Our Trip to Ethiopia I took notes along the way as we were going to Ethiopia. You can read that below. I also took a lot of pix and Celia took some, too. I have put together a bunch of pages with the pictures and you might want to go and see them. I will list the different pages here and you can go see them as you feel the urge. Addis Ababa Pictures Wondo Genet Pictures Travels around Wondo Genet Birthday Party Lalibela Area Pictures Lalibela Church Pix Bahir Dar Pictures The Falls Notes on Trip to Ethiopia or Innocents Abroad Revisited   Thursday 12/24/99 and Friday (Christmas Day) Left Sara's house at 5:00 am with Robert driving. There was no traffic and we arrived at DFW at 5:38. We checked the bags thru to Addis Ababa from the curb. I had to shuffle some of the books to keep under the 70 pounds per bag weight limit. The flight into Newark was uneventful. We took the monorail from Terminal A to Terminal B and checked in with Ethiopian Airlines. We boarded the 767/300 and left about 30 minutes late at 1:15 EST. We had dinner and I watched the movie Entrapment. Pretty uneventful. A couple of bumps about 2:30 hours hour of Rome. It got dark by about 3:00 CST and we crossed coast of France by 5:00 CST. The plane was quite clean and only about 75% full. The passengers were mostly Africans. There was a group of eleven Canadian Kids going to Malawi and they were drinking beer and standing in the aisles. We arrived in Rome at 12:37 their time. A crew came aboard to clean up and the flight crew changed. A bunch of people got aboard and completely filled the plane. We flew out about 2:00 a.m. and arrived in Addis about 12 minutes late at 11:27 a.m. local time. One of our bags, the one with the toiletries, computer software, film, extra camera and some stuff for Celia, was not there. Apparently it wasn't transferred in Newark, although the woman who checked me in there swore she would check on all our bags. I filed a missing bag report and the guy said to call back tomorrow. Celia met us in the airport, bringing a letter from the Dean of his college which got us waved through customs. I had brought 210 pounds of books for the college. I met Tesfaye outside and he had arranged two taxis for us to get into town. We took two cabs to the D'Afrique Hotel and checked in about 2:00. We ate lunch in the hotel restaurant and napped until about 5:00. We ate dinner at the "traditional" Ethiopian restaurant in the basement and got our first exposure to injera, which is a fermented flat bread that lined the bowl the meal was served in. Everyone eats by tearing off a piece of bread and pinching up bites of the various food and popping them into their, or their partner's, mouth. Feeding each other is very common. All eating is done with the right hand, in the Arabian manner. The left hand is the "bathroom" hand, if you know what I mean. Hands are washed before and after each meal. After dinner, we took cabs over to the Waba Shebelli hotel and watched some native dancing by a professional group. Fun, but we were tired and getting a bit of jet lag after having slept only about three or four hours on the way over. Went back to the hotel and took a melatonin that Celia believes is good for jet lag. Christmas passed pretty well unnoticed since they don't celebrate it like we do. Instead, they have their Christmas on January 7, which is the day after we leave. 12/26/99, Sunday. I slept pretty well and got up at about 7:00. We went down for breakfast and got a call from a guy who has a Landcruiser for rent. We agreed to meet at 10:00 to check out the vehicle. He wants $80 a day and we will probably rent it for Monday through Friday. We waited until 10:00 and the guy came over in the car. It was 1988 Toyota, but in reasonably good shape and looked functional. Huge bull bar on the front. He took us for test drive and attempted to locate the Anglican church so we could go to church, but we were unable to find it. He dropped us off at the National Museum and we visited it. Celia says it's supposed to be the best museum in Africa. Pretty meager collection, but they do have the bones of Lucy, who is supposedly the 3.5 million year ago ancestor of all mankind. We took a taxi over to the new Sheraton Hotel for lunch. Really a swank place with world class prices. Took some pictures in the lobby (they had a black Santa) and looked at the grounds. They are getting ready for a big New Year's Eve bash with rock band and huge prices. We looked at the lunch buffet and decided $20 a person was a bit pricey in this country. We took another taxi to the Piazza area and had lunch in the restaurant of the National hotel. I ate fish and Sallie had a spaghetti dish. Lots of Italian influence in this area, since they used to occupy the country. We caught another cab and went to Ethiopian Airlines office to buy tickets to see the tourist areas in the North next week. We will travel Monday through Thursday, going to Lalibella and Bahir Dar. Cost is $600 for all four of us. The only real way to travel, since roads are bad and bus is very slow. Still no bag, but they supposedly have another plane in from U.S. tomorrow. We will check before leaving for Wondo Genet. We went back to the hotel and rested a bit and then took another taxi 10 kilometers out of town to the Crown