Welcome to Ethiopia! Suddenly it is Friday and we sit in the warm sunshine. Must be about 75-80 degrees. The jacaranda and oleander trees are in full purple and pink bloom, the sounds of an African afternoon are in the air: dogs barking, drums beating from a nearby music school, peoples voicing floating through the air, doves cooing, goats bleating and the digging of a spade in the soil.  This is what the Ethiopians refer to as summer, which is opposed to the rainy season of May- September.

Our Minneapolis-Amsterdam and Amsterdam/Kartouhm/Addis Ababa flights went well.  We figured out we were en route for about 24 hours  and probably slept about two or three of those. So it felt great to fall into bed and sleep a full night last night. We went through customs in Holland in order to cross into the "unsecure" part of the airport to find the post office and mail a package to Jacob Ole, returning through immigration to the secure part of the airport. The immigration officer looked at my passport entry stamp and passport information, seeing that I had been in Holland for a total of 15 minutes, and said "Short stay!" with a smile.

We were welcomed with handshakes and hugs at the airport by the principal of the seminary here in Addis last night, along with the Secretary of the Mekane Yesus Church, and taken to our lodgings, a very nice house on campus which we are subrenting from a teacher here going back to the US for several months. So today we are learning the "ropes" from her before she leaves Sunday.

About to go for a walk and check out the local stores. Everything we'll need is apparently available within a block or two. Its season for plums, avocados and other fruits right now.  I guess the Dutch and the Israelis have huge farms south of the city, in the lower land--Addis is 7200 feet high--where they grow fruits, vegetable and flowers to send to Europe and Israel. It would be fun to see those sometime--near the "big lakes" and the Great Rift Valley, and not far from the coffee plantations. We have lots to learn about the land here. Fun.

Love to all, Carolyn