Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Oromia Countryside

One of our favorite memories from our first trip to Ethiopia in late July/early August was the drive we took from the city of Addis Ababa out through the Oromia countryside to the Adaddi Mariam Church. We loved it so much that we decided to do the drive again, this time with our mothers! (Note to traveling families: we can't recommend this drive enough! It is BEAUTIFUL and the sights you see are so gorgeous and so worth the drive!!!

Leaving the city, we saw this roadside "stand" outside of an Orthodox church where colorful umbrellas used for religious ceremonies were being sold.


And after weaving through city traffic for a while, we suddenly found ourselves HERE, breathing fresh air and wondering if we were actually in Ireland:


Here we are with our wonderful driver, Solomon. We love "Soli"!


It was so cool to see the Acacia trees that are such a symbol of Africa!


We got to see the Awash River, which is also called "The Blue Nile" in some parts of Ethiopia!




And let's not forget the beautiful faces of the children we saw along the drive!




We saw these thatched roof houses:



Lovely flowers on a fence:


And it's not a ride out to the country without seeing one of these:


Taxi, anyone?


After about an hour or so of driving, we came to this sign and turned right for a seven mile drive down a country dirt road that ends at the church. This time, though, we didn't make it to the church because our van got stuck in the mud. Thankfully, some men came to our rescue and helped us out, but we all decided it was better to turn around and head back to town rather than risk more muddy mishaps. We were okay with not seeing the church. It is cool to see and has an amazing story and history, but for us it the beautiful drive that was the real gem of the journey.


As we came back into the city, we stopped at the Alert Hospital, where beautiful hand woven and hand embroidered goods are made. This man was weaving yards and yards of fabric on his loom. If you go to Addis, I highly recommend stopping at the Alert Hospital gift shop, where they sell these beautiful woven/embroidered goods, and all the funds go back to the people who made them!


In my opinion, the drive to Adaddi Mariam is at the top of my list of "recommended to dos" while in Ethiopia! We enjoyed it both times! In case you're wondering where the boys were on this day, a Gladney care giver came to our guest house and watched them for us. She was so sweet, and the boys did great with her!


4 comments:

Dana Cheryl said...

Your pictures are just gorgeous! I didn't quite realize that Ethiopia was so green and lush. It's beautiful country with even more beautiful people it seems!

Sharon said...

Loving the trip journal!

J said...

That's amazing...such a different part of the world, and so beautiful. The green really took me by surprise, as did the amazing crafts at a hospital gift shop. So not like here.

Anonymous said...

Tracy, I haven't been reading blogs for awhile so this was the first time I discovered that you have your boys with you. I am so happy to see your family together and the sweet smiles on the boys' faces. I am also so happy that Jeremy called you "mama". I know this was a very long journey for you and I wish your family every happiness.