Hotel. They had a great floor show that consisted of a band playing traditional instruments and a dance troupe of three men and two girls, all of whom were really good and very attractive. They performed dances of the various regions of the country and the show was outstanding, as were the shorter of the two girls major attributes. We collectively ate a "fasting meal" of various vegetables served on injera. Really much better food here. We went back to the hotel and went to bed just after 9:30. Jet lag still a factor, so slept fitfully. The D'Afrique is a government owned hotel and we're in two suites on the 7th floor, which we dubbed the penthouse. There are balconies on both sides from which you can look down onto the city. City is mostly tin-roofed wooden houses with the occasional high rise sticking up. Lots of smoke in the air and the streets are crowded with lots of people walking as well as small blue and white vans that people use to go longer distances. Lots of black kite hawks flying around. Very exotic and very poor. The hotel room is pretty meager. A double bed with a night stand. Two chairs and a desk in the room and a separate foyer, for some reason. The bathtub had warm water only in the evening and it had really antiquated and poorly maintained plumbing. Typical third world hotel, but reasonably clean and the three passenger elevator worked. We did walk up the seven stories once and it was quite a strain given we were at 7,600 feet and not accustomed to the thin air. Monday, the 27th. We got up and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We packed and lounged around until the drive showed up at 10:00. We loaded up the Landcruiser and went to the bank to change money to pay the owner. He is an Eritrean who was in jeopardy of expulsion over the war currently being fought between Ethiopia and Eritrea. We went to a bank, but they could not change traveler's checks, so we went to another and changed about $700 and paid the owner for five days at $80/day. We then drove to the International Foundation for Education and Self Help (IFESH) office, where we met the Country Director, Dr. Adani. He's Celia's boss and is about 70 years old. He's Ethiopian and a very nice man, who treated us to coffee or tea and some nice conversation in his office, which was on the fourth floor. Puff, puff, puff. I told him about the books and he suggested that IFESH could probably provide transportation for additional books and will give me the address in Arizona when we return from Wondo Genet. We then went to the airport and I checked on the missing bag. Still missing, and there hasn't been another plane from U.S. since we arrived and won't be until tomorrow. We decided to rough it and go on down to Wondo Genet without the bag. We picked up some groceries at a small "supermarket" and spent about $40.00, buying food to eat on the road, which turned out to be peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches and bottled water. The drive down to Wondo Genet started about 1:00 and it took us a bit over four hours to reach Shashamane. The road was two lanes and was fairly good the first 100 Km, but the last 150 were under construction. This is the main road that leads to Kenya and is being rebuilt with money from the European Community . The driver drove aggressively and blew the horn at everything that moved, or should move. He seemed to be over-driving the braking ability of the vehicle at times to me. He was an ugly little guy with scars cut into his forehead over both eyes and a big scar around his right eye from a prior auto accident. Very reassuring. He seemed to know almost everyone working on the road and we even stopped while a compactor driver came over to exchange a few words with him. He has sister in Shashamane and will stay with her while we're at Wondo Genet. The road was very dusty where the construction was and I spent a lot of time rolling the window up and down, as conditions warranted. It was quite warm and we needed the coolness, but couldn't breathe the dust. Not all that comfortable, but I've had worse rides. We arrived at Wondo Genet after a brief stop at a garage belonging to driver's family in Shashamane. Wondo Genet College of Forestry is located about 18 Km from Shashamane on a very rough gravel road that takes you down about 100 meters into a valley. Celia has assured us that it is a paradise and, by local standards, it is very nice. Lots of trees and nice buildings on the campus and a smooth road. We were left at the house of Pia, who is a Swedish forestry professor. She is away visiting her husband, who is also a forestry professor who is assigned in Kenya. The house is very nice. Clean and modern and nicely furnished. Excellent place for us to stay and totally free. We settled in a bit and then walked up to Celia's new duplex. Her house has just been finished about six weeks back and she is first tenant. Very shiny and clean with all new furniture. There is no refrigerator or stove, since they are being held in customs, having been purchased from Italy and have been in the port of Djibouti for about six months. She does have a two burner hot plate for cooking. Her maid had left us a pan of pasta casserole and warm bread for us to eat. We ate it and chatted a while before going back to Pia's