Welcome to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Last Tuesday, March 4, 2014, I took a nearly 6 hours flight from Johannesburg to Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia. It was founded in 1886 and now has over 3.5 million people.
Many of the women still wear the traditional Ethiopian head scarf. 80% of the country is Christian and most of them belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Who needs to worry about seat belts? Lots of traffic in Addis, but this fellow had the best seat in the house.
With labor so cheap, most road projects are done by hand. This is part of a new light rail project which is going through the heart of Addis Ababa.
This is the LDS Chapel in Addis.
Inside of the chapel.
This is Habtu, the 29 year old District President for the Church in Addis.
This young lady is grinding some coffee beans with a rebar.
The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic. It's a semitic language and the 2nd most spoken after Arabic. LDS missionaries are now learning it in country with the idea that when they return to Provo, Utah they will be able to teach Amharic at the LDS Mission Training Center. I can't tell if the sign is advertising car insurance or a chicken dinner.
We nearly ate lunch here.
This is the LDS Church office building in Addis. Behind the left door is the LDS Charities operation and behind the right door is the Temporal Affairs Office of the Church in Ethiopia.
About a 2 hour drive south of Addis is the town of Debre Zeit (which means Mount of Olives in Amharic). This is the LDS chapel in Debre Zeit. It's on the main road into town and is the prettiest LDS building I've seen since coming to Africa.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Countryside - Ethiopia. It was generally greener than I had supposed and there areas of forests.
Lots of 3 wheel taxies to watch out for on the roads.
Not to mention the cows who would just magically appear in the middle of the road. We nearly hit this one.
Or the horse drawn carts which generally went about as fast as the traffic would allow.
A typical road side store, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
You say "nearly ate lunch here". I hope that means you ate somewhere else. Sweet Home Restaurant looks like sweet dysentery, or yummy parasite. Glad you two are doing well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I leave Johannesburg, I drink a Coke with every meal. I'm hoping it kills everything! Haven't gotten sick yet. We're off to Madagascar this weekend. "Kuna Matata" as they say.
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