Trip 1 - Day 4 - The Drive to Durame

This is the day we've been waiting for!!

Unfortunately, it didn't start out so well.  We had to get an early start today because we had a six hour drive to the care center in Durame.  It became routine at this point for us to be awake by about 3:00 a.m. local time, but we would lie in bed until it was time to actually get up.  I showered, dressed, and started feeling really horrible.  I was incredibly light-headed, dizzy, faint, sweating, shaky, and had very blurry up close vision.  We knew that the altitude (8,000 feet) could very possibly be an issue on this trip, but we were making every effort to stay hydrated to ward off any problems.  We went down for breakfast and I did my best to choke down a few bites of banana, but then I headed back to the room just in case the banana didn't stay down.  Daddy brought me a piece of toast, but I could barely swallow one bite.  Were my nerves getting the best of me?  What in the heck was going on??  It was time for us to load up to leave and I was a mess.  How on earth was I going to be able to ride in a car on a horrible road for six hours with a bunch of strangers??  Daddy prayed over me and it was time to go.  Our travel group was kind enough to let me ride in the front seat.  I'm sure this saved my life.

Christ in...peace out

Enter oober-intense driver.

The drive was like nothing I have ever experienced before.  We took what seemed to be THE two lane road that headed south.  Again...the dashed line in the middle of the road served only as a guideline.  The headlights were in full blinking force and the horn did not miss a beat.  The speedometer reached nearly 100 km/h in between the towns, and slowed down to 60-80 km/h in the towns.  We could ALWAYS see someone walking along the road.  There were donkeys, goats, sheep, and cows being herded by children as young as five on the road.  There were donkeys pulling rickshaws and carts being whipped along by children as young as five.  There was a group of monkeys that ran from the right side of the road to the left side of the road and we made physical contact with one of them.  There were babies, old enough to stand, sometimes less than 10 feet off the road.  The towns were lined with shops and restaurants constructed of corrugated metal and tarps and pieces of wood.  There were men lining the streets with their arm extended, palm up, requesting a ride.  There were oxen yolked together plowing fields.  And this was just the first three hours...
 

The Landscape

 

The Rediet Hotel Courtyard - where we stopped to use the restroom and have a drink.





The minibus - A Toyota Hiace

 

A Mosque in the distance



 

Going through a town.



 

A "tuk-tuk" taxi





 

These girls were too cute.  See the silly band on the tallest girl's wrist?  That was a gift from our daughters!





  

They loved having their pictures taken and looking at the digital image.


There were also a few little boys while we were stopped here to get some bottles of water.  Someone from our group handed them a package of fruit snacks.  A little guy opened them up, put one in his mouth, took it out of his mouth, looked at it as if it had bit his tongue, threw it on the ground, spit, and then chucked the package into the gutter.  Classic.

 

See the building under construction?  The scaffolding is eucalyptus branches nailed together.  You can see these branches stacked up all over the place and it is the only scaffolding we saw - and we saw a lot of it!

  The second half of the trip was GORGEOUS.  The landscape was unbelievably green and lush.



Store fronts



Cow crossing



Coming into Hosanna, Ethiopia





Some little kiddos playing soccer with the cattle.




A kid driving a donkey led rickshaw.





Some kiddos playing on the side of the road.





The beautiful landscape.





False banana trees.  The roots are a staple in their diet.





Look at the load that woman is carrying!!





More little ones playing by the side of the road.  We were probably going 80 km/h.



At this point, we had to stop and wait for another bus to show up to take one of our families to another care center.  While we were waiting, we were lucky enough to meet these beauties:

 

When we first approached them, they ran back down the hill toward their hut.  But, one of the men convinced them to come back up and we were able to give them crackers, silly bands, and take their picture.  They, too, loved seeing their pictures on the digital screen.  Who knows if they've ever even seen their reflection in a mirror.  They were filthy.  More filthy than my children have been on their filthiest day.  But they were beautiful and they were happy and they were content.  It broke my heart to see that the baby's eyes were covered in flies.  Spending a few moments with these kids was BY FAR one of the most wonderful experiences of this trip.

And then we were back on the road, except the pavement stopped.  It was rough riding for the next 25 kilometers.



GET OFF THE ROAD KIDS!!





These are my new favorite trees - Acacia Trees.



And then we arrived in Durame!  We went to the Mesala Hotel for lunch...I swear they were trying to drive us nuts!!  Can't we just go to the care center already????  When we got into the dining room they asked us what we would like to eat.  "Can we see a menu?"  Nope.  No menus.  What would we like to eat?  Doro wat?  Spaghetti?  Shiro wat?  Spaghetti it is.  We each got a HUGE plate of spaghetti noodles, sauce on the side.  I dribbled a little sauce on my noodles and ate two bites.  Daddy ate three-quarters of it and said that it was the best spaghetti he's ever had.  This is from the man who swore that he would not eat ANYTHING on this trip.  Can we go now?? 

We loaded back into the minibus. The physical symptoms of anxiety took over again.  In my mind, I was just excited, but my body was telling me something else.  My chest tightened again.  I could hardly breath.  My hands were shaking.  My palms were sweaty.  I literally thought my heart was going to burst. 

Christ in...peace out.

To be continued...