Day 4 - Ethiopia

As part of our trip to the North, we got to visit the Blue Nile Bridge and Gorge. The Blue Nile Bridge was built by the Japanese and Ethiopians. An older bridge was built by the Italians. On our way into the gorge, we saw some baboons. On the way out, we were hoping to get a few pictures of them. Sammy, our driver, pulled the car over and told us to get some of the bananas (which apparently are very tasty, I hate bananas, but everyone talked about how good Ethiopian bananas are). The baboon consumed about 5 bananas in just a matter of minutes. Mark and I were in the back, so we didn't get any pics, but the rest of the group got some great pictures of the baboon!

The trusty Land Rover!

Don't you want to drive down this road?

Blue Nile Bridge

One other random thing, the Ethiopian calendar is 9 years behind ours. They just celebrated the year 2000. Here's a group photo in front of a celebration sign.

As we were driving throughout the countryside, it was very common to see a cow and a plow. I’m talking about like the kind of plow you would have seen a long time ago. We asked Sammy if he would pull over, so we could once again get a good picture of the plow. He did and we were all happy that we got some great pictures!

We got back on the road and a few minutes later, we caught up with the rest of our group. The van ahead of us was apparently very interested in the plows as well. They were actually out in the field trying out the plow for themselves. They allowed all of us to take a turn trying out the plow. Ethiopians are such kind people. The farmer kept wanting us to actually use the whip to hit the cows.

After lunch, we went to the Portuguese Bridge. It was built in the 16th century. It is partially natural and partially man made. A young boy named Abraham took Mark (my husband) and a couple of others on a “tour” of a baboon cave. The boy told them that it was where the baboons slept at night. None of them were actually in the cave at the time.

Here's a picture of a random girl we met. I think she is so beautiful!

We went to a nearby orphanage for both children as well as the elderly. The conditions we absolutely terrible. The beds and buildings were old and dirty. The children seemed very happy though. We got to listen to them practice reading the scriptures tho their teacher. We saw about 20 children and 15 adults there.

We headed back to the capital. We had pizza for dinner and talked a lot about what the next day would look like (the day we would “collect our children” as the Ethiopians put it). Many of us cried at just the thought of being able to finally hold our children in our arms. We had waited so long for this day.