here come the rains in Africa

 This is our garden last night - the white patches are very large hail stones!

13 months of sunshine - apparently

 Ethiopia claims to have 13 months of sunshine - we beg to differ! When it is not raining it is not really cold, but not bright sunshine at the moment either.

National Museum of Ethiopia

 The National Museum of Ethiopia was split into three (technically four but one is currently closed) sections. The first floor was lots of bones - 'Lucy' being the famous one but also other fossilized remains. Lucy is a partial skeleton estimated to be 3.3million years old and had recently returned from her 'travels' somewhere or other!!

Born Free - Ensessakottah

 Ensessakotteh (means Animal foot print in Amharic) is a Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre about 30km outside Addis run by the Born Free Association. We took Sarah's Uncle Mark while he was visiting out for a change of scenery:

coffee ceremony

 Coffee ceremony's are ritualized forms of making and drinking coffee. Coffee beans are roasted over hot coals and then ground using a pestle and mortar. They are put into the jebena (the pottery pot pictured) to boil the coffee over the coals.

 The host pours the coffee into small handle-less cups and serves it with sugar but not milk. The grounds are then brewed two further times for the traditional three cups of coffee.

And the coffee is served with popcorn - always a hit with the boys who don't get to drink the coffee!