Day 4 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

We headed back to Addis early this morning to visit a few more micro-businesses, shop, pack and get ready to fly to Kenya tomorrow morning. On the ride back into town, we were able to convince Major, our driver, to stop at a few locations along the way so we could take some photos of the amazing landscape and villages. Unfortunately, my camera died (lack of electricity can have that effect on electronics!) so I will have to depend on the 'eye' of others to capture some of these images for me. Surely, a city the size of Nairobi will have more dependable electricity, right? Actually the lack of electricity never was much of an issue for me (except for this camera thing). It was nice to eat and chat by candlelight and we all became quite adept at taking short showers in cold water. Somehow, I always felt better about showering in the dark because then you couldn't see the bugs that were scurrying around....

As we prepared to go on our shopping expedition we realized that it was Saturday and that there were no banks open to exchange our money. So we had to do it on the 'black market'. It was pretty intense - and looked like some sort of mob deal going down! But soon, armed with our Birr we headed to the marketplace to hunt for treasures. (For the record 1 Birr = @ ten cents US) We were cautioned to never pay the quoted price - to begin bargaining by offering half as much. I didn't have the heart to do that. The Ethiopian people are so poor and the prices are ridiculously cheap anyhow.... I'm sure I must have been their favorite shopper of all time! There were some amazing treasures in the market along with all the typical touristy junk. I found LOTS of beautiful things - like scarves for all the ladies that helped make the Little Dresses, a hand-made drum for Daniel, incredible bone jewelry (for me... and MAYBE to share), a handmade ceramic jebena like the one used in the coffee ceremony last night. On the way back to the guesthouse, we stopped at a coffee shop to buy coffee to take home and a macchiato to enjoy there. YUM!