Early Days in Ethiopia

Roger has been in Ethiopia for about 3 weeks and has been traveling around the northern regions.  So far he said people should throw out all the preconceived ideas of Ethiopia because many of the things we read about have been erroneous.  He feels safe, Skype works, and while internet can be spotty at times, it's better than we expected.

A colleague invited Roger to his home for New Years on September 11th.  The traditional coffee ceremony where the beans are roasted was performed.

This is where Roger has been staying while in Addis Ababa

The north has had lots of rain and they expect good crops -- unfortunately that is not the case in the south

When Roger sent these pictures, I was visiting Colin, Karen and Cooper in Kansas.  Cooper's reaction was a very hesitant "ohhhhhh", Karen was silent (and not in a good way), and I was saying "Wow -- that's amazing!"  Time will tell who had the best response.

Roger said camels are everywhere and used for transporting salt and other commodities to the markets

 

White honey is made in northern Ethiopia

Roger went on a site visit to the Danakil Depression -- one of the hottest places on earth.  Fortunately the day he went, a "cold" front had come in and it was only 48C (115F).  You can literally feel the heat in these photos.

Sulfur and salt

Salt in the core box -- they have to go deep to get to the potash

It's very tough drilling in salt - this drill is 18 months old and won't make it to 5 years.

Roger visiting the Danakil Depression

I head over to Ethiopia in a couple of weeks and will make sure I keep the blog up to date. I'm pretty confident I'll be taking lots of photos.

One bonus is Ethiopia is on a different calendar --- the end result is we are 7 years younger in Ethiopia! Now if it could just erase 7 years of lines and wrinkles!
Another adventure begins.