Trip 1- 2nd post, Gonder

Here are some pictures from our day and a half in Gonder. After arriving in Addis Ababa late Saturday night, we woke up at 4am to catch the first flight from Addis to Gonder. Our purpose in going to Gonder was to learn more about the city where our daughter is from. There are way too many pictures to post from that day but here are a few.

Our day started with a long hike in the mountains just north of Gonder. We did not know we were going on a hike and we were not very prepared (eg we had not water with us) but it was beautiful and surreal and the entire time we kept looking at each other saying "are we really here? are we really in Ethiopia?" On our hike we encountered many children who lived on farms in the mountains. They were very intrigued with us and our cameras and our granola bars. After our hike, Eric enjoyed a "home brewed" beer which basically seemed like muddy water with something fermented in it.

Sunday afternoon we visited Bridge to Hope which was the orphanage that initially took our daughter in. We enjoyed meeting with the director there and meeting the woman who initially took care of our daughter.

After a good night's sleep, on Monday we toured the castles in Gonder. Gonder was the capital of Ethiopia before it was moved to Addis. There is a group of about 6 castles there which were very interesting to tour. After our tour of the castles, we headed to the airport to catch our plane back to Addis.

We are so glad we took the time to go to Gonder. It was a much smaller city than Addis and gave us a feel for rural Ethiopia. Of course, getting to visit Bridge to Hope was the highlight.

Trip 1- 1st post

I am going to attempt to post some pictures from our 1st trip to Ethiopia. There are so many to chose from and so many pictures, I hardly know where to start. In this post you see a few pictures of us in the airport. Would you believe that after traveling for 20 hours half way across the world that Eric ran into a girl he knew at SMU?!? Here we are pictured with her and her husband. We stood in line waiting for our visa's with them for about 45 minutes this night and it was so fun to get to know them. They were headed to Ethiopia for a short term mission trip where they were serving orhphan-headed households.

They were also on our trip home so I think of them as the bookends to our trip.

Also pictured here is Eric Lakey, international man of mystery, eating a blauber-mufin (aka blueberry muffin) in the Frankfurt airport.

Owen's Egyptian Festival

Just one short week after Henry's festival, Owen celebrated his studies of Ancient Egypt at his 1st grade festival. Eric and I were in Ethiopia at the time and so we missed out on all the fun however we heard from everyone how well he did. He made a paper mache model of the Sphynx with a detachable nose. He gave a one minute presentation on the Sphynx. Enjoy the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOG2_CcsTc0

Henry's 2nd Grade Greek Festival

It's festival time again! In the spring, each grade at Coram Deo has a festival day where they celebrate the history topic they have been studying all year. In 2nd grade the history topic is Greece and Rome. Henry dressed in his Greek attire and gave a brief presentation on Greek sculpture including showing off a replica of the Discus Thrower that he created out of clay. The day also included a mini-Greek Olympics in which he was awarded 1st place for the long jump competition. The last picture in the post is Henry with his teacher, Mrs Holcombe, who we have loved and look forward to having again next year with Owen in 2nd grade.