Meeting Ethiopia

Today and yesterday, we have had the opportunity to experience the capital city of Ethiopia.  It is so incredibly busy with literally millions of people going all directions.  There are 5-6million people in the capital city alone and there are 24,000 taxis.  Therefore, lots of people are constantly walking everywhere.  Being from west river, I found it the Ethiopian 'sale barns' interesting too.  Goats, donkeys and cows are easily and very frequently seen roaming through a main roadway which is 6-7 lanes wide.  The driving is as crazy as people say however, everyone is incredibly patient and very accomodating.  With a quick beep of the horn, people will move out of the way but, just enough.  The taxis easily go zooming past each other within inches of each other.  I heard someone say 'just imagine New York City- but, with only 4 traffic lights'.  That's a good analogy in my opinion : )   Today, we went up to mountain where we visited the palace, museum and church.  It was a lot of fun to hear more about the country's history and their story from our guide.  The mountain area is beatiful!   It is where the world famous Ethiopian runners train in the mornings.  With the high elevation of 10,000+ feet, the lack of oxygen helps them perform even better when they race in lower lying areas.  We then drove up the road aways to look out across the countryside.  When we stopped, a bunch of adorable children came up to us chattering away.  Fortunately, I had packed some suckers and smarties candies and we handed some out.  They completely mobbed us yet were very respectful for the most part once they got their candy.  At the end when we went to leave, a few more children had ran down the road to us as well.  Our guide agreed to hand out a little more candy and was totally mobbed!!!  They were jumping and begging for the last few pieces of candy.  I'll add pictures when we get home- it really was fun to share the candy with the children.  They were adorable and were so appreciative.  This afternoon, we had our training by Bethany and tonight we're going out for a traditional Ethiopian dinner.  It should be a great time!  Thanks for the prayers everyone- please keep us in mind tomorrow morning when we're at court- or about the time when you're heading to bed Wednesday night.