October 28 To Addis Ababa we go

Grandmas house. She lives in a "compound" which in these areas is quite nice. Its a mud, stick and hay house with two rooms. One is grandmas bed and doubles as a kitchen, the other is a gathering room with built in benches just a few inches off the floor. We get out of bed at 4am naturally, we had been laying on grandma's straw floor with an overstuffed pillow and blankets that smelled like animal and in the outdoors it is impossible to a oid bugs. I foolishly turned on the flashlight and on our blankets there were over 100 fleas and other larger bugs. Not being accustom to this it freaks me out a little. However, the hospitality and generosity did not go unnoticed. We walked from the compound onto the street to watch our final sunrise in northeast and enjoy shai and buna. We attracted quite the crowd wherever we went and this was no different. Shortly thereafter we hit the road and journeyed back to Addis Ababa. Along the way we stopped for a coke in a small village and ended up dancing with children and communicating in broken language. It has been really wonderful connecting with so many people. Bidi was clearly excited to be going home as his driving increased in speed and the tires began squealing around the hairpin turns. I jumped in the front seat and held my stomach as though it ached to hopefully save all of of our lives and it was successful. By this time in our travels Bidi finally warmed up, out of nowhere he pulls over to show us a breathtaking view. Taking this opportunity having been in nature and toileting in a hole, we all took to nature when it called. I have found that no toilets view has been as spectacular as Cliffside at 13,000 feet overlooking the Simien Mountains. The best part of this is the moment we stepped out of the car we were mobbed by around 20 men in there late teens to mid twenties selling oregano and sheep mountain hats and having few areas to hide we found a giant rock that hid you from everyone but not everyone from you. Getting mobbed was not unusual but something about this group of people struck me and I was convinced to buy a hat. Back on the road we find ourselves in Addis Ababa and suddenly, mere moments after entering the city Bidi opens up and begins speaking decent English. We have no idea who this guy is and where he came from. This is clearly not the person we began the trip with and little pieces of all of us hope we have opened him up and shown him how to make a fool of oneself. The four of us stay in one room together, the shower is plugged, the bed is gross, the toilet won't flush and the sink won't drain and they call this the Eden Pension. Tired and a little irritated we all go enjoy a delicious meal fireside. Tomorrow we are being picked up at 11am and heading South.