Day 2

As you may of guessed my last post was cut short. What I really wanted to write was day 1 2 3 and maybe 4 but I had a plane to catch to arrive at the end of our journey. So again I am behind, and although my father has professed on countless times the fact that I can always write what's going on now, I'm sticking to no flash backs or flash forwards as I have already pointed out because it's easier. This laziness has probably also contributed to the fact that I'm three weeks late. 

And because of my apparent laziness instead of just writing day 2 I'll write day 2 3 4 and maybe even 5 (insert round of applause here) and (insert gasp) yes there is more. I'm going to start from where I left off. 

So Mercato is quite literally a huge open air market selling every thing from pieces stolen from cars to traditional produce or bags. We walked through an area where they sold veggies, seeds and spices straight into a metal forest with long iron rods sticking up in the air with men making little barbecues  wearing a hand made cardboard welding mask in his galvanised tin stall. We then walked past a area where ladies were making straw serving basket and then into an area where they sold door handles that seemed to be ripped out of the owners walls or used circuit boards or tires. It literally sold every thing. On the way out mum stopped at the traditional stuff area and attempted to get a traditional dress that she had seen prior. 

After a late lunch we went to st. Yarred's new campus. 

St. Yarred is the school that mum decided to lend a hand to. We have a friend who came to Ethiopia quite a lot, even adopted babies, and she is the one who told us about this school. It's run by a man called tarred and Steve ( the school isn't called st. Yarred because of it ). Steve came here around three years with his wife and 2 Ethiopian children after being a principle in Australia. The school in Australia was in the middle of nowhere and thought aboriginal kids. after working there he came to Ethiopia, where his two daughters originated from, in order to set up a non for profit school for the poor kids in Africa. The school was an NGO providing good education for the poorest kids in the country. The school after experiencing difficulties renting land (u can't buy land in Ethiopia) has two campuses and a school bus. They teach English amarick (the main language) and other compulsory studies. They are also provided with breakfast lunch and a snack so the family doesn't have to and various facilities. Steve and his family live in addis and are sponsored in the country (because they don't get paid) but he is very dedicated to his job. When we met him we gave him a bag full of stationary and toys that we brought from Italy mum and dad asked questions about the school and his family. After that we went home and got groceries on the way.

The next day we went to fresh and green with a lady we met at our bed and breakfast called tamara. fresh and green is another NGO run by a woman called Muday. She runs a school for the poor too but she also helps the parents who tend to have aids or HIV. She does this by teaching them skills like making bags or weaving so that they get supported by the things they make and then sell from the little store.

During the day we went to see Lucy, the 2 foot woman who defined the point were ape and man split, the holly trinity church (biggest in addis) and went to a flash hotel called the Sheraton.

On our last full day in addis before we got on yet another plane we did volunteer work for st. Yarred's first campus. We spent the day cleaning the play area making a brick wall and painting two offices and a kitchen while Sally, Steve's wife took photos. it didn't feel like much so we milled about for awhile waiting for someone to tell us what to do before going of to lunch. Mum wanting to do more and notting the apparent lack of cleaning utensils stopped at the local shopping mall and bought 100 dollars worth for the school's (turned out to be not much as cleaning stuff seamed to be the most expensive). 

After bringing the utensils to the second campus we got out of our dirty paint covered work clothes and got dressed for dinner with Steve Sally Sega-Marian and Kulu. We had dinner at an Italian place where saffron and Kulu became best friends and the grown ups sat and got to know each other. 

The next day we had little time before going to the domestic airport to catch yet another plane. This time to Lalibela. with a short stop over in another little town which name I cant remember. After an hour drive up the winding mountain road to Lalibela we checked in to our hotel. The next couple of days past at a snails pace in the afternoon we went to see some churches carved out of rocks then ate at a groovy restaurant the next day we saw some more churches and ate again at the same restaurant. By then I was absolutely sick of churches as we had seen about 10 and they all look similar on the inside with an image of st. George slaying a dragon, three sections of church, different windows and an area curtained off and only visible to priests. The only thing that did vary was the exterior which always was different and sometimes rather beautiful. Such as a church that on the sides was cut out and engraved but on top was still part of the mountain and the one that was in the shape of a cross and carved directly out of the ground. 

After two days of church spotting it was market day and all the neighbouring villages came to sell their good so we popped by had a look and headed for the airport. What was quite interesting was the amount of people we passed on the way it was like every man and their cow (s) came to Lalibela. And then once we did get there we were on a plane to addis (again).

^saffron posing for camera while she should be building a wall, cleaning a room or actually being^ ^helpful. not just pose for the camera and looking innocent (PS she was actually quite helpful)^

Building walls ^ ^ >

< ^ ^ Kind of (it was only 3 bricks high)

painting ^ ^ ^ >

^ the school ^

Mercato ^ >

Metal forest >

< ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Mercato

Fresh and green (mudai association) ^ >

^ Weaving ^

< church 1

church 2 >

^ church 3 ^

< church 2 × 2

church 25 ÷ 5 >

church (5 × 6 ÷ (7 + 3)) + √9

church x ÷ 7 = 5963⁰

church √16 + √16

view from our hotel

i really don't care witch church this is

playing the drums ^ >

< the drums

st. George (i think)

church x tilted at 45° (so technically church +)

church ✛

the weird looking restaurant we ate at

markets😓🔫

saffrons frolicking buddy