ETHIOPIA RECAP

wow

sitting back in civilization in the nairobi java house in the Galleria on langata road. trying to blog about the last 10 days is a daunting task. suffice it to say i am a changed person. in short, i was hired by charity:water to shoot footage of two teams visiting from NYC to the northern territory of ethiopia to visit villages with clean water wells and villages without clean water...waiting for a clean water well. i'll let the photos do the talking with some captions. hopefully they are more nat'l geo channel than home movie feeling. many to post...they are in random order. (pics on this blog site are somewhat hard to manage. anyway...enjoy)

livestock everywhere all the time. felt like old testament times. and lots of flocks on the highway. dodging goats and donkeys and LARGE cattle and oxen! crazy driving conditions. fun for a city kid to see so much livestock.

 another village welcoming our team. so many people getting clean water now.

tribal council of sorts. i really learned to dig all the old gray bearded guys. such lines in their faces. so much character.

typical old school hut and mound of hay. lots of these primitive shacks in the northern Tigray region.

 nothing reminds you you're having an exotic adventure like a random camel caravan rolling through. it's how they roll. i love camels.

 the horns on these beasts were enormous!

 "relentless beauty" was how one team member described the country.

 driving all day til sunset.

 we 4-wheeled a lot to get the forgotten people who had no clean water. the roads at times were beyond dubious at best.

 another shack. they love a view.

 another primitive village.

 in town. baby donkey. you have to share the road.

 more village people.

 cute kid.

 looks like a serene stream but this placid water source is polluted by livestock feces and microbes and leaches and and and.

 the kid holding the megaphone speaker beamed with pride.

 monument valley? the 10 sisters? this rock formation was so high!

 me and the gray beards. this stop was only old guys, waiting for their clean water hand pump to be finished.

 kiwi singer/songwriter brooke fraser and CW founder scott harrison.

 i thought he was offering papaya juice or maybe guava. turned out it was happy hour....he offered me a beer.

 slow your roll. cows win.

 these critters will randomly run across the street. always exciting sharing the 405 with a petting zoo.

 gheralta lodge. a slice of heaven.

 my room at gheralta. rustic charm.

 overview of gheralta.

 we climbed this mountain. amazing.

 gheralta lounge.

 lounge view.

 felt like santa fe meets taos.

 hand dug well. waiting to discharge some dynamite.

 cactus w/out pricks.

 paddle cactus with pricks.

 our castle hotel in mekele.

 everyone was usually awkward around a camera. and rarely smiled. pictuers/portraits were serious business.

 scott shooting shak with a reservior CW had made to supply a large part of the valley below.

 a camel carrying water sure beats a 10 year girl slinging 44 pounds of water on their back.

 i always was sneaking the ECU when possible. juggling my canon 5D and my iphone. all these pics were from my iphone.

 women with jerry cans queing up for contaminated water. which takes 10 minutes to scoop into the can. then an hour walk home.

 a village waiting for clean water.

 the faces were amazing.

 the farming was asiatic, planting high up the hills.

 neil hutchinson and scott harrison, riding on top of the land cruiser convoy.

 more gheralta.

 on our way to mariam korkor

looks high. 10,000 feet on the top.

 always greeted with signage.

 the fellaz.

 cover shot.

 the ethiopian look.

 some shepherds.

 striking young girl.

 think i like this one better.

 leaving addis airport on our turbo prop.

 vik harrison and grebe.

 scott boards.

 addis domestic terminal.

 freeze frame.

 the trike taxis reminded me of the tuk-tuks in bangkok.

 more grateful peeps for clean water.

 they were as curious of us as we were about them.

 joel huston got some gifts from the village. the hillsong worship leader donated his birthday and raised enough for several wells. cool guy.

 road side stop for some machiatas!!!!!!

 breakfast at the castle in early light.

 horse cart

 donkeys gone wild.

 the mountains were endless. classic oxen. his horns almost touched.

vik puts on the sunscreen. much needed.

recap

overall, a very enlightening trip to the country and the water situation. we met one woman, she had 5 kids, and had to walk 2 1/2 hours each way to a dirty water source twice a day. that's 10 hours a day folks for sickly water. luckily, a clean water well was being built 10 minutes away. talk about a life change. "water changes everything" is CW's motto. and it's so true. lives are transformed in every way. health, hygiene, prosperity, schooling, family time, and and and.

check out
http://www.charitywater.org/
and see what they are up to. scott has done incredible things in 5 years. he's goal is reach 1 billion people who don't have clean water. he's impacted 200 million in 5 years. be a part! donate a birthday!

today

today i am in my sublet. my one bedroom guest house. very suitable. unpacking, grocery shopping, getting sorted. but the next phase is starting. leaving chris & lindy's B&B to my own digs. in Hardy very close to karen blixen's original home in out of africa. kinda surreal.

my next two weeks will be consumed cutting the footage from my trip. one of the highlights was meeting the mysterious Salim Amin in addis ababa. at the sheraton hotel lobby. cool doco filmmaker guy. we will be friends. he lives in nairobi. he has a script he wants me to read based on his father mohamed amin who was the photo-journalist who broke the story of the ethiopian famine in 1984 that led to live aid.

gotta jump for now. promise to blog when i can. will be buried for a while and i have a new wifi situation that is limited.

overall, ethiopia is an amazing place. the people have no edge. no tension. no rivalry. no angst. it was a peaceful and serene place. and as usual, the beauty of rural africa trumps urban africa. the people were so lovely and the country to the north is breathtaking. like bryce canyon. times 100. i have more pics to share. next time. i'm having a blast. and it sure beats my couch back in my loft. i guess i'm having the life i was searching for. adventure! and thanks to CW, meaning as well. flying back into NBO this time from addis, kenya really felt like home. and i confess, i felt a twitch of homesickness when the last NYC team flew back to the states, but this is my life now. it is here. in africa. and i approve of this message! sawa sawa (it's all good!)

all for now. cheers!

ddmafrica