to shower and sleep. Tuesday, the 28th. After sleeping may five hours we got up and joined Celia and Tesfaye for breakfast of eggs, bread, and fruit and coffee. We toured the campus and met a number of key faculty and administrators. We checked Celia's e-mail and I composed a note for Sara, but couldn't send it since Daag was out of town and no one knows his logon password. The driver came by for us at 9:30 and we loaded up the maid and the rest of the group and went into Shashamane, where the maid (Elsa) will shop for the week. We went to the government store and we purchased Celia a coffee set, some wine and a vase. We also got a case of beer and dropped the maid off with $100 bir ($US12) to buy food. Shashamane is really a hole. It is a junction town, with another road crossing here, but is very poorly developed. No sidewalks and lousy road. Side streets are dirt and very narrow. There's a Rastafarian community here. Seems they believed Haile Selasi was a god, so he gave them the land. Lots of horse drawn carts with rubber tires used to haul people and their water cans around town. We then drove down to Awassa, which is about 24 Km south of Shashamane. It is the provincial capital and is a lovely little town on the shores of Lake Awassa. We had a beer at outdoor restaurant and Tesfaye arranged us a ride in a rowboat. The ride was for about 1/2 mile and we saw a wonderful assortment of birds. Mostly shore birds, but also a sea eagle or two, kingfishers, ducks, egrets, storks and hawks. Storks are very common here and they live in the tops of trees. After boat ride we went to hotel and they guys there called down some Colobus monkeys from the trees. They are beautiful black and white monkeys with long bushy white tail. We fed them bread from our hands and took a bunch of pictures. We then drove into town and toured the Penni Hotel (Italian owned) and had lunch, which was excellent. I had a veal cutlet that was a big tough, but quite nice. The service was excellent and the restaurant was immaculate. They had satellite dish for television. We toured the rooms and they were quite nice. Would have been a good place to stay. We walked across the street to a little shopping area and I bought a safari vest for $13.00 that might have cost $75 to $125 in the U.S. We also picked up some toiletries to replace those still in the bag that didn't come with us. Sallie also bought a picture of a woman in a native costume. We rode back up to Shashamane and picked up Elsa and the groceries and returned to the school. We tried to call the IFESH office about the bag, but had no luck. The Dean of the college, Dr. Tesfaye, suggested we have IFESH arrange us a hotel in Lalibella, since it is normally busy this time of year, so we requested they do that. We're going up there Saturday morning, which is (shudder) Y2K. Sallie, Celia, Tesfaye and I hiked to the top of the hill above campus to see the valley below. We saw a troupe of baboons and more Colobus and velvet monkeys. We almost saw some hyenas, which were in the area, but Teetee (Pia's dog) scared them off. We had a nice hike which was quite strenuous at that altitude and Sallie only fell once at the beginning of the walk. The hills are planted with various plantations of trees that the Swedes had planted over the years to teach the people how to grow trees. They have a sawmill, a bee hive center, herb patch, a dairy, and a nursery on the campus, all of which are maintained by students and a staff of about 50 people. Elsa had prepared us a vegetarian pizza which we ate, along with a couple of the beers we had chilled from this afternoon. We talked and looked over Celia's application letter for University of Massachusetts/Amherst, where she has applied for a doctoral program in International Education. After supper, we went back to Pia's and crashed. I couldn't sleep so well and got up about 1:30 and wrote this day's entries. Have to present two lectures tomorrow. Good night. Wednesday, the 29th. I got up about 6:30 and took a shower and dressed up like a professor. We went up and had pancakes at Celia's. I lectured to merged English classes (Wendy's and Celia's) on Principles of Marketing. Students were interesting and took notes and asked a few questions. I then lectured to Daag's (a Swedish professor who was away with his kids for Christmas vacation) forestry economics class. This was an older group of fourth year students. They asked good questions and were very attentive. I told them there would be a test when Daag came back. After lunch of last night's pizza I ran into the Librarian, who insisted I visit his library and see the Access program he had developed and to see the computer center. Everything will eventually be on LAN and they'll have a computer search engine for the students. He says they have the best forestry collection in the country (maybe the only collection?). The computer lab consists of 25 Dell Pentiums that are networked. They had spent a year in customs at Djibouti and became obsolete while sitting there. They are only used by fourth year students, so are grossly under-utilized. I took a nap and went back to speak to two more combined classes on the subject of U.S. Business education and how the Pan American colleges were organized. Dr. Tesfaye and the librarian