harar. Mike and I walk in the morning, eager to get some exercise having been in the car for so long. We walk purposefully away from the old city and climb a hill. Indian made auto rickshaws splutter past us, up the incline. Barely making progress faster than our legs. The new town in unassuming, but the trees are pretty and the morning smells are pleasant and fresh. At the summit we find the Harar brewery. Hara turns out to be slightly more convoluted than we thought. Numerous guide books tell us, that the Emperor Haile Selassie converted the main mosque on the main square in the walled city into a church, to inform Muslim population that he was in charge. This must have sent a powerful signal to the Muslim community, ... read more

The new dash 8 q400 enters the addis valley. This is a small aircraft to spend three and a half sleeping hours on, but I feel good. I have two seats to myself, and i-mike, the American doctor is down the cabin. The turboprop’s is inbound from Zanzibar. The names Zanzibar and Addis Ababa trip easily off the tongue; but to those of us who live here, the reality is not quite so romantic. We fly between ridges with brown patchwork fields below us. They give way to insdustrial warehouses, new concrete housing, a single forestry block and the addis bus depot. The orange and yellow buses make a stark sight. Everything is so dry, a dual carriageway that bisect two large old cemetaries flies by; we are lower now, and seem faster over the earth. ... read more