Ethiopia--Lalibela

I know I haven't posted in 5 months--the only excuses are:

1. Blog challenged

2.Really busy taking care of missionaries

3. Lazy

4. Making jewelry from African trader beads

We recently took a trip to Ethiopia with President and Sister Christensen. What an amazing country. The above pictures are of the Coptic churches that are carved right out of the mountains or out of caves. In this small area there where 8 churches. Each had a different purpose-- One for men only, one for baptism by immersion in a font, one for women , another for singing and chanting, and one for its healing waters that drip from the rocks into pools. It took these people approximately 40 years to chiseled the churches out of the rocks. It is amazing the intricate work that was done with a chisels. We had to climb up the hills and then walk down narrow tunnels to get to each of the churches. This was done so they could protect the churches from invaders. There is some speculation that these were built by the Templar Knights looking for the Ark and Covenant. Some of these churches are 3 stories tall. The insides were intricately carved with multiple arches, painted beautifully murals with handwoven tapestries hanging inside. The churches still hold services here daily. We got up early one morning hiked up to one of the churches to attend one of their services. The religion they practice is a form of early Christianity that is called Coptic. They still use the ancient language of Gee. Each church has a "Holy of Holies" area with a replica of the Ark and Covenant . Of course we were not allowed in there!

Lalibela is a world heritage site. It is very remote and after flying in a small plane to a landing

strip, we then took a van up a winding road for a hour to Lilabela. Lilabela only gets 20,000 visitors a year compared to 3,000 visitors a day to Petra in Jordan--made famous by Raiders of the Lost Ark. There are two "hotels" and only one restaurant in town. I use the word restaurant loosely--thank heavens for granola bars! The "hotel" we stayed at claim to fame was Bill and Chelsea Clinton stayed there! We got to stay in the same room. Which is not saying much as there was only 8 rooms at our hotel.

Peanutty Buckeye Bars

What could be better than chocolate and peanutbutter!
I thought this was a great recipe and easy ---But what with the name---Buckeyes?

Peanutty Buckeye Bars

Ingredients
1 19.5-ounce package brownie mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 cup chopped peanuts
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl, combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Stir in peanuts. Remove half of the brownie mixture and set aside. Spread the remaining brownie mixture evenly into prepared pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth. Spread evenly over brownie mixture in pan. Separate the remaining brownie mixture into pieces, flatten them with your fingers, and place them on top of the brownie mixture in pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until top is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes 32 bars.
4. To Store: Layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

What a disaster!

Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks! I looked at the previous post after it was posted and what a disaster! I spent a couple of hours redoing so it looked perfect and look what happened. Where is the book called Blogging for Dummies when you need it! Forget about the wallpaper stuff and cute borders--I was doing the basics. You younger generation is so much more talented and computer savy! I was so excited and had lots of posts to add after our recent trips to Ethiopia and Uganda--so I'm going to apologize before hand !

Greater Zimbabwe Ruins

While in Zimbabwe for the Cholera outbreak we had the opportunity to attend a branch there. The Church had previously had a regional conference for the Africans which was taped. We went with the senior couple to a small branch 3 hours away from the capitol city of Harare. We went supplied with a generator, 150 feet of extension cords, computer, projector, screen, and all kinds of adaptors. On the way we got a chance to stop at the Greater Zimbabwe ruins. This is the ruins of the most advanced civilization in all of Africa, from about a 1,000 years ago. The empire stretched over much of southern Africa and is claimed be the home of the Queen of Sheba. We hiked around the area for a couple of hours and heard all about the history of this area.

Arriving Sat. afternoon at the branch, the men set up the equipment for Sun., I spent the afternoon teaching about cholera prevention. This village has not had electricity for a month. Hence the Generator!

The hotel we were staying at told us they had water. I was so excited to take a bath so I turned the water on and got ready to soak in the tub. MAYBE NOT!

