DAY 6: Adventure Awaits

As it is a Saturday, we all got to sleep in a little to start our day at 9am with our daily devotion where we are working through the book of James.

The plan for today was to go to Entoto Park and spend the day walking through the park, visiting the different shops and coffee bars, and maybe do some team building activities like a high ropes course, ziplining, or go-cart racing. BUT it all changed when the bus broke down right in front of our hotel right as we were leaving, blocking three lanes of traffic as we entered one of the main streets from the hotel. After pushing the bus to the side of the road and spending a few minutes trying to fix the problem, it was decided that we’d head back in to the hotel lobby and wait for a new bus. 

With the new bus came new plans. Entoto was too far away at this point, so we decided to head straight to lunch, and afterwards to Unity Park. A quick rainstorm made sure everyone got wet and provided plenty of puddles for the children to splash in. We got to learn all about the history of Ethiopia and its significance in Africa and the world as a whole.

After the museum part of Unity Park, we got to walk through the zoo where we could see a lot of African animals that you don’t see every day in the US. (The lions were my personal favorite.) 

Heading back to the hotel from Unity Park, we got stranded, blocking all of traffic again—this time on a bridge as a car broke down and we had to push the car out of the way for the bus to have room to pass. A few team members then headed to another coffee shop where they got to see Belay direct traffic in a busy intersection, as well as a new way to transport goats using a car and a roof rack. 

At this stage in the trip nobody is even referring to the schedule anymore as we learned that planning a schedule in the USA and executing said schedule on “African-time” is actually harder than doing a u-turn in a 30-seater bus into oncoming traffic. (We haven’t stuck to our schedule one of the days so far and have done multiple u-turns every day!), but the team has been great at being flexible and adaptive so any changes are like water off a duck’s back. 

Thank you for following along and praying for us! Please pray for the team members who are struggling with jet lag, colds, stomach issues, fevers, and whatever else is happening. This trip has been great so far but definitely not without some challenges. 

- Benu