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Hossana
Abebe mentioned that he needed to go to Hossana ( a small town about 2-3 hours away from Addis) last Sunday but was sort of vague as to why, but he invited us. Jen got sick but I went. When I got to Little A, there was a van full of people going. Doctor, who is apparently the
AHOPE doctor and is the pediatric oncology specialist at an Addis Hospital, three male friends of Abebe's, a female friend of his and the driver. So we take off and the countryside is very pretty. We stopped at a very local place for lunch-- I had shiro as the rest of
the group were eating tibs(small pieces of goat). Doctor had to go eat somewhere else because he is Muslim. After tea, we got back into the car, and the two guys in the back bought chat and proceeded to chew that for the rest of the day... I will blog about chat at some point, but suffice to say, it would be like chewing a plant, doesn't look appealing. But they had to stop two more times that day for chat. So we are back in the car and it is already maybe 2pm and suddenly they yell, here it is. They had been talking about some organization
Mothers to Mothers, so I thought maybe we'd be stopping at an agency, but no we stopped by a hut on the side of the road. No idea how they knew we were at the right hut. There is a pregnant woman there who has been making pottery and a slew of kids. Abebe asked me to start taking pictures. I took a ton of pictures of the kids who loved it and then they asked me to take pictures of some of the kids with malnutrition and other ailments for the doctor.Then the moms wanted their picture taken, so cute. We are maybe there 45 minutes and no one but the doctor and Abebe speak to anyone. And we leave, random... I am still not sure why we went but it was a fun day and great to be out of the city. Of course, coming home, we had to stop for coffee and so the doctor could pray... but I am getting used to having no idea what I am doing or where I am going.

Hyenas

After a full day of driving( I will post about the trip soon), we
arrive in Harrar. We stop at our hotel and get ready to meet the hyena man. We drive into the walled part of Harrar after dark and stop and get out. And there they are, about 9 hyenas, medium sized I guess, not that I am an expert. The man has a bucket of meat and a stick. Now, I was a little dissapointed that our hyena man did not feed them with his mouth. He did put the stick in his mouth and feed them, but still. The hyenas ignored us and our huge headlights and we stood about 6
feet from them taking pictures. Then it was the audiences turn to feed them and there were about 8 of us who took turns feeding them with a stick. You hold the stick out and the hyena man sort of signals them and then they come up and jump up and eat it off the stick. Sometimes they end up with the stick in their mouths as well. I fed about 3 or 4 pieces of meat to my hyena, who really look like homely dogs. It was a great experience and I am very glad I went. Plus I thought I'd be more aprehensive but I wasn't.