came in after a while and we presented the textbooks and the Dell laptop computer to the school. This was the class that had complained to Celia about the lack of books in the library and resulted in me arranging to have them donated and lugged over here. Celia took a bunch of pictures of the occasion. I spoke with a number of the students and exchanged address with several who are eager to study in the U.S. I promised to send names of schools that have programs in Forestry where they might apply. I then visited with the librarian again and took pictures of him and a student assistant and had someone take a picture of the two of us with the donated books in front of the stacks in the library. I guess we increased their holdings about 10%. We then went back to Celia's house and rested until about 4:00 and walked over to the house of one of the instructor's who had invited us to the birthday party of his kids. They had two sons, 12 and 8-year old, who shared the same birth date. They also had an adopted daughter who was 13 and they all shared the same birthday party. There were lots of people there and we ate a lot of party foods which the various women had prepared. We sat in chairs around the wall and they served us from the various plates of stuff, most of which were baked goods. I took a bunch of pictures of the kids at the party, as well as some of the faculty and their families and made a separate web page just of the party. The kids were so cute and so well behaved. We then went back to Celia's house and discovered that Tesfaye's father and step-mother were coming to visit with us. I developed a bunch of digital photos and worked on the web page for the party on Celia's laptop while we were waiting. They showed up at 7:00. His father, Waritu, is 60 years old and the step-mother is 33. She is the third of his wives and the first still lives in the family. First wife, Tesfaye's mother, died after having 10 kids. In total, there were 30 kids and 26 or 27 are still alive. He is a Pentecostal, but they follow the tribal custom when it comes to having wives. He used to work at the College and is now retired. Nice little guy who didn't speak a word of English, so we communicated through Tesfaye. They brought us a traditional meal of some kind of flour and butter bread and a banana dish. Celia prepared them a foreign meal of peanut butter and jam sandwiches. We sat at table and Sallie and I ate their food while they attempted to eat the peanut butter. Fun. Took a bunch of pictures, both with Celia's 35 mm and my digital camera. They stayed until about 9:30 and went home and so did we. What a cultural experience this day has been! Thursday, the 30th. We got up and took an hour long hike up in the woods with Celia and Tesfaye. We saw baboons, monkeys, and lots of birds. We hoped to see the hyenas, but no luck. Really a lovely place to walk in the woods. There are trails all around and people come in and cut up the fallen wood for firewood. They also herd the dairy cattle through to graze on grass. Elsa did our laundry, including Celia's. She and Johnny, her 12 year-old son, washed the laundry in the sink and hung stuff out to dry and she ironed it. I worked on the web page for the party and developed a bunch of digital photos. I went back and did second lecture for Daag's class. This time I talked about the external environment and how marketers have to be aware and use in their strategy planning. I met a couple of religious students, Shewel and Atemachew, who were fourth year students. They are interested in taking the TOEFL and want me to get them a CD to prep for it. I will check with NTS when I get back to U.S. and attempt to get them the requested stuff. Shewel also wants me to get him the NIV Study Bible in English. He wants to become a minister and needs it to learn more. I lectured to two combined first-year classes who were working on a note-taking assignment. We went back to Celia's and had lunch of spaghetti and some kind of vegetable croquets that the maid concocted. Elsa is sweet person. She used to be the head cook for the college, but became involved with a student and was discharged. She has a son from one of these liaisons. His name is Johnny and he speaks beautiful English. He's a really neat kid and speaks beautiful English and informed me he plans to go to America someday. He'll probably make it. When his father left him up in Bahir Dar with his legal wife, she refused to send him to school and used him as a house servant. He took off and walked all the way back to Wondo Genet, which is about 350 miles, when he was ten. When Elsa saw him, she fell on her knees and thanked God and promised to always be faithful to Him. I think she's sticking to her promise, and fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays. She seems to really like Celia and works hard to make her life easy. We called the airport and discovered that the missing bag had arrived. We will have someone from IFESH pick it up tomorrow and drop it off at the D'Afrique Hotel. We generally goofed off during the afternoon, although we have two social engagements this evening. We met with Dr. Tesfaye, the Dean of the College, who hosted a small coffee for us. He is a really nice young man who was educated in England and who wants to go to