Ethiopia - Day 8 : Weak, silly Americans

For those of you complimenting me on my gift of writing and encouragement - this will be a downer for you as I had a really bad day so there's not much meat to this post ....
Day 8 was Sunday. We were still in Nazareth and dressed to attend a local church project's Sunday morning service. So here we go, all 35 of us pearly white Americans (with a couple Ethiopian handlers, haha), marching into a packed church of about oh, 500-600 Ethiopians. The church was kind of like a warehouse with one open wall in back where even MORE members and children were seated on benches out in the sun. They started off with music. Now my dad will tell you, he is not a fan of MY church's worship services. Loud, long, repetitive verses, all while standing and sometimes (gasp) even clapping. Very, very loud. But Daddy, we have really short and reserved services compared to these guys. Not saying that's a bad or a good thing.....

Now please keep in mind that this was a bad day, so my estimations of time, place, and events may be a bit skewed. After what I think was about an hour or more of Ethiopians worshiping God with all their heart - little kids dancing around up front, even a little boy prostrate down on his hands and knees with forehead on the ground - I gave up. I could NOT stand up any more. The weather there was not that hot, maybe 80-85 degrees. But in a warehouse of about 600 people with no real draft, breathing and profuse sweating was becoming an issue for me. So at about hour 1 and a half, my head falls forward, barely missing the pew in front of me and my good friend Mike punches our Ethiopian tour guide Demissee to get me out of there. (Thank you MIKE!!) Propped up on Demissee, I stumble out to his car, weaving through the many benches, members, and kiddos. What a weanie, this little American!! While in the car, Demissee and our Nascar bus driver used their hats to fan me and get my temp. back down. They would then help me drink water as the rest of Nazareth paraded down the street to peer in the window at the weak white girl who couldn't sit through a church service without making a scene...

So for the next one and a half hours, in my semi-conscious state, I'm thinking "we've GOT to get them out of there!" As if my compatriots were on a battle-field. Even Demissee was fretting, "this is too long..... This is too long!.... For Americans, this is too long." Go ahead, read that as "those puny Americans!" Let me add that we had several elderly individuals on our trip. Several. None of them ended up in the back of Demissee's car, hmmmmm??

Anyway, when the white people are finally free to leave, we head back to the hotel. My girls carried me into my friend JoAnna's room where I lay with no energy and a wet washcloth on my forehead the rest of the day, with her and Corinne as my nurses. So thank you, JoAnna and Corinne! I think the rest of our group went sight seeing, shopping, or maybe a 6 hour hike, in Nazareth. The puny one just chilled out and drank lots of really nasty water and snacks my marathon running friends forced on me. No wonder I don't work out! I couldn't take the protein this-or-that or electrolyte liquids. Yuck!!

The really sweet thing was that my buddy Addisu had been at the church and had come to the hotel to check on me. When I came down for our dinner meeting that evening, he and his friends were still there, just hanging out with those sickly, weak Americans.... or maybe it was just me.

I also joked all week about how idiotic we must have looked to the Ethiopians with our incessant picture taking and video taping of every house, tree, cow, chicken, store, and monkey. Especially if they had never seen white people before. Look at the silly Americans! They must have never seen a goat before!!! So in honor of all the other silly Americans, here are some pictures that I took with my incessant picture taking, or that I stole from other silly Americans on our trip... Enjoy!