Trip To The Bank

 We decided we needed to go to the bank before we went out on the town.  This night Fekado was taking us to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant.  The girls at the guest house said, it's just down the road - you can walk there.  So, out the door we go, with our guide thank goodness!!!!!

 We turn off the main road & head down this dirt road.

 Yes, those are cows.  No one seems to be with this herd.  I am completely intrigued by the fact that there are loose herds just walking the streets of Addis.  I have some pics of them coming up our street, but Cande's were better thanks to her awesome zoom lens.  They just seem to go where ever they want & no one seems to mind.  You would think with the poverty the way it is, people would grab them & hang on, but they don't.

 They had stopped to eat the trash heap.

It's definitely a different world.

 Then we come up on some nicer buildings.

 Beauty in ashes

And then we find another paved road.  I am so thankful our guide took us - we would have never found it on our own.  When I think just down the road, I'm imagining a couple of blocks.  That's not what they mean at all.  I believe it took us around 20 minutes or so of power walking to get there. 

Once there you feel as if all eyes are on you, which they are.  It's like in China, they confiscated my camera & you are met by a pat down from the local huge gun carrying security officer.  (at least the local men get the pat down, Andy never got such welcoming treatment)  Andy decided to stay outside with Hannah Grace & the camera.  Cande & I went in to exchange the money.  There were these 2 men there who were waiting to conduct their business.  They were right next to us breathing over us the entire time.  (just to give you an idea of the real experience - I know exactly what he had for lunch ;0)  We then were hiding our monies - when you exchange dollar to birr it ends up being a ridiculous wad of bills & we didn't exchange that much really.  But once we realized they were just in a hurry because the bank was about to close we felt better.  Then you watch their little transactions & boy do you feel like a slime ball.  Here we come with our money we had saved for this adoption (& are still paying off) & there they stood with basically nothing.  Ethiopia is a cash society.  Those people were probably getting money orders because very few have savings accounts as we know them.  People there make just a few dollars a week to live off of & we think we have it rough.  Perspective is everything.