Tying loose ends and preparing to fly home

August 3^rd, 2010 Shashamene-Addis

            I have a fun chat with Melissa and Steven this morning before scripture study and prayer.  I will be glad to get back home and hold them in my arms again.  I have been listening to the biography of John Adams.  It amazes me at how much he and his family sacrificed for the country.  No wonder God was able to work so many miracles to create this great nation.

Dr. Tamrat, to my left, oversees the ET work at Debre Zeit Animal Research Center

            Abera and I drove to Debre Zeit where we met Dr. Tamrat for lunch.  I wanted to follow up with him on the embryo pregnancies and give him some ET supplies that I had.  We have one recipient cow that will have her calf in a week or two and three more later this year.  They all seem to be doing well.  We had a good discussion with Dr. Tamrat.  He is the type of person that will help lift Ethiopia out of its “fourth world” status as long as corrupt officials don’t drag him down.  There are some officials that were put in place as political favors that are only concerned about their own well being and tend to knock down those who don’t follow them in corruption.

            We stopped at the Bole home to drop off our luggage.  I asked Harag if she would wash my clothes for me.  She went right to it.  Weson is gone on vacation so Harag has the home duties to herself which isn’t too hard with just Joe staying here. 

            Abera and I went to buy a butter churn and a cream separator.  It took us a while and several phone calls to finally find the store.  They only had an Ethiopian made butter churn in stock and it was 2000 ETB more expensive than the one at Selam so I think we will just order from them.

            We stopped in at the office where we coordinated our projects with the different office staff.  Tsehay has an appointment set up for us to go to Holeta tomorrow to see the fruit tree trials so we can report to Lloyd.

            When we arrived back at the house we found Tony and his family staying there so it won’t be quiet as empty.  He has two small children so they will take the upstairs bedrooms and Abera and I will take the basement bunkroom.  The door was locked when I checked it but on closely investigation I found that it wasn’t totally closed so we were able to get in.  I was glad because otherwise we would have been sleeping on the couch and loveseat with only one blanket.