Febraury 7th, 2008 (Journal entry from adventure South)

Our honeymoon suite...with complimentary bed-bugs
We woke; although it was debatable that we even slept at all. Dylan & I woke with bug bites. No shower-so I had multiple layers of dirt on my body with a DEET mixed with B.O. odor to me. I have gotten a zit for each day I have been here...I guess my body's way of keeping track of the days.

This morning the Konso guy, that took us to the coffee ceremony last night, took us on a tour of their village. It was high on top of the mountain-it reminded me of the Badlands in South Dakota or a scene from the dessert in Arizona. We were able to visit or tour a family's dwelling; including inside of their house (hut). We were pretty disruptive to that village-by the time we left we had a "pide-piper" following of children. Children with babies on their backs...amazing that our children in the States are not allowed to cross the street alone; and here are 6 year old girls with their baby sister strapped to their backs to care for while their mother works the land or gets supplies for the day? The boys take care of the cattle and goats...while the men...I am not sure what they do? I have seen a few working...but I have also seen many more sitting around at the "local bar" chewing chat. I guess that sounded a little feministic...well that is probably because it was and I have been known to be a feminist from time to time.

the "Badlands" in South Ethiopia

the women at work...

-Dylan wants me to add: that as we stepped out of this family's hut Colton hit is head and then fell off a rock and kicked a baby goat in the head. Of course, Colton has not heard the end of him "kicking a poor baby goat in the head in front of all of the children" all day. Visiting this village seemed surreal at times...more like a dream than reality. Most of these people only own the clothing on their backs with little possessions-you were considered well off if you had a plastic bottle to drink water out of (dirty brown water from the river that they bathed in, washed clothing in, and fed their cattle and goats in).

the elders (tribe leaders) of this village; we had to pay them in order to tour their homes

the homes we toured

after the tour...with all of the children following us

another picture of walking through the village with the children following us

one of the baby goats that Colton kicked...a generation tree (each pole symbolizes a generation)

-I almost forgot, Lance seriously almost got run over by a huge truck-three times bigger than we were. He was trying to buy a necklace from a local boy this morning and the kid dropped the necklace on the ground...Lance bent over to pick it up and at the same time a truck was passing us. The back tire that was taller than Lance and was lined up to run over him-the truck was so tall that Lance did not realize that he was under the truck when he stood up. Our Konso guide pushed him out of the way...I cannot even begin to imagine...nor do I want to...what would have happened if he had not been pushed out of the way. There is not a hospital for hundreds of miles...in fact, the closest hospital is probably in Addis-which is a 2 day drive from here. Neither the boys nor I were paying attention...we just saw the guy push him out of the way...crazy experience...I guess you had to be there...because as I am writing this...I am having difficulty describing how terrifying this scene was or could have been. Anyway, "everyone is fine" as our good friend Mike would say.

Then we ate lunch in Weyto. We all ate scrambled eggs AGAIN...with the alternative being meat. Mesfen (our guide) ate some sort of goat (which they called lamb) and chat (the local stimulant/narcotic plant). I urinated in a hole again in the Women's bathroom, while Colton got a toilet in the Men's bathroom...doesn't make sense to me...had I known there was a toilet in the Men's bathroom, I would have used it...but too late. I also just found out that yesterday at the restaurant that we stopped at to eat lunch, again the boys had a toilet while I had another hole in the ground. But, why should it matter as I would never sit on the toilet anyway-instead I assume what yoga called "the chair position"-not too sure why I am sharing my public bathroom routine...but there you have it!

We then stopped at a market in Key Afar-we had two wonderful guides that showed us around the market and introduced us to various tribes and tribal members. They were two children about 12 years old. They were going to school in Jinka while there families resided 10-12 hours by foot away. One of our little guides spoke English, Amharic, Polish, French, and German...he was an extremely smart little businessman as well. He is studying to become a guide to tourists. We bought bananas-which were amazing! I bought a bracelet from the Benna tribe and held hands with many little girls that were interested in us being there. We met members of the Beca tribe -they are beautiful people who adorn themselves in paint and beads. The women have page-boy hair cuts that is dyed with some sort of red root.

Shopping at the market...children-they were fighting over who was going to show us around and hold our hand

Woman of the Benna tribe...they are know for their artistic clothing and look

A Benna man....our guides explaining how this woman made her belt that she is trying to sell...

To be continued...this day was full of adventure...therefore, I have many more stories about today...so I will continue them on the next post, as this one has already been extremely long...