These photos are all mixed up!?  We drove to Addis on Ethiopia's day before Christmas (January 6th) to see our mission president and his wife one last time before we go home.  They had a farewell dinner for us at Alebnanny Restaurant by the Church in Meganagna and gave us a beautiful wood carving!

Pres. and Sis. Chatfield, Elder and Sister Moses and

Elder and Sister Johnson

Earlier that day we got haircuts, did some shopping in Addis for souvenirs, 

and found an Ethiopian traditional dress for me! 

Since it was Christmas eve, there were lots of tents and 

people selling things all along the streets!

Here are some other interesting sights in Addis that I don't think

I have taken a picture of before….

Addis from a spot near the city center and hotels…

I loved this dad walking SIX little kids home from school.

Crazy traffic as usual in Addis….

An egg man with his baskets of eggs going to market

Sheep and goats being sold for Christmas dinner near our old neighborhood

A taxi loaded with chat, that they chew here

for a hallucinogenic experience

We drove home for Christmas day in Debre Zeyit and

2 days later went back to Addis to meet Rick, who

had flown in with his group of sponsors. It's always

SO much fun to have him in Ethiopia with us!

We also met him a few days later (Jan.12th) for lunch in Debre Zeyit

and went to Beza School with his group….

Bob's fish goulash

Rick's traditional meal with enjera

(The hard boiled egg plopped out through a

hole in the enjera…)

My lasagna (not too appetizing but it really

did taste quite good)!

A Christmas tree at the Liesak, decorated

with cotton balls to look like SNOW

Beza School (K-10th grade)

A 7th grade class and the school director (principal)

The kids went crazy after school with the bubbles!

I had fun visiting with these four students in Rick's program

(Children of Ethiopia Education Fund) when they met in the 

library after school to write letters to their sponsors.

This church was just a little ways away looking out

of their class window.

On January 15th, we drove back to Addis to see  Rick's wife,

Carla, the day she flew in!

The traffic was AWFUL!!  

I would HATE being an ambulance driver!?!

There were BUSES galore!!

Kids play football (soccer) ANYWHERE at ANYTIME

with ANYTHING that resembles a ball! 

On Saturday, January 17th, our branch had a surprise

farewell party for us with 50-60 people there! There

was a program where MANY branch members got up

and shared very sweet things about us.  There was

lots of food made by Chef Dawit and friends and they

even gave us gifts! We will miss our branch members

SOOOO much!! : /

Some of the Relief Society sisters

(Meaza, Weynishet, Tsehaye, Yirgalem and Birhane)

Some of the Primary kids

Tesfaye (recent convert) and Hiwot (RS Pres.)

Ayele and friend

Abraham

A common sight…. Elder Wold and the elders discussing

important things...

We gave our FUNNY elders slippers we got at the many times

we stayed in Awassa at the Lewi and the Haile Resorts. 

(They had a private joke with Elder Wold about his slippers…)

Cute Bitaniya came into our office for a

cupcake I made for Yordanos' birthday

Some of the Young Women

Marta and Amen

Yordanos with her birthday cupcakes and

Ylemdar, Yordanos and Rediate with our

granddaughter Cambryn's birthday treat!

Yordanos and Cambryn are a week apart,

both turning 15!

(I had to take a picture of our sugar here, on the left.

It's such a different color…. and so is the powdered

sugar.  SO here is my frosting before I added the

pink food coloring….

On Saturday for lunch, we took our four elders to

Liesak Resort's buffet for Elder Payne's and OUR farewell lunch!

Bob's plate

My plate

A few of the desserts….

 

(What happens every time Bob leaves his phone

lying around… )

The view from the restaurant….

Elder Payne

On the way back into town, there was a wedding at 

Babogaya Resort and of course, the cars made 3 lanes out

of one coming the opposite direction and we were STUCK

with nowhere to go for about 10 minutes! 

Back to work….!