Day 3: Saturday

Entry 1
We were supposed to be down for breakfast by 9:00 am, so of course I stumbled in right at 8:59 am like the idiot I am (because melatonin does things to a person). I had pancakes, which seemed to be kind of like crepes. They were really thin and folded around syrup. And they were pretty good, but that was way too much sugar for my morning, so I'm gonna stick with tea and crackers from now on. The official agenda for today is to go to the National Museum, which is one of the highlights of my trip. We get to see Lucy!

Entry 2
We went to see where the US Embassy was. It was right up the road from the Lion Park past a bunch of other government buildings. We'll be going there next week, so it was nice to see it ahead of time.

Entry 3
We went to the National Museum, and I have to admit it was incredibly cool! We had an amazing tour guide for the basement and ground floor exhibits that walked us through the archaeological history of Ethiopia and introduced the topic of human evolution based on pelvic and skull size and shape. We saw Lucy (also known as Dinknesh in Amharic), one of the earliest fossilized remains of early hominids, who was discovered in the Awash Valley. We also saw Selam, who is considered to be the earliest fossilized child at 3.3 million years old. Our guide also took us through the history of relics and royal regalia, the highlights of which were the throne of Emperor Haile Selassie and the crown worn by Emperor Menelik II. We then toured the first and second floor with Dr. Abegaz looking at traditional items and artwork.

Entry 4
We had lunch at the Lucy Cafe near the museum. It was pretty good, and Jordan was very enamored by the tortoise they had roaming around.

Entry 5
We're waiting on the bus while Dr. Abegaz runs into one of the banks. He's been in there for a while, and we've mostly been people-watching the entire time. It's really entertaining. We then went to St. George's church. It was absolutely beautiful, and we learned a lot about the different icons and murals within the chapel. We also got to explore a small museum on the campus of the cathedral.

Entry 6
We just finished looking at the Akkis river in Addis, where Dr. Abegaz was showing us the pollution that is common throughout the city. The bridge we were standing on was just

downstream from an alcohol production plant, which directly deposits all of its waste material directly into the river. He told us that a lot of the industries set up on the river to do exactly this. It was...unfortunately obvious. There was a lot of sediment, looked to be very little aeration, and we didn't see any wildlife anywhere near the river or in it. I think the worst part about the entire thing was the fact that there were vegetables growing a very short distance away and were obviously being irrigated by the river water. No wonder they told us not to eat any vegetables unless they were fully boiled/cooked.

Entry 7
We went back to Romina for dinner because a few people really wanted smoothies. I ended up getting a meal because they didn't have fries, but I gave it to Ashley because I wasn't a fan of some of the spices they used this time around and I honestly wasn't hungry enough for it to begin with.