Thanks for sharing Ideal!
I can only imagine what an impact your trip had made on you and I hope I get to experience something like this firsthand one day.

Okay, I know I'm supposed to ask some deep, philosophical question about your trip, but mine is pretty basic. How was the food? What did you eat?

Soror Ideal08, i'm glad you got back safely. hopefully, we'll meet up in '04:)

Ok, we did sign up for Sheba Miles, Ethiopian Airlines version of frequent flyer miles. I am hoping that I will have accumulated enough to maybe fly back for winter break. I know that's a shame, but I want to go back just that bad. I need a Voyage to Africa fund, too, shoot. I want to travel the whole continent. I have got to figure out a way to do it..

Girl, the language barrier is a trip. I would say definitely learn the language before you go. I was so frustrated by that. I am determined to learn Amharic. After I start a class, I'm going to see if I can find me an Ethiopian friend (shouldn't be too hard in this area) who will talk to me to help me with speaking. When I go back next summer, I am going to be able to understand what's going on around me.

The lineage thing. Where do you begin????? *sigh* Alex Haley spent his life researching for Roots, right. I don't have that kind of time. :( I don't know what to do. Has anyone ever done this? Hook a sista up with how to get started.

Oh, I didn't tell yall the most tripped out thing that happened to me. You will love this. I was determined to not go to the bathroom outside. Well, one day, one of the Land Cruisers got a flat, and they had to fix the tire. I had to pee real bad, so I decided I would go ahead and go outside. I realized on this trip how much I have changed as I've gotten older. I've become the type of girl I couldn't stand when I was a kid. From tomboy to princess. Anyway, I had one of the other teachers come with me to go to the bathroom in the bushes. There was a man over there, and I wanted her to distract him while I peed. So I leave her to her distractions, and try to find a good spot. When I couldn't find one, I turn around to go back. I see FIVE more men approaching, and they had SPEARS!!! I was like WTF? Why was it a protected area, a national forest or something. Clearly not a lot of trees, but whatever. They were coming at me with spears. Fully clothed, with spears. It was tripped out. I NEVER tried to go to the bathroom outside after that.

I ate lots of different stuff. Ethiopian food: injera (sour bread that is flat), doro wat (chicken dish), and other stuff I don't know the name of. I had some lamb or goat, not sure which one it was, but it made me sick, lol. It tasted good, though! In some places, the meat isn't good to eat, so I ate a lot of pasta and chips. Chips? French fries, lol. But they call them chips, of course. No one speaks American English. That's about it. I loved the food, though. I'm glad there are a lot of Ethiopian restaurants in DC.

Ideal, several years ago my aunt (maternal) started to research our family’s history. She first started with oral interviews with every family member 75+ years. She made sure that they were of sound mind. By my maternal family being majority (if not all) Catholic it was not hard to search the church records on the dates for births, marriages, deaths, baptisms, etc. She’s still researching and has so far traced us all the way back to the West Indies. It takes a lot of time and money but she says it’s worth it. She lives by the quote of Joseph Lauvie “If you don’t know where you come from, its difficult to access where you are. Its even more difficult to plan where you are going.”

Welcome Back Soror!

We need to talk. :D ;) :p

*waving at Soror AKA2D '91* Hey girl! :) We shall talk, we shall talk!

Y'all, I have my pictures, but because I work in Alcatraz, I can't install the program to copy them to my computer. I have to have the company's computer guy do it for me. So as soon as that happens, I'll be posting pictures. I'll probably put them in a yahoo album or something like that. I'll be back.

They are on the way!!!!
 

Stay tuned... I'm about to put my pics in an album on Yahoo. You all will soon get a mini tour of Ethiopia!!!! :) I'm so excited to share it with you all, I had to come and tell you! I'll be back to post when I'm all done!!! :D

1) http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ide...tos.yahoo.com/

2) http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ide...tos.yahoo.com/


I can't believe no one told me my afro was "flat on one side" in some of these pictures. :o

Great Shots!
 

Great photos
 

I like your album, Soror, especially with the pictures of the kids. You know I'm a sucker for kids.
:cool:

Wow!
 

These are really great photos. The pics of Lake Awassa are really beautiful. And the monkeys look like they're enjoying themselves too with the treats! :p

I'll need to go back and reread some of your posts, but is there a particular history behind Crater Lake that you're aware of?

GREAT PICS!!! GIRL, Africa is beautiful. I know you loved those mountains. :D

CRATER LAKE is AAAAAAAAAAAWESOME!!!



**pick yo afro daddy, cuz it's flat on one side.** :p

Crater Lake... it used to be a volcano. I have no idea how it became a lake. I've been wondering about that. We didn't have a tour guide for that part, so we didn't have anyone to ask.

I'm STILL adding photos. The links are correct now. Enjoy! And I have a ton more to add!!! Stay tuned, stay tuned!!! I'll try to add stories to go with the pics after I'm all done. But feel free to ask about any picture you want! :)