the U.S. for a post-doctorate in forestry. Had a nice hour-long chat with him and a couple of the administrators from the College. We then went over to the home of Dr. Tekele, a forestry professor who did his PhD in Maine. He had lived in Bosnia for about 12 years and had a wealth of foreign travel experience. His wife fixed a classic Ethiopian meal for us which was the best we experienced while in Ethiopia. I ate way too much. Dr. Tekele is very involved in the education of his two kids, a boy and a girl and is teaching the boy to do advanced algebra although he's only in the 6th grade. Kids were really cute and polite. The family is quite religious and is trying hard to raise kids with strong values. Friday, 12/31/99 We got up and went to Celia's for breakfast of bread, fruit and coffee. I went to class and taught the second class for Daag. After class I went to Celia's and prepared a quiz with key for Daag to use when he returns on Monday. I fixed a problem with Celia's laptop and copied off some pictures and the web page I had done for the party. We went down to Pia's house, carrying clean laundry and packed for return to Addis. We took a few pictures of the campus and folks on campus. Celia returned from her classes and we ate vegetable pizza for lunch and then loaded up the Landcruiser and left for Addis about 1:00. We had a much easier ride on the way back, as there was less traffic. We made it back to the D'Afrique at 6:30 and found the lost bag was there. We were given two rooms on the top floor and then were told that, "unfortunately, the lift is out of order." We plodded up the seven floors and noted the thin air wasn't quite as bad a problem as the first time. We unpacked everything and consolidated into one large bag for the trip to the North. We only want one bag for the trip and will store bags at the hotel until we return. After dropping off bags in the storage room we took a cab over to the Waba Shebelli hotel and had dinner in the rooftop restaurant. Tesfaye and I shared Chateau Briand for 2 for $3.00! Really good food and a lovely view of the city. We went down to the lobby bar and watched a bit of the Y2K coverage on CNN. We had seen part of the laser show from the Sheraton while in the rooftop restaurant. We headed back to our hotel and turned in late as we have an early flight in the morning and they said we should be there by 6:00 for an 8:00 flight. Went to sleep about 10:30 and were awakened by fireworks exploding at midnight. Slept poorly after that. Saturday - 01/01/00 Happy Y2K!! Only got about 2 hours of sleep after the celebration and Celia knocked on the door at 5:00. Got up and got ready to go in 15 minutes. Our Landcruiser driver came to pick us up and dropped us off at the airport by 5:45. We stood in line in the cold until the airport opened at 6:00. We needed to change money, but the money exchange didn't open until 8:00 and we are scheduled to fly at that time. We checked in and went to the gate and waited until 7:45 with no breakfast or coffee. We went out and got onto a Fokker 50 turboprop and flew up to Bahir Dar and then on to Lalibela. The first leg was notable in that the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was aboard. This flight took an hour and the second flight was another 30 minutes into Lalibela. We arrive at Lalibela airport about 10:15 and walked a couple of blocks toting our bags and caught another Landcruiser for the 23 Km trip up to the town of Lalibela, which is located at 2,630 meters. What a trip! Market day, so many people were on the road leading goats, sheep and cows, carrying bags of grain, leading donkeys loaded with goods, etc. Incredible culture experience right out of National Geographic. We checked into the government-owned Roha Hotel and changed $300 into bir. The hotel is impressive, but is expensive ($49.00 a nite) and the food is poor and over-priced. We met the driver again and he took us to the Lalibela churches area. We had turned down a guide who wanted $50 bir to show us around. Decided to go back and get him, since the driver said that was a very reasonable rate. Picked up guide named Sefiw, who we dubbed Ferguson, ala Innocents Abroad. We had to pay $300 bir to get into see the ten churches. The churches defy anything I've ever seen. They were built by King Lalibela in the 12th century and are monolithic structures carved out of solid stone! Not laid out of blocks of stone...literally hewn from solid stone. Big things, too. We took lots of pictures and marveled at the pilgrims who had come there. Christmas is on the 7th here and the town will be packed with pilgrims for that occasion. We saw six of the churches and then walked back to hotel. We ate dinner at the Lal Hotel for dinner. The food was much better and cheaper than in the Roha. We will move over here tomorrow morning. We walked back to the Roha and watched CNN a few minutes and I took a warm shower and washed hair. Couldn't sleep and went back downstairs and caught part of a folkloric group that was performing out on the patio. Nice, but not professionals. Sunday 01/02/00 Got up and checked out of theRoha and moved over to the Lal. A lot more basic hotel, but much cheaper and with better food. The Roha cost me $72.00 for 2 rooms and lunch. The Lal cost us only $26.40 