The Long Run

Though I have never run a marathon, I imagine that it must be a disheartening moment when you feel yourself starting to wind down and then come around the bend in the road and realize that you are just approaching the 13 mile checkpoint. That's about how a month long research trip in Ethiopia feels... you work your brains out, pray that it is almost time to rest, and then realize that you are exactly halfway through your work. It's not that it has been bad, it's just that doing the same monotonous thing for 6 days a week all day can get kind of old. However, we still have had some fun. On Saturday we went over to Demeke's house after work. Life is always good when you are invited over to Demeke's house. His wife is an incredible cook and your plate and your cup are always overflowing. Demeke isn't happy unless you are quickly and endlessly chowing down, so we did our best to accomodate him. It was great!! After dinner, Kaleab pulled out a guitar and a keyboard and we jammed for a while. This was one of my favorite memories of my first trip to Ethiopia and this jam was a ton of fun too. We played a bit of everything (From country tunes to Dispatch to John Denver to, of course, a health selection of Bob Marley songs). This was a great break and very refreshing to sit in a family's house and hang out.
On Sunday we went to Addis Alem, which is about 60 km west of Addis Ababa. It was really interesting to watch the countryside passing by, although the complete lack of padding on the Land Rover's seats added to the abundance of potholes meant for a very sore backside by the time our journey was over. In Addis Alem we got to walk around in a beautiful church as well as see some very interesting artifacts from Emperor Menelik and Emperor Haile Sallasie. The paintings in the church were especially impressive with many Bible stories and stories of Ethiopian saints represented on the walls. It was a fun day of seeing an area outside of the big city and kind of get a glimpse of rural life.
As for work, we have shot 570 manuscripts... well beyond our stated goal of 400. It was been very productive and we hope to keep up the pace. Thanks for the prayers, they are much appreciated. Whelp, time to go grab some dinner. Until next time.