Well we’ve all arrived, almost. The 8 of us from Journey (Chris & Kate, Kim, Rex, Melanie, Kally, Dylan, Joe) landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 8:30 PM on May 5th, 2002! Really!

So, Ethiopia is on a different calendar, and it’s 8 years earlier here. Funny, huh?

Aaron arrived from Harvest last night, and Taylor gets here tomorrow morning. Then the team is complete!

Yesterday we woke up, most of us before 6AM, ate breakfast and spent time with the staff and other guests at the EGH (Ethiopian Guest Home). Then we loaded into the van and took all the clothes we brought (thanks alll of you who donated!) to CWA and then went hunting for shovels. We asked Yoseph, our translator, if there was anywhere on the way back to the EGH to get a shovel and he said, no, there was only one place to buy a shovel. This is a city of 4 -7 million people (depends on who you ask), and there’s one place to buy a shovel. Haha! It doesn’t surprise anyone here 😉

After lunch we visited Entoto, which is where Emperor Melinik II’s palace is. There are these women carrying eucalyptus branches down the hill…they’re just bundled and piled up on their backs, it’s hard to see because it doesn’t seem fair…

Later we grabbed some coffee and then had dinner at a traditional restaurant (Hebir), where most of the team had injera for the first time. Surprisingly, everyone loved it! We ate enough to last a couple days, drank some coffee, and then came home and passed out until 6 AM this morning.

Today we’re off to Bright Hope to check it out, then we’re going to get out of the city for a little bit.

I think Rex is going to blog later tonight about what he’s been seeing feeling, so look forward to that 🙂

We’re having a great time and I’m so thankful for our awesome team!!

Kate