for 2 rooms. Meals were extra, but the food was good and service was quite good. Sefiw (rhymes with nephew) came back and we walked over the hill to the other side of town and saw the other four churches and reviewed a couple of the first day's churches. We had a chance to see the gold Lalibela cross that had been stolen and only recently recovered. We walked back to the hotel and made arrangements to take the car out to a monastery about 7.5 Km out of town. We took a punch of pictures out there. The monastery was built back under a bluff in a canyon kind of like the Anastasi dwellings at Palo Verde in Colorado. We walked about 1.5 miles round-trip from where we parked the car. We went back to town and checked in with the Ethiopian Airlines office and confirmed flight for tomorrow and returned to the hotel. We watched television, ate dinner and drank beer until about 8:30 and went to bath and bed. About TV...they have CNN, BBC, and MTV from India on satellite television at most of the hotels. Neat to be able to watch CNN for news, but it gets repetitive...and boring. 01/03/00 Monday We got up early and went over for breakfast. Full breakfast, scrambled eggs, coffee and toast. Checked out of hotel. Ferguson brought the gifts he had asked me to mail for him when I get back to U.S. Looks like it might cost me a bundle! Oh well, a nice kid and I promised. He wanted to send thank you gifts to six families who had contributed money to allow him to enroll in a correspondence course out of Cambridge University. He was quite bright and told me he knew WordPerfect, DB-III, and Lotus 1-2-3. He is majoring in hotel administration. A fine and religious young man. We loaded up and went down to the airport, arriving there at 8:40 for a 10:00 flight. No terminal yet, although one is under construction. Just a little shed where they checked our baggage, sold us departure tax stamps at $10 bir each and frisked everyone. The plane arrive from Gonder and everyone got off. We boarded and flew into Bahir Dar, arriving on time at about 10:30. We had white cheese sandwich and coffee in flight. We caught a van into Bahir Dar and checked into the Ghoin (government-owned) Hotel, which has beautiful grounds, but borderline rooms. We checked into taking a ride out to the Blue Nile Waterfall and a ride to the monasteries on Lake Tana and made arrangements for tomorrow. We then walked up to the Polytechnic to find Maria Lopez, another IFESH volunteer who is teaching English there. We got hastled by security guard, but got a faculty member to show us her apartment and we left her a note. Walking back to the main gate we ran right into Maria. Some of her students had run into town and found her to tell her she had company. We walked with her to the Espana restaurant and had lunch. Traditional Ethiopian food or Spaghetti. A locals only place, so the prices were dirt cheap. Walking back from the restaurant, we arranged to move to another hotel, which is much nicer and cheaper than the Ghoin. We then went back to the hotel and hung out for the rest of the afternoon drinking beer and bird watching. Fantastic birds here. Must have seen 40 species and 10 were new to me. Maria showed up and we went to a restaurant down the street for dinner. Had a great time and a fine meal. She was obviously eager to see a familiar face (Celia) and to talk. She is 43 year-old Chicano PhD candidate from northern California. She will travel to the falls with us tomorrow. She told us all about living in Bahir Dar and the problems she had experienced. Liking it here, but only plans on one year. She led us to a coffee shop and we had sweets and coffee and returned to Hotel Ghoin. Slept like a log. Tuesday 01/04/00 We got up at 6:30 and packed and met the bus to move to the nicer hotel. We ate breakfast in the very attractive hotel restaurant and walked to city park where the boat landing is located. Took very neat and clean boat with a Yamaha outboard out to the islands in Lake Tana. The water was very calm and mirror smooth. After about 1 hour we arrived on far shore and walked up a torturous, rocky path to the large monastery. Ferguson II attached himself to us and showed us around the church, which is quite famous and supposedly from the 13th century. Vendors about drove us crazy trying to sell us handicrafts. We did buy a basket for $10 bir. We had run out of bir and didn't want to be unable to pay the boat operator. Paid Ferguson II only $17 bir tip, which he didn't think was nearly enough. Tough, we didn't contract with him. We then went to the second monastery and Tesfaye and I went to see the monastery. Men only, so Sallie and Celia waited at the boat landing. Nice museum but shabbier chapel. We skipped the third island which apparently was featuring some mummies. Had the boat drop us off at the Hotel Ghoin Hotel and had lunch and waited for our car to take us to the Blue Nile Falls. Maria arrived about 2:10 to go along with us. Our car was at the airport until about 2:40 and then they sent him to the other hotel to pick us up and we had to wait until he could be called back by telephone. The ride out to the waterfall was 45 Km and over an unpaved road. Nice ride, through different terrain. Mostly farm land and several villages and one little burg we passed through. Older