Nazareth

Stephanie and the group have traveled out of Addis, the capital city, and into Nazareth. Apparently, it is a much warmer climate with camels wandering around, rather than just cows. I know how the livestock just roam in Addis, but I am accustomed to cows. Not so much to camels! But I cannot wait to see the pictures! Here is her latest update. Please pray for healing for the sick people of the group. The elevation and climate are so different from ours that water is truly a vital part of everyday life there. Here is her letter:

Hey again!We are in Nazareth which is about 2 hours southeast of Addis (I think). It is a lot warmer here! Today we haven’t accomplished much. We are dropping like flies around here. We had a couple of people get really sick to their stomachs yesterday afternoon. So we all just fixed sandwiches and soup at the house. I had a grilled peanut butter sandwich ;-). It was fantastic, of course! This morning a couple of the girls got sick and one of them passed out in the hallway. She is a little better but now one of the other girls is sick. I am not sick and hope it stays that way!!! But anyways. We left the house this morning and went and ran some errands in Addis and then headed out here. I was dreading the ride because of how horrible the ride to Ambo was last summer, but I was pleasantly surprised! They have greatly improved the roads so it was paved the whole way. We were in quite a bit of traffic for the majority of the time and if you knew our bus driver you would understand that I was afraid for my life! We made it safely - even though Sammy refuses to ride behind ANYONE. After we checked into our hotel we went to the Women at Risk center. They offer a program for women that are prostitutes to help them with skills so they no longer will have to work on the streets. It seems like a great program and we are excited to get to learn about all they do and get to know them this week. Tomorrow we are all going to make pizza with the women and hopefully do some kind of arts and crafts with their children! There are four little ones that are there all day while their mothers are working and then there are 11 older children that are school age but they are coming to the center tomorrow since we will be there. The center has 11 women right now and that is the maximum they had hold due to resources. They offer them counseling and a salary for the work they do at the center while learning skills that will help them get a job after their 9 month time period is over. The first set of women that finished the program opened a cafe in town so we went there this afternoon to meet them also! The have a pet cat - everyone was petting it and it decided to attempt to climb my leg so I of course picked it up and held it. Most of the pets and animals around here are not very friendly - I don’t think they are used to being shown any attention - but this particular cat was very sweet. But anyways! Oh, they have camels here!!! We are so used to seeing donkeys and goats everywhere in Addis and Ambo but with the warmer weather here they have camels! Yay! Now we are going to attempt to find a pizza recipe and go to the store and buy the stuff to make it with the women tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it isn’t a disaster! Haha!I’ll e-mail again soon.Love y’all-Steph

The bus driver, Sammy, would be labeled with "Road Rage" here in the States, but there, it is totally normal. I felt at home with his driving when I was there! But I was a bit scared a few times. Luckily, we never hit any goats or people, but we had a few close calls ;)