After a long day yesterday and late evening arrival at Gheralta Lodge, the group gets a little rest and later start on drive to Mekele. Gheralta Lodge is much appreciated oasis about half between Axum and Mekele. Italian owned, it provides excellent food and produce, all grown on their property…..we enjoyed both our dinner and breakfast.

At the back of the Lodge property, there is a beautiful overlook into the valley. We have made a habit of having our morning devotion at this location each time we return. Sticking with our devotion theme of “Women who Serve,” we build a rock altar made up of stones that each of us has chosen to represent a woman in our lives who has had a significant impact on our life’s direction and development.

In the picture above, you can see the haze covering the valley. It has been very dense the last three days, dust suspended in the air coming from the dry fields and maybe even some mixed in blowing in from the Sahara. Hopefully that will improve as we move to the south tomorrow.

On our drive to Mekele, we stop at one of our rehabilitation projects, Sewhi Adidaero. This particular project was built by the government five years ago and yield became so low after three years that the community could not use it. REST has a program to completely rehabilitate the well, in this case doubling its depth to reach a sustainable acquirer.

 

When we arrive, we are greeted by a long queue of jerry cans as villagers wait their turn to fetch clean water. Notice the large number of small children waiting along with their mothers. There are now more than 300 beneficiaries drawing health and hope from this clean water!


Surprises along the way!

As mentioned before, we always encounter a few surprises along the way…..this one is one of the funniest!

As we were driving back to our hotel after visiting projects, one of the local mini buses (stops every few miles) zipped alongside us on our left and pulled in between our vehicles. Check out the picture above… on top of the mini bus are about 20 live goats tied to the luggage rack on top of the bus. We can see legs flailing, head popping up, screaming bahhhahhhhh, going 60 mph down the highway. It was a great laugh and stress reliever after a long day. I just wonder if they had to pay the extra baggage fee?!

 

 

 

After a long day yesterday and late evening arrival at Gheralta Lodge, the group gets a little rest and later start on drive to Mekele. Gheralta Lodge is much appreciated oasis about half between Axum and Mekele. Italian owned, it provides excellent food and produce, all grown on their property…..we enjoyed both our dinner and breakfast.

At the back of the Lodge property, there is a beautiful overlook into the valley. We have made a habit of having our morning devotion at this location each time we return. Sticking with our devotion theme of “Women who Serve,” we build a rock altar made up of stones that each of us has chosen to represent a woman in our lives who has had a significant impact on our life’s direction and development.

In the picture above, you can see the haze covering the valley. It has been very dense the last three days, dust suspended in the air coming from the dry fields and maybe even some mixed in blowing in from the Sahara. Hopefully that will improve as we move to the south tomorrow.

On our drive to Mekele, we stop at one of our rehabilitation projects, Sewhi Adidaero. This particular project was built by the government five years ago and yield became so low after three years that the community could not use it. REST has a program to completely rehabilitate the well, in this case doubling its depth to reach a sustainable acquirer.

 

When we arrive, we are greeted by a long queue of jerry cans as villagers wait their turn to fetch clean water. Notice the large number of small children waiting along with their mothers. There are now more than 300 beneficiaries drawing health and hope from this clean water!


Surprises along the way!

As mentioned before, we always encounter a few surprises along the way…..this one is one of the funniest!

As we were driving back to our hotel after visiting projects, one of the local mini buses (stops every few miles) zipped alongside us on our left and pulled in between our vehicles. Check out the picture above… on top of the mini bus are about 20 live goats tied to the luggage rack on top of the bus. We can see legs flailing, head popping up, screaming bahhhahhhhh, going 60 mph down the highway. It was a great laugh and stress reliever after a long day. I just wonder if they had to pay the extra baggage fee?!