On our Way to Awasa

Yohanna was up 3 times during the night. She was so congested and no bulb snot puller. Bill finally figured out that they could use an eyedropper of course she hated it but felt better afterward. We all got up and to ready to go to Awasa. Poptart for me again, G and B had nothing. We were ready for a 5 hour van ride with Emily, Terri, Elliott and a new guide, same driver. We will stay 2 nights in a hotel and will see her finding place and maybe meet the person who found her. Abel came early, he's not going with us I am sad. He and Bill went to the bank and got money exchanged. Terri and Mahi, our new guide, a little size 0 thing, went to the market to get baby wipes and diapers, Elliott is having diaper issues. Now we are running an hour late. We went to Shalom Transition house to drop off Yohanna. G and B decided to leave her there because of unknown conditions in Awasa and how many shots, etc that she has had and malaria. I went in with Gretchen, she handed Y over to a nanny, kissed her goodbye and was out the door in a matter of seconds. It was pretty tuff on G. Bill and I comforted her in the van and she slept most of the way to our first stop at the Beach side resort.

We drove about 4 hours through the country that we normally think of when we think about Ethiopia. Passing many, many mud huts with grass roofs. Some had mud sides and others had grass, or wood sides. The well to do, and that isn't saying that they were really well to do, had corrugated tin roofs. People walked along the road, 2 lanes very new and well maintained. Constantly there were animals grazing and seemingly alone. Lots of unused land, our guide says it belongs to the government, it is just grass. We did see some tilled ground, she said that they raised grain and had just had their harvest. We saw piles of straw outside houses, they use it on the floors. The stacks were huge and almost perfectly round.

We saw very few children on the streets of Addis, probably they were in school, but here, what looked like 5 years olds were in charge of a herd of goats or cattle. The cattle here look like Burmese. They just cross the road where ever they want. in one town a goat just laid in the middle of the road and never moved even with horns honking and cars zooming by. It was still cool this morning and it rained on us.

Gretchen slept quite a bit of the time and so did Elliott, the baby. There are termite mounds the size of an overhead fuel tank. People carried wood bundles on their backs probably 10 foot around and up to 12 foot long. Several children are wearing just shirts, often 2 shirts and no pants. No shoes just barefoot.

We drove by several greenhouses and flower markets. The flower markets were at least a mile long, ferns, yucca, flowering seedlings. The greenhouses would have covered the same area that Williamsfield covers or more. If people didn't walk to work there they rode bikes, you could see them lined up outside the buildings.

There were lots of Bonsai looking trees and mountains in the distance. The road was very smooth. The families before said the travel was hard and ruff, but really it was pleasant, except for sitting to long with not much leg room. 2 wheel carts and people pulling them could be seen along the road. the carried everything from food to people to even animals. One cow was strapped down to one of the carts. We went around the corner and there was a truck full of camels, they were all laying down and all you could see was their heads, there was 19 to 20 in the back of one truck.

Many goods were just sitting along the roads. Charcoal, potatoes, wood and hand crafted items. There was a little harvesting being done but the guide wasn't sure what it was they were harvesting. There were LARGE mud puddles along side the road where animals were drinking and people were washing their clothing,. Kids were waving at us, one little boy was blowing kisses. Babies were in carriers on the backs of their moms. Burlap bags full of produce were carried on their heads. People were almost bent in half carrying bundles of something.

About this time we had enjoyed the smoothness of the road but it was time for lunch and we left the main road. WHAT A MESS. Potholes as big as the van. Along the main road no one came up to the van probably because we were going to fast but here everyone came up to the van. Children trying to sell us carved incense burners or wood cars. Chasing us and waving. The house here were more tin roofed. There were buildings that were large poles fixed in the ground with a door and a roof, I think that they were a barn/corral. Enough to keep the animals in and safe from wildlife but open enough for air. The poles looked like the ones that the scaffolding in Addis was made with.