Day 5: Debre Tabor & Bahir Dar

On the fifth day of our journey, Ato Eyayu picked us up at 7:00a for the hour and a half drive to Debre Tabor. The plan was to see where Lucas was left and hopefully find out a bit more information from the hospital staff. The drive north through rural Ethiopia was impossibly beautiful and lush. This, by far, was my favorite part of the trip, other than meeting Lucas. Northern Ethiopia is all farm land...we saw large teams of cattle, goats and sheep. We traveled past people working in rice and corn fields. The thing I'll remember most were the people walking and playing along the road. This is a land of walkers. Walking to and from town, to and from the field, to and from wherever they've been and wherever they're going. People were dressed mostly in large pieces of cloth and the majority were barefoot. The pictures above and below were taken from from our car with a very dirty window and at high speeds thus the sort of foggy quality but I think the pictures still capture the beauty of the landscape and people even with these conditions.

We climbed to 2700 feet and finally reached Debre Tabor. Debre means "mount" or our guide told us "church." The town was not very big and the hospital where Lucas stayed was at the other end of town. This part of Ethiopia is very Orthodox and so we saw many churches along the way. The picture below is the clinic/hospital were Lucas stayed for 13 days. We met two doctors that cared for hime and also found out that his name Dagmawi, means "second." The second refers to the second happiest moment of your life...the birth of your child. Marriage being the first.

On our way back to Bahir Dar, we came around the corner to about 25 baboons sitting along the road but were warned to keep our camera's inside because they've been known to snatch a few.

We also took a three hour boat ride to the islands on Lake Tana (source of the Nile) to visit a few 12th century Orthodox monasteries. Below is the priest who showed us inside. Before we docked, up popped a hippo, to everyone's delight.