Sunday morning we arrived to find the chapel full ( 120 people) and electricity ON! It stayed on for 2 hours during the presentation and quit about 10 minutes after! Miracle?

Walking to Church Love this little girls choice of shoes!

Cholera Outbreak

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but just after Thanksgiving, a Cholera outbreak happen in Zimbabwe. We have been really busy dispensing cholera medication, special water filtration systems and teaching classes on how to prevent Cholera since then. Cholera is a disease that causes diarrhea that is so severe that death can occur in as little as 8 hours. The interesting thing about cholera is it is a fairly weak bacteria, the treatment is hydration and 1 dose of doxycycline. You get cholera from drinking water that has been contaminated with the bacteria. It is not spread though the air or from contact. Our first step was to institute guidelines for the missionaries on how to prevent Cholera. We then arranged for a cholera vaccine to be shipped in(this vaccine is not available in US) from France. The vaccine has to be fridgerated, so we filled suit cases with Styrofoam boxes and ice packs and the vaccine and boarded a plane headed for Zimbabwe.

Upon arriving we found our hotel had no water and were going to be put up in an apt. that had a well. We had to go to a facet, across the street, with buckets fill them up and fill the bath tub with water. This was used to flush the toilets and for bucket bath. The next problem was no electricity for the 7 days we were there! You needed the electricity to boil the water to make it safe to drink. We drank bottle water and took cold bucket baths! No wonder they have cholera!

We met with the embassy people who told us all the public hospital were now closed for lack of supplies, private hospitals had very little supplies, and they didn't feel that the cholera outbreak would peak until March -April when the rainy season was over! Statistic are not very good here, but an estimated 250,000 have died. They think it is at least double or triple that!

With the lack of water and other governmental problems, the local people are starving here.

The church has dig up all the land and grass around the church buildings, have planted gardens for the members. We also provide water for the gardens.

Madagascar 2

Many of you have asked why we were in Madagascar was it just for fun or we were working. Well a little of both! We went to check on the hospital and doctors that treat our missionaries. Visiting with the missionaries and checking on their health was also on the agenda.

While we we were there we we invited to a dedication of a water project that our church funded. The villagers dung the trenches and made the bricks and we supplied the pipes, cistern and pump for the water, along with the facets and cement. This project brought clean water to 12 villages and a school. With out clean water these people walked up to three miles to a stream for water. Most of the time the water is not sanitary and many children die from the bacteria in the water.

Some of the cute little boys from the village.

The toilet facilities are pit in the ground with bricks enclosing it! The little kids have to be careful or they will fall in! The one room school house

Madagascar is known for their Lemurs. We got a chance to go to the jungle/rain forest to look for them. The only place in the world that Lemurs live and are found in the wild is Madagascar. They have 13 types here. Two of the cutest!

Madagascar

MADAGASCAR
Never saw the movie either #1 or #2 but actually got to go there. We made a trip across the the ocean to an island off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar is the third largest island in the world. Antananarivo is the capitol city and sits on top of a hill. During colonial time it was built here to protect the city from attacks. Madagascar was a french colony so the older part of the city has cobble stone streets and many building have French architecture. Our Hotel was right next to a french patisserie and oh the croissants, bread, and sandwiches. If you ever watched the Amazing Race this was one of the spots they stopped at. The country is very hilly and they can grow anything in this climate. The farms are terraced up the hill side. Everything that is grown here is organic and the road side stands are filled with beautiful fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The farmers support themselves with what they grow and will walk many miles twice a week to a local market to sell what they have grown. They average Malagasy actually eats 350 pounds of rice a year.
These are the kids pounding the bran off the rice.















Then they sift the bran off by flipping he rice in the air and having the bran fall to the ground. They sift off the most nourish part of the rice.





They were more than happy to do this work while we around watching--I wonder if they were this helpful if we had not been there.



They also make bricks by hand out of clay they dig out of their plots of land. All the buildings in rural Madagascar are made of bricks, instead of wood or tin. They actually use all the wood for fires and cooking