Notes from the Trip

A crisp cloud hangs over the mountains in the distance. We peak out the windows of our hotel room just to double check that we are not dreaming all of this. The day before seemed like months ago after traveling to rural Ethiopia we find ourselves waking up after a night of restless sleep. The experience the day before this was something so surreal and tiring that a day to recover is needed but no time allows. We gather our things and meet the rest of the group in the lobby for a quick breakfast before we head back to Addis.



The hotel we stayed the night is in the middle of a little town called Durame just to the north east of the Omo River valley. The hotel seems out of place with the tin shacks across the street and the dirt alleyways that connect the village. We look out the 12 foot panes of glass to the mountains that surround the region they look like something you would see in Hawaii, rising in the distance. It is a little after 5 am and we are beginning the long drive back to Addis in about 45 minutes. We are all dragging after about 4 days of the most emotionally draining days that we will ever experience.

After breakfast we all meet up out in front of the hotel to meet our drivers and guides. A portion of our group is staying behind to work in the area with other Holt projects. We begin to say our goodbye and snap some quick pictures of the group. I ask Dr.Fikru if I may have his email to contact him and he heads off to get me a card with his contact info on it. When he hands me the card he tells me something that I will hold forever with me. He says "don't forget about us....you know when you return to America don't forget about what you experienced here". He quickly leans over to the person next to him and says don't let Mike forget about us.


We say goodbye and jump in the van. I start to process the experience, letting what I saw sink in. I guess experience is such a poor word to use experience is something that happens and you are the same person you just got to see something. The truth is that this culture the American culture that we live in wants you to experience things and quickly move to something else to "experience". I begin praying on that car ride home that God would seer the images, the smells, the feelings deep into the fabric of who I am.