Journal Entry 5 Feb 6th

We ate breakfast with 2 baboons today. We then picked up a guy in town with a gas container and headed to Lake Chamo; come to find out he would be one of our guides on the lake. We got on a small boat and traveled across the lake; we saw many beautiful birds, crocodiles, and hippos. There is such an amazing diversity of birds here. The boat ride was amazing-however, it did feel weird getting on a boat with two men we didn't know; nor did we speak a common language. It was relaxing and great to be out of the car. Oh, and I guess I forgot to mention that the motor in our boat died-when we were next to the hippos-it took some time to start it as we were drifting closer and closer to these man-eating beasts. We were contemplating who would be first voted off the island (or boat) I think poor Dylan lost?

birds...and more birds...

Hippos

The car ride has been hard on my back and my body in general. I am also tired of the 80's disco that is blaring from our vehicle. I hate the D-I-S-C-O song-and Dylan will not stop singing and dancing to it-so our guide is with the understanding that we actually like the music. I am going to beat him down...if he sings it one more time. We went to buy tickets at ET airlines so that we could fly from Arba Minch to Addis-instead of driving back-when we are finished with our travels south-this will save my body 12 hours worth of being in the car. We decided that we could not handle the long, hard trip back to Addis. We had to pay with US dollars and they had to be 50's-in a year that was 2000 or greater because they could not tell if the older bills were counterfeit. We had to bust into the money that I had saved for our Embassy appointment-so hopefully we won't have any problems at the Embassy later.

We then stayed at Konso-a place between Arba Minch and Jinka-more like a cross-roads. Tonight we were suppose to be camping...but, let me tell you the place we stayed in was way worse than camping out. It was horrible! Dylan got bed bugs from the experience even though he slept on top of the covers with his clothes on. Our bathroom was another whole in the ground with a bucket of water next to it. There also was no water; so the pile of dust that resides on my face will have to stay for another day. The place was disgusting to say the least-I think that I would have rather stood up all night; then to lay on that bed. We did have cocoons to sleep in; thanks to Jen and Lars...but still! Even thought he accommodations were not desirable; we did have a wonderful experience visiting this tribe. We met a local Konso guy, who took us to someone's house (hut) for a coffee ceremony. We met the most amazing people in this village. We met a little girl named Helen that was a little over a year old and spoke English extremely well. Apparently, there is a guy that is helping their tribe from the US and he has taught her English...she is so beautiful...well all the people here are.

Lance was preoccupied most of the time taking pictures of the children; then showing them their picture. He was truly enjoying himself with the children...it made me smile inside...for the first time I actually felt that we were following a path that way laid for us long ago. The children loved seeing themselves and were often embarrassed after they saw how they looked. I met a 12 year old girl that I gave my pinky ring to-she stuck with me the whole night. She even put the ring on the same finger that I had it on. The coffee was amazing-truly the best coffee that I had ever had-may have been all the dead bacteria and parasites floating around in it...as they used their local water for the coffee. We had little sleep-as the music was loud, the spiders were large, and the beds were hard. But, what a great day! Later I found out that Colton didn't sleep at all tonight.

the beautiful girl I that I gave my ring to....and Helen

Lance taking pictures of the children

the coffee ceremony