A year ago - Ethiopia

It's Gabriel's Day and for almost half of Ethiopia's population this means a day at church, and a holiday for everyone. It was an amazing thing to witness.



At the entrance to a church, crowds wax and wane


The grass is sold to be laid inside the house to freshen it and also in some way to mark a new beginning or "fresh start".


A street seller







Crowded streets on Gabriel's Day


This woman smiles shyly as she sells her candles.


Some of the crowd in one street near a church, Gabriel's Day.


It's Gabriel's Day (after the Archangel Gabriel) and the citizens of Addis come out in their hundreds of thousands to celebrate. Impromptu markets are near every church and everything you could imagine is on sale, including candles and very colourful umbrellas used for offerings.


An Addis street


Koni and Dagem say goodbye with a typical open-handed slap "handshake". The harder the bigger the "slap" (that is how far back the arm is taken, and the slap never hard enough to hurt), the more affection and regard you have for a person (the same in Egypt). Once the hand is slapped a loose and quick shake follows.


The Emperor Haile Selassie's throne, in the Museum.


Dagem, one of the former street boys who lived in Ermi's House, or the Hope Centre, looks at Lucy's skeleton in the Museum. We went to the Museum on a "field trip". The boys were all fascinated with their country's history and culture. The oldest humans known have been found in Ethiopia. Lucy, several million years old, was discovered there in 1974.


"The interestingly named "I Love You Hotel"



Building scaffolding - I used to hold my breath watching the workers go up this ramp, bags of cement and other materials across their shoulders


A man makes his living with a sewing machine at his "shop" on the street


Pedestrians walk past one of the "plastic houses" of the homeless














Shoe shine "boys", some of the homeless of Addis. When Sentayhu asked me about shoe shine boys in Australia and I told him we didn't have any he couldn't contain his amazement and referred to it often.



Just a small supermarket


Near the end of the street that eventually leads to the girls' house (Joy Centre)


One of the small workshops where artists make goods for sale to tourists like me. I bought beautiful beads, a wonderful knitted shawl that I use all the time, saw weavers and artists at work.

G'day. I've been looking through some photos while I've been home and of course many of them are from Africa last year. I miss Ethiopia and all the wonderful kids and even Addis - I really found a heart-to-heart connection there. Sadly Konjit tells me that the Youth Impact Library hasn't opened again yet after the summer break when this year it closed down, not offering a summer program. It's all money of course, that's all, such a simple answer to this particular problem. Not even a lot of money.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to access around $30,000 US to make this amazing project basically self-sufficient for the forseeable future? $20,000 for one year's operation and $10,000 to set up the little business venture that should make it self-sufficient. Anyone who could help or who has ideas don't hesitate to let me know - PLEASE!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy these few photos of Addis that you probably didn't see before.

Hope you enjoy,

lots of love

Lyndall

PS Tomorrow the kids go away for the day and so I will add some more photos and stories from the African trip