I was really excited for this day. After Tuesday being a pretty emotional day-I was ready for this trip! We were able to travel about 2 hours outside of the city. We went with the Bodine Family (see their blog here http://www.bodinefamilyadoption.blogspot.com/). Great great friends of ours now, and we are so blessed that we had them to share in such amazing part of our lives! The Blue Nile is like the "Grand Canyon" of the United States.
On the way there, we would drive through all of the small villages-each time we were waved and smiled at. Children were playing in the fields, I had asked Alazar if it would be "ok" to stop by a long side the road to see the children, give them some crackers and get a couple of pictures with them-so we did. Apparently, it was ok. We got out of the car and the children came running from all different areas....it's so sad but makes my heart so happy at the same time. They have such "simple-ness" in their lives, they have NOTHING, they wear the same clothes and shoes for days I'm sure of it-and yet they seem as though they have it all! They do-in their minds. I sometimes think as Americans we knock heads with people because of jealousy, expecting too much or all of the freedom that we do have, hard to put into words, but I can definitly tell you, coming home from Ethiopia each time has made me a different person. I see the simple things in life, leave the headaches for someone else. Let us live as we choose to live how we choose, to me I don't care what my neighbor thinks, a friend thinks, a family member thinks, as long as we're doing "right" by the lord-it is our life to live as we choose. I love Ethiopia for their simplicity in life-i am a little jealous they have that. I loved that we had the chance to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city of Addis, the exhause fumes, etc became a bit much for 6 days....
On the way we also would see women carring big huge bundles of brush on their backs. We found out that when they delivered their goods off of their backs to the city from up within the villages, they would get paid an equivalant of $2/day. I asked Alazar (our driver) if he had ever hit any cattle, donkeys, etc while driving through the villages, he says to me "No, Only 1 person"...(we all chuckled, because it was so matter of factly)....he says the person was drunk crossing the road, and he hit his arm-and broke it....love our Alazar-we know it was defintily accidental and he felt terrible about it. He made sure we were in good hands all week!
We arrived at the Blue Nile Gorge, I have never been to the Grand Canyon, but I can tell you if it's anything as good as the Blue Nile I will be amazed! This was the most breathtaking piece of land I have ever seen in my life! There was a trail that took you down to the Portugese Bridge that is thousands of years old, there were cattle, baboons with babies on their backs and a beautiful waterfall- the guys headed down there-us girls stayed up top with some random teenagers that were "educating" us, and then expected us to buy the items they made-which, yes we all did-we all bought something. Of course during this point, my mind wandered (wierd, right?!) Mind you, i am standing on top of a cliff in africa, really no one around-except for those that come to see this area, in my Dateline mind I had envisioned them being the angry people of Africa that really don't care for Americans much, they push us off the side and who would ever care or know what happened to us in Afrcia?! OMG, yes I know-I.AM.CRAZY.! (Incase you all were worried, we made it, no dateline special for me yet!) But, can't say my mind is narrow....So, now after ya'll have had a lil laugh-enjoy some pics of our day there!
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