Addis Ababa- Pictures of the city.

I spent the first 3 days and the last day of my trip in the capital city, Addis Ababa. Of all the countries in Africa, Ethiopia is one of the most stable, however their government is still corrupt and their infrastructure is horrible. There is no middle class, most people are very poor and jobs are scarce. The most fascinating thing about the city to me was that at any time of day, all day long, people were out everywhere. It was as if someone was continuously kicking up a human ant hill. This first picture is a house (No Really!). These are all over the city. It is basically a raised metal coffin and someone calls it a home. This is actually a nice place to sleep compared to some places and ways I saw other people sleeping. The second picture is SIM (the missionary headquarters), where we stayed in city. One of the nights Phillip Yancey and his wife were there. I didn't meet him, but I did see his name on his room door.
We were at the market that is shown in one of these pictures and this car in the picture above pulled up and it was filled with lettuce...not lettuce in boxes or bags...just door-to-door, top to bottom filled with lettuce. It was priceless.
The picture of the building that looks like it was blown up by a bomb, is in fact a building under construction. There is scaffolding from top to bottom and it is just small tree branches tied together with rope....NOT SAFE!





















































The building above with the green and red lettering is a hospital across from where we stayed. The girl in the blue glasses is the girl who went with me from Houston. We didn't actually meet until customs in Ethiopia and through a long series of events she almost missed the flight from Germany to Addis and I wasn't even sure she was on the plane. The other girl is a missionary named Jenny. She picked us up from the airport and was such a huge blessing those first days because we were on our own. She made us breakfast and dinner and took us to church. Neither of us knew what we would have done without her. That is a picture of us drinking coffee in a souvenir shop. Poor Carrie doesn't like coffee but she was a trooper.