We drove to Awassa yesterday after Seminary.  It took us about 3 hours and 10 minutes.  We were VERY surprised to see the HUGE difference in the scenery on the way during dry season, compared to what we saw when we went to Awassa at the end of September when it was still the rainy season.  It was SO GREEN and beautiful ALL the way there and this time it was VERY dry and brown and things looked COMPLETELY different!! : O  Here are some photos we took...

VERY young boys drive donkey carts down the highway ~
sometimes right in the middle of the lane!

We couldn't get over how DRY it was all the way to
Shashamene.  It was a little greener there and in Awassa.

Many donkey carts are REALLY loaded down!

These are very typical of the homes we see on the way to
Awassa.  They are called tukuls.

This shows the age of the kids who drive cattle, sheep and
goats across the highway!! It also shows how DUSTY it
is! It was REALLY dirty and dusty all the way.

We saw these haystacks, shaped like pyramids on the way down
just about 45 min. from Debre Zeyit but I missed getting a picture
so we got this on our way home.  They were SO cool!

Monkeys were all over in the trees! 
It was fun to watch them.

We stayed at the LEWI HOTEL AND RESORT in Awassa again and THIS time we had
monkeys around our car before we even got out! They were all over the place! When we
were eating breakfast INSIDE the round restaurant, the door was open and a monkey came
in, hopped up on the buffet table and stole a roll !  I got a picture of him when he came back
for more!

There were THREE monkeys right
by our car after we parked.

           

This shows how small they are.

This is the naughty one that stole a roll from the
breakfast buffet! 

They didn't seem afraid of us at all.

The naughty monkey is in the tree above my
shoulder...

Just after we had our picture taken, he jumped
on the railing by the door to the restaurant
to get seconds from the buffet!


Here are a few more photos from our trip to Awassa....

In Awassa (there they call it Hawassa) we saw these HUGE
birds in the tops of the trees all down the street coming from
the LEWI

We LOVE how they display their potatoes for sale along the road!

These hills are termite hills. There are MUCH bigger ones but
these were all I was able to get.

A little "market place" by the lake on the way home

There were LOTS of melons, potatoes, purple onions and tomatoes

The view from the balcony of our room!

Lake Awassa

LOTS of birds and ducks were around the lake.

We got a kick out of watching the catfish all
jump out of the water at the SAME time!

We stopped by a gift shop and this Christmas tree
caught my eye.  It was COVERED with ribbons
and bows!

After looking at photos online (mormon newsroom) of the NEW
Gilbert Temple last night.... These tiles in the LEWI Reception
Area reminded me a little of the design in the skylights, etc.... Ü

Our "fancy" bed covering

Our mosquito net (that we didn't use)....

Yesterday (Monday) was a Muslim Holy Day, Mohammed's birthday, so there was no school.  Our Seminary girls wanted to have Seminary anyway, and we had a few extra girls in our branch join us, who go to other schools.  After Seminary we took them to Faarmi for burgers and fries and then to Get House for ice cream.  We had fun with them! They were with us from 11:00 to about 3:30.  At 4:00, we went to Wenishat's home for a RS meeting.  We LOVE being with our Debre Zeyit branch members! Here are a few photos of the girls.

Yesterday, our granddaughter, Brooke (Jeff's and Karen's only GIRL) was baptized.  Here is a picture of her with her family, alone and also a picture of the cake Jamie made for her.

Brooke's cake for her baptism day

Brooke with her parents, Jeff and Karen and her
five brothers, Tanner, Hunter, Carson, Jaxon
and Cooper on her baptism day!

Today has been a great Sunday.  Bob and I both spoke in Sacrament Meeting and I played the keyboard.  Then I helped in Primary with Singing Time and teaching the 3,4, and 6 year olds.  Bob taught the Youth Sunday School class and then the Elders' Quorum lesson.  Below are pictures of the families of eight of our 16 Primary kids.  The theme for Primary for 2014 is:  Families Are Forever.  So I put a picture of the temple in Ghana, Africa which is the one families in Ethiopia go to to be sealed together.  I put "Families Are Forever" under the picture and will have pictures of all the Primary kids' families around it.  Ü

Here are the four cute kids I taught in Primary today,
coloring after the lesson, "I Am a Child of God".

This is Abraham, an RM in our branch.  I teach him 
keyboard lesson and he translates for us and for the 
elders.  He translated for us when we gave our 
talks today.

Bob came and took a picture of me teaching Primary another week too.

Today is Christmas Day in Ethiopia!  Ayele and Belaynesh in our branch, Meheret and Tigist's parents  invited us to their home to celebrate Christmas with them.  We had dinner and played games. It was really nice.  Here are some photos we took with my phone.

Before we left, Bob took a picture of me in my
flashing lights Christmas necklace that Julie sent me.

Darling Tigist and Meheret in their fancy
holiday dresses

Ethiopian Christmas tree

Our Elders

Melkam Gena from Elder and Sister Wold!
(I'm wearing the Ethiopian bracelet Meheret gave
me for my birthday and Christmas.) 

Christmas dinner!
(Injera, dabo, doro wat, and other wats and tibs)

Meheret and her mom

Euale age 6

Ayele and his family
Meheret ("Tutu"), his wife, Belaynesh, Tigist and Euale
They also have two older sons and a married daughter.

We visited sweet Yeshi and her daughters in their home the
day after Christmas with the elders.  She insisted we eat!
(See our doro wat, dabo and injera below.)

The traditional coffee ceremony is a BIG part of
the Ethiopian culture, but since none of us drink coffee,
they served a special hot barley drink and also hot milk
to go with the Texas Sheet Cake I brought to Ayele's.

Melkam Gena or Merry Christmas in Ethiopia!

Christmas is not until January 7th here so we had our Branch Christmas Party

yesterday (Saturday Jan. 4th).   Here are a few pictures we took.

This was at home before we left for the party.
I was just EXCITED to find a STAR in Debre
Zeyit for our Christmas tree! 

Bob and I made and frosted over 130 sugar cookies, made about
75 Rice Krispie Christmas trees, two pans of Texas Sheet Cake
and banana bread for desserts for the branch. They have
nothing really SWEET like that here and they went NUTS over
them! The whole table of treats was GONE in about 2 minutes! 

We took the RS President to Sara Market to pick up the injera
she ordered for the dinner ~ 175 of them! They roll it up and cut
it in four pieces and serve it with stews, vegetables, etc. They
use the injera instead of silverware to eat all the food! 

I took this at our practice for the Primary Nativity "Drama" as
they call it.  The little twin shepherds are in Ethiopian traditional
dress.  Their family was just baptized a couple of weeks ago!
Elder Wold read the story from the scriptures in English and
Abraham read it in Amharic. 

This was taken during the performance with their costumes on.
The "star" got stage fright so one of the twin shepherds took
her place.  And the littlest angel fell asleep and missed the 
performance.  They did a great job! They even sang "Away
 in a Manger" after just learning it last week in Primary!

Our Debre Zeyit elders were the Three Wise Men and even
sang "We Three Kings"! They were great! They have been a 
threesome this transfer because the 4th has been in Uganda 
to renew his visa.  The next transfer is the day after Christmas.

Here is our NEW branch choir! We met for the FIRST time the
Sunday before and they learned three Christmas Carols from the
hymnbook in English.  (We were missing a few who came to choir
practice but chose not to perform in front of everyone....)  The 
eight YW in the branch sang "Angels We Have Heard on High"
and did an awesome job!