I finally arrived in Addis on Monday morning after a 13-hour flight wearing the same clothes I had worn from home on Friday! Yikes. I’d been planning how I could […]

An Ethiopian mother watched with fascination as a swarm of bees surrounded her infant in the 12th century, AD.  The bees inflicted no harm on the boy.  She interpreted this […]

When I decided to go to Ethiopia, my only reference was the Queen of Sheba.  My sister, Cindy, and I fondly remember our Grandma Pope–if she perceived an insult–declaring “she […]

The girls are responsible for gathering firewood in the Ethiopian villages, either for use at home or to sell at market.  It’s backbreaking labor, and each time we passed a […]

Yesterday was our last day with the children. They are so eager to see us each day that they crowd around the entrance to the school, waiting to get a […]

I’ve never been in a country where I wake each morning to the chanting of prayer. It’s been a problem for some of my colleagues because the chanting sometimes starts […]

We knew immediately it was a Market Day because we passed a multitude of donkeys bearing burdens. And oxen. And horse-and-buggys. And people. They walk from Yerer to Debre Zeyt […]

There are 80 languages in Ethiopia and over 200 dialects, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I delivered my well-rehearsed “selam tena jistilign” (hello) and the young woman shook […]

How did Ethiopia happen?  Well, I have a dear friend that works for Engage Now Africa and they are building a school in the village of Yerer in June.  And I’m […]