intense Day 4. Emily woke up at 8:30 feeling very disorientated. We
think she had a mild case of altitude sickness. She really didn't
start feeling better until after lunch. Our driver picked us up at
around 9:45 to do some souvenir shopping. We did very well at the
shopping. It was difficult because every little shop had really neat
stuff. We only got halfway down the row of shops before we ran out of
local money and Emily started really feeling bad. The shops were
maybe 3' x 5' with 3 walls. We will probably return to get some more
stuff, but are really pleased with all that we bought so far. It is common
to bargain at these shops but not easy to do. Most things are very
well priced to begin with, so it's difficult to start bargaining down the
shopkeepers when we have so much, even though they expect the bargaining...
It is tough. We did make the mistake of going into a shop that sold a lot of necklaces and Emily
tried a bunch on before we asked the prices. After she had picked
out her favorite three pieces and we had all commented how much we liked
them, we then asked the price. I would not recommend that method,
but the price was still fair to American prices.
After shopping, we went to a fantastic pizza place call Aztica (Ethiopia was once occupied by Italy), and then back to he hotel for naps and resting up.
At 4pm, we headed off to Dreamland, which is a resort about 90min
away from Addis. We drove through an industrial part outside of
Addis and then eventually made our way to the resort. Dreamland
overlooks this crater lake and was absolutely beautiful. We had a
fantastic meal outside on the patio overlooking the lake (Ethiopian
traditional food) with all the families, drivers and Belay. The sun
was setting behind us. The setting was really quite amazing. This
resort is located in a small town outside of Addis. It is really
strange to be in such luxury amidst such poverty 10 feet outside
the wall of the resort. Belay said that one of the most popular jobs
is the waitering job for the restaurant on Saturday night (when the
Gladney families come to eat).
While driving around in the afternoon, we also had the chance to stop
by a photo shop and printed out a bunch of pictures that we took
at the Kolfe boys orphanage. We will hand the pictures out to the
guys when we see them on Monday... which reminds me. I wanted to do
a big feast for the boys at Kolfe, and a business friend of mine that
has been following our blog has bought 4 lambs/goats for the feast.
We are going to have it on Monday, which is my birthday. Emily and
I are going to get there at 9am and I am going to help the boys
prepare the lambs/goats. Hopefully they will let us help prepare and
cook the meal as well. We are incredibly excited about filling the
tummies of those fantastic boys and just spending some time and
fellowship with them. I can't imagine a better birthday present.
Picture is the Kolfe boys, will post more pics later
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