The guest house serves both Ethiopian food and American food for breakfast. I love Ethiopian food, but just can't get used to spicy food for breakfast. I think the guest house may go through a whole loaf of bread a day with just the Burkes. It is usually French toast all around. Ethiopian coffee is the best you will ever have and also the strongest you could ever taste.
A statue in the middle of a traffic circle. It has the Lion of Judah in the middle, a national symbol for Ethiopia.
One of the two giant peacock statutes in from of the Prime Minister's Building.
Another Lion of Judah
The rain came in the morning. Visiting Ethiopia during rainy season means that plans are always flexible. Instead of going to the park, we went to the National Museum of Ethiopia. It has four stories that are dedicated to different topics, prehistoric fossils, Ethiopian governmental history, art, and artifacts of life in Ethiopia. There are wonderful examples of art and artifacts there. It is a treasure for Ethiopia to have this space to tell the story of their country.
It is a joy to travel and see the sights with our own children. However, it is even more meaningful to have our friend's children join us as well. My daughters remarked several times how much it felt like a youth group trip. Well.... not far off!
Items used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches
Traditional Cultural Clothing
The plow that most farmers still use today in the Ethiopian countryside. I have only seen one tractor here. Farming is done manually.
Lucy is a famous prehistoric find. The bones are those of a young female found in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. Discovered in 1974, they are estimated to be the 3.2 million-year-old remains of an early human ancestor.
This is what they believe Lucy's skeleton would have looked like if completed.
After the museum, we went for a wonderful lunch at the Lucy Restaurant next door. It has a beautiful atmosphere that is highly cultural and intriguing. The food was delicious.
Fresh mango juice (like it may have been on a tree an hour ago)
In Ethiopia, it is common to share one plate of food for a table of people. Everything is piled on top of the injera (flat sourdough bread). You eat by tearing a piece of injera off, pinching the food you want, and eating. There are no utensils used with this kind of food.
After lunch and after the rain let up we all went to Friendship Park. This is newly built in the last two years. With beautiful gardens, walking paths, and a restaurant, it is a fabulous place to spend an afternoon.
Multiple stairways through the gardens. I lost count of the stairs. Let's just say there were a bunch and I was happy to go both up and down them!
The flowers were stunning and the view of the city like none I had seen before. This park is truly an oasis in the midst of a bustling city filled with people and traffic.
At the top and to the side of the stairs and garden is a massive relief sculpture with icons of Ethiopia. In the very middle, it says Ethiopia in gigantic Amharic characters. This overlooks an amphitheater-like space with steps going down to a central eye-shaped figure. Each step has the name of one of the approximately eighty Ethiopian tribes etched into it. The whole space is a symbol of Ethiopian unity.
Prayer requests if you're the praying type, or thoughts, and good vibes.... we are still waiting on the box with the hematology machine and the suitcase with the ultrasound machine to be released from customs. It will happen eventually, but I am growing impatient!
Amharic Lesson for the day...
Hello
ሰላም
[Se-lam]
New
አዲስ
[Add-is]
Flower
አበባ
[A-ba-ba]
Shoe
ጫማ
[Cha-ma]