Toyota van, but sound and driver was careful driver. The people at the park where the falls were located refused to recognize the volunteer status of Maria or Celia, so we paid full fare for them as well. We hired Ferguson III to show us up to the falls. Rode a mile or so and dismounted and walked another mile up and down hill and across very old "Portuguese bridge." View of the falls was most impressive. They claim this is the source of the Blue Nile River. Not many tourists...mostly a group of Italians with one Ethiopian man and child revisiting homeland. Bought a scarf from a native woman for $1.80. Ferguson III was a 17-year old kid who asked me to write him and send photo we posed for. He gave me his address and I gave him business card. Wonder where this will lead. 01-05-00 Wednesday We got up at 7:00 and had breakfast with Celia and Tesfaye in nice hotel restaurant. Maria surprised us by coming over and brining Celia a water filter with extra cartridges and shampoo/conditioner. We got a taxi (ancient Lada with critical sounding noise underneath and bald tire) and made it to the airport 2 hours early for return flight to Addis Ababa. We had beers and checked through security, which was extremely severe, including pat down search if metal detectors can't find problem. We flew into AA and waited for baggage and then got a cab back to the D'Afrique Hotel. Another wreck of a cab that I suspected might not make it. Checked in to the penthouse again. Lift out of order, so up 7 stories. Getting in better condition, apparently. We went over to the Piazza area and got Celia's pictures developed. We ate at the restaurant in the National Hotel again and I ate double order of fish, which they brought by mistake. Returned and picked up pictures and divided them up and then returned to the Waba Shebelli Hotel, where I bought a large, excellent picture book of Ethiopia for $46. We went back to the rooftop restaurant and had some beers and viewed the city and returned to the D'Afrique and crashed. 01/06/00 Thursday -- Last day in Ethiopia. We got up and ate breakfast and drove to the Ethiopian Immigration Office where Tesfaye was applying for a passport. Celia, Sallie and I went to a shop Celia knew of to buy some souvenirs. Bought about $50 worth of various oddities and then went across the street to a coffee shop to wait for Tesfaye. He showed up almost immediately, much to our surprise. We had three excellent coffees, a cup of tea (shi) for Sallie and a sweet roll for a total cost of $4.5 bir or 52 cents. We then went over the the U.S. Embassy and I went in alone to obtain a visitor visa application for Tesfaye. He plans to visit with Celia this summer if she extends for another year in Ethiopia. We then went to the Lion Zoo where they have about 6 pair of Abyssian lions on display. They are apparently descendants of those that used to roam the grounds of the palace when Haile Selassi was the Emperor. We then went to the IFESH office and i sent e-mail to Sara and checked to see what I had collected. We had another coffee with Dr. Adani and talked about book project for the future and he gave me U.S. address for IFESH. We then caught the worst cab yet bck to the Waba Chabelli and ate an excellent lunch. We then walked back to the D'Afrique and showered and packed for flight home. Sorted through stuff to be sure we left anything valuable for Celia there. Sallie left two pair of shoes to be given to some shoeless soul. We sat around the room and out on the balcony and basically killed the afternoon waiting to catch cab to the airport at 6:00. Sallie and I left Celia and Tesfaye at the hotel and got a very nice cab with the most conservative driver to date who took us to the airport and we arrived at 6:30, exactly two hours before departure. We checked in without a itch and I was left with $30 bir to mail to Celia. Went through metal detectors in two different places and had our tickets and passports checked about four times. Really tough security. We boarded the plane about 7:50 and we rolled back on time. We flew up to Rome, arriving about 12:40 a.m. I slept about 3 hours and Salie about 4. She had three middle seats and was able to lie down. We had dinner enroute. We flew out of Rome after about 90 minutes on the ground and then had another dinner. I slept another 3 - 4 hours. I watched a couple of movies, "A Dog of Flanders" and "Inspector Gadget." Both were turkeys, but had to watch something. I had left my reading glasses with Tesfaye who claimed they helped him to read better. Had breakfast and they showed us the same video on filling out customs and immigration forms three times! We arrived in Newark ontime and bought a replacement pair of readers. Eighteen hours in the air getting back to U.S. We caught our plane on to Dallas on time, but it was delayed due to some minor icing on wings, requiring a de-icing truck to spray us down. We had another breakfast on the AA plane along with some puny Colombian coffee. Flight was fairly bumpy at times, but plane was lightly loaded. Arrived 24 hours and 10 minutes after leaving Addis Ababa. No baggage when we got to Dallas!!!!! Sara and baby came to get us and we went back to her house and ate. Baggage was delivered about 8:00 in evening. Sallie and I slept poorly and got up about 4:30 