Moore Park Grace Centre Adventures www.gracecentres.org :: Read more about the Grace Centre

Yesterday morning we had to leave the comforts of our hotel for a loaded bus on route for Bahir Dar at 5:30am. The bus was thankfully alot more stuck together than our previous bus.

We were on our way with very little traffic and it was really a beautiful drive out of the city as we made a good time into the country side which was surprisingly green. Seemed to be just single road leading out with similar sought of mud and stick housing lining the roads. These houses are gorgeous and we were dying to just take  a look inside and see what home is really like. There were plenty of little shack-style stores,  not much more than 2m wide by 3m deep, selling anything from Coke to Hygiene goods.

There is plenty to see on the road to Bahir Dar and its hard to describe the warmth you feel in reviewing the mini Ethiopian communities. The people are almost constantly friendly and excited to see you. Its probably partly our "foreigness" but mostly there simple warmth and happiness.

We took a slight detour to an orthodox Christian Community and church. While there the people were in a the middle of a 3-5 hour time of prayer. A man in the church was singing/praying constantly in this beautiful but slightly eery voice. We walked up this rock parth through some forest/jungle to another old old church built into the mountain. Here it is said that a man once prayed for 7 years without moving. After a few years he lost one leg and kept praying. This is why this church has become so sacred and why the people walk up there to pray where he did, drink some holy water and hopefully be healed or touched by God? You just want to tell them that Jesus frees from all this complicated religious ceremony - but that would be robbing them all purpose probably.

The ride continued and we made our way to the edge of the canyon. This is an amazing sight. Similar in grandeur to the grand canyon perhaps, maybe not has deep but really wide and sprawling. Our driver was incredible. Throughout the bus trip he was driving like a taxi-bus racing champion overtaking vehicles with supreme confidence sometimes on seemingly blind corners with zero hesitation and wise discernment. The crazy thing is he didn't hold back on these tactics down the mountain. Mouths were gaping and voices signing in aw looking across the beautiful view from several hundred meters above the Ethiopian country side.

Now a few hours into the trip, things went from slight discomfort and interest to just discomfort. We stopped at a little town at had some Cokes. A little boy was performing for us with a toy he had invented. He was posing as he did not understand that we wanted to see him use the toy. Some broken conversations with the locals and we were off again.

We finally rolled into Bahir Dar around 4 or 5pm local time. We really were all a bit dazed. A more than ample dinner was provided and following this we all made a our way in separate groups to various homes a few hundred meters apart down the rock strewn, makeshift dirty streets. Lots of greeting from locals. Kids running up to shake your hand or touch you. People calling out "yeeellloow".....

Steph, Michael, Naomi, myself, Jeff, Mary and Simon are staying together in a house complete with beds, table, chairs, cold water from plumbing in need of repair and a guard house where a servant on the Grace payroll protects us and operates the massive swinging gate. We make some further sleeping preparations with mozzie-nets covering us and sleep a little ; -).