New Records and Successful Inventions

The trip continues to be a big success. Despite the fact that we keep
losing power (and the water turned off yesterday in the apartment,
which was a bummer), we are getting a ton of manuscripts shot.
Yesterday I set the new record for shots in a day with 2000, which I
thought would be untouchable... until Erik hit 2030 today. Game on!
The healthy competition has been a lot of fun and we are all able to
keep laughing despite long hours and hard work. We have shot over 200
manuscripts and over 23,000 images in five days, which is really
exciting for us.
Also, my experiment... the foot pedal, has been a huge success. I am
able to click the camera by tapping my toe, which means that I have
both hands free to work with the manuscript and turn pages. It has
been great and the rest of the guys wish I had made them one :) Many
thanks to my dad for helping me perfect the design!
As for fun, we are looking forward to Orthodox Christmas on the 6th,
which is supposed to be a big party across town. On Sunday, we are
also going to the old capital of Ntoto, which has a few very old,
beautiful churches. It should be a great adventure. We are also
looking at getting out into the countryside a little to get a
different view of Ethiopia, since I have never been outside of
downtown in my 2 trips here. I hope a few of these options work out,
especially a trip to one of the big monasteries, either Debre Libanos
or Debre Berhane.
Well, I better get going... I need to get some laundry soap or I am
going to run out of clean socks. Until next time.