Friday august 31 2012,

We did 230 km today, from Addis to Hosanna, it took almost two hours to get out of this huge city. We said goodbye to Daniel and welcomed Nataniel (Nati), he will be our new guide tillNairobi(Kenya). We drove through tree different states today, each with there special characteristics, the decorated houses we did not seen before. Late in the afternoon we reach our destination, the hotel is next to a bus station; from our balcony we have a good view on the chaos.

Casper & Arnaud

Thursday august 30 2012,

Our last day in Addis, Dirk went to the garage with the Land rover, we need it in good shape for our journey to the south of Ethiopia. We are going the visit a few tribes there before we cross the border with Kenya. We have a new guide since Daniel is suffering from food poisoning, maybe we meet again in the south.

view from our hotel

Casper & Arnaud

Wednesday august 29 2012,

We stay two days in Addis Abeba, Dirk uses this time for small maintenance on the cars. We spend our time walking through the city drinking coffee and watching people going about there business.

Addis Abeba

Casper & Arnaud

Today we reached Addis Abeba, to get there we covert a distance of 180km. Our guide Daniel had told us that it was going to be an easy day, all flat. It turned out to be “Daniel flat”, i.e. uphill; we even reached an altitude of 3100 meters.
But the scenery was beautiful, we passed man villages and because it was such a nice day, we decided it was time for an extended lunch and relax a little bit in the sun.

Casper & Arnaud

Today we drove from Debre Marko to Gohatsion a distance of 117 km. the ride was exciting because we had to descend 2000 meters over a very bad road. Before we went down we suddenly found ourselves in the clouds where we could see only five meters in front of us.

After that we had to ascent 2000 meters and that was to steep for the T-Ford, so we decided to tow the old car up the mountain.

Sunday august 26 2012,

Today we drove 270 km from Bahir Dar to Debre Marko a large distance despite of the mountains and heavy rainfall. The rivers are full with water.

river

In many villages the people are practising for the burial of the recently diseased president, people are everywhere and the horses are beautifully dressed.

people in a truck

traffic jam

driving carefully through the crowd

horses

restaurant

Casper & Arnaud

Saturday, august 25 2012,

We are still in Bahir Dar at lake Tana, the third largest lake ofAfrica. Today we are going to visit the church Ura Kidane Mehret on the peninsula Zegge, we go there by boat.

on the boat

This church is 300 years old and is particularly well know for its paintings that depict the life of Mary and other Ethiopian saints.

painting1

painting2

paintaing3

UNESCO is trying to preserve the church and has build a new structure around it.

fisherman

trail to the church

grinding coffee

casper grinding coffee

woman prepaing coffee

Casper & Arnaud

sos village Ethiopia

Today we visited the SOS children village in Bahir Dar, we are welcomed by Biresaw Sime de program manager of SOS children villages.

We visit two locations; the first was a day care program. Children from poor families are taken care during the day so that the parents can work and earn some money, economically empowerment they called it. At the age of four, the kids sit in classrooms and are taught to read and write.

the 3-year old daycare group

the 4-year old group

in the classroom

in the classroom 2

hello

picture picture

learning to write

all in the T-Ford

goodbye

saying goodbye again

The second program they have here in Bahir Dar is the same as we have seen before; orphans carefully selected by the government are placed in a family structure with a mother who takes care of them 24 hours a day. The houses are clean and large, enough space for ten children, this is the maximum family size. There are twelve houses on the premises and a couple of school buildings where also children from town are being taught.

At the age of 16 the children leave the village and have to live on there own, although still supported by SOS with there finances and finding jobs.

sos program director Biresaw Sime

three brothers

saying goodbye in the sos village

greetings from sos village Etiopia

coffee ceremony in the house

Casper & Arnaud

 Today we drove from Caila to Bahir Dar aan Lake Tana, again a beautiful ride, check out the pictures! The T-Ford broke a speed record 80km/uur (going down the mountain)

Casper & Arnaud