Another Great Day in Addis . . .

Today we had breakfast in the hotel while we watched sheets of rain come down . . . it is the beginning of the rainy season here but so far we have only had periodic downpours and periods of beautiful sunshine. Addis is a pretty amazing city but the air is terrifically dirty . . . there are simply no emissions controls anywhere and you pretty well feel like you need a shower morning and night! The sun came out a bit later and the rest of the day was beautiful.

After breakfast we headed to the National Museum and had a truly great tour. It started with Lucy and the excavations of the Rift Valley -- which begins in Ethiopia and then goes south through Tanzania and Mozambique, among other countries. Lucy -- the first in the line of present day human beings was found there. She is about 3.5 feet tall and we were able to see her actual excavated bones (about 40% of her body), as well as a recreation of her that showed where the found bones belong (in brown bone) as well as filling out the rest of the skeleton in white 'bone' -- so it was very cool. Apparently, while upright, she could still drag her knuckles if she needed to -- for stability or to pick things up. She was estimated to be about 23 and her brain was still chimp size . . . the quality of the exhibit was excellent in all.

The rest of the museum tracks the religious history of Ethiopia as well as the modern (starting the 18th c.) evolution of the political history of the country. Haile Selasie (meaning "Power of the Trinity") -- the last Emperor in a long reign of emperors that tracks from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba -- was overthrown in 1974. He was replaced by a communist regime that took Haile Selasie's overall neglect of the population and turned it to something truly retributive and evil. The communist regime (the Derg) is now gone but the legacy of negligent and then oppressive regimes still lives on and the country's poverty and lack of social systems is continuing evidence of this -- added to this is a current regime that is mostly benign but certainly not good for Ethiopia.

We had lunch at Rodeo -- a restaurant that looks from the outside like it could fit in in Texas -- and there is where the Texas in Rodeo Addis Restaurant ends . . . :-). That said, it had a great patio and we met up with one of the other couples -- Olga and Yuri (who have a three year old daughter and have just adopted a beautiful 19 month old son) and very much enjoyed lunch.

We then went on to the Alert Hospital, which serves Ethiopia's lepers. It was another pretty amazing experience. In truth we did not really see anything that disturbing – although trying to explain leprosy to Connor – and what weaving and a loom are and why the man weaving doesn’t have fingers but has a thumb and how he succeeds in weaving when he doesn't have any fingers and so on . . . all added up to a pretty interesting experience. At some point -- in the midst of the many direct and innocent questions of a four year old and despite the tragedy all around -- you have to laugh and just let go of the pain of it all. The upside is that the leprosy hospital is treating the lepers, training them so that they have valuable work skills, and treating and educating their children as well so that where there are families they have some chance of recovering.

Tonight we are headed out to Castelli's for dinner. According to our friends Anne and Mike Delp in DC who brought home their daughter Lilly in the spring -- and corroborated by a number of folks we have met here -- it is the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy . . .so we are ready for some good western food.

On the subject of food, we have had great food. The Ethiopian food -- collectively called Injera -- is varied, often spicy and really excellent. It is especially good with beer :-). We have also had a few good western meals -- and the food in the hotel restaurants has been universally quite good. We also have had great coffee --- as one would expect.

Anyway, off to get dressed for dinner but we are all well. The photos of Chris and Elizabeth above were both taken at the leprosy hospital. The bones are, yes, Lucy!

Connor and Abraham are doing well, as are we in our luxurious home away from home here at the Sheraton Addis. More to come. . .