and did a load of laundry so we'd have clean underwear to drive home. We left about 9:50 and made it to the Valley by 6:30 pm. Ate at Luby's and then home and to bed. Quite a trip. Reflections on various topics while in flight: Airlines in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Airline is the only domestic carrier. Seem to have well maintained fleet. Use Fokker 17 and Fokker 50 turbo-props. Very much on time. Make you come two hours early in order to clear security, which is very thorough. Metal detectors and body scanners, as well as frisking very common. Paranoid about photo taking. Service is quite good with all male attendants domestically. Snacks served on even short flights. Taxis: Those at the airport when we arrived in Addis were late model Hyundais with pre-set rate schedule from airport to various places. Most expensive we used, and even they were cheap by U.S. standards. They use a two-tier pricing schedule with Abasha receiving much lower rates than Ferenge (foreigners), except Tesfaye established rates alone and then we showed up. One driver was very offended by this. You must negotiate for rate prior to boarding and demand they stick to it. Some are rolling wrecks, expecially those prowling in the non-hotel areas. A couple we rented were very questionable as to whether they would make it. Lots of Ladas left over from the Russian days. Rental cars don't really exist. We rented a 1988 Toyota Landcruiser for $30 a day, including driver and fuel. Late models would have been much higher. $140 was quoted by one place. Roads: Generally, the roads were bad. The road from Addis Ababa to Shashamane (256 Km) was aobut 50% horrible, although about a third was under construction and will be okay in a year or so. Road up to Lalibela was excellent, although narrow and windy due to the terrain. The road from airport to Bahir Dar was terrible, with huge chuckholes. Streets in Bahir Dar were quite good, especially in the tourist area around the lake. Three lanes each way, but limited to tourist area only. Road out to the Blue Nile Falls was gravel and not bad to drive. 45 Km took about 75 minutes. Need a lot of work on roads infrastructure to allow country to develop better trade. Food...was generally quite good, but we were very selective and only ate in Ferengi places. Meat was usually veal or tough steak or chicken or fish. Rice and potatos, carrots were very common. "National food" usually served on injira, which is fermented bread used to wrap bite-size portions of meat, vegetables, or whatever. Hot and spicy, although you can get bland on request. Like to feed each other. Washing hands before and after a meal is a ritual. Eat with one hand in the Arabic manner. Beer...was quite good. Drank Castel Export mostly. Cost $3 bir (36 cents). Also tried honey mead called Tedge, their moonshine. They also do a passable red wine that is served in 300 ML bottle. People: Those we met wer generally most hospitable and cordial. Friends great each other with ritual embrace, kissing air next to cheeks on both sides, twice. Shake hands with everyone. They will shake with right hand, but use the left hand grasping the top of their forearm to show respect if meeting an older person, or one of greater social standing. Kids wave and put out their hand for money, even if they were too far away to possibly be given anything. Kids asked for pens when we were out in the country. Many beggars, with some blind, crippled, or with leprosy. Very persistent until lyou tell them no firmly and and to go away. They will take food happily. Poverty is incredible. People live in mud huts with straw roofs. They walk for miles to town and market. Very diverse in appearance. Generally have soft, straighter hair, but some have nappy. Everyone seems to love children. See kids as young as three or four working; carrying water, driving cattle, sheep, or whatever. Most of the country people have a scarf/robe which they use for warmth in the evening and wrap turban-like around head in daytime. Millions are barefoot or wear very thin sandles. People in their 50's look much older. Life is hard, brutal and short for many and half go to bed hungry each night. Geography is mostly mountainous or hilly. We were at 2,000 meters or above most of the time were were there. Addis is at 7,600 feet and Wondo Genet was about 6,000, which reduces heat of being near the Equator, but makes for cool evenings. We were there in the dry season. About 80 F. during the day and in the low 50s at night. Maybe it was colder, but we didn't have thermometer. No safe drinking water available, so we drank lots of Ambo brand mineral water or beer. Coffee is fantastic. Drank dark roast and served in the Italian manner. Cheap. This is the place where Kaffe comes from and was exported to rest of the world. Brought home 2 kilos of home roasted and spiced coffee. Shopping is very minimal, even in Addis, with no major shopping centers, although I did see a development near the airport. Supermarkets were maybe 1,000 sq. ft., and generally expensive for imported goods. National television is one channel, which is government-controlled and worthless for news of war in Eritrea. Newspapers were also very limited in coverage and were censored by the government. Overall, a fantastic experience.