First Trip to Ethiopia Sept 2013

September 27-30 we made our first trip to Ethiopia, which is part of the Uganda Kampala Mission.  Ethiopia is a nation of 90 million people.  There are approximately 2000 members of the LDS Church in the country.  Ethiopians do not consider themselves to be African, they are Ethiopian.  They do not consider themselves black but colored.  There is a
strong Middle East influence in the country.  50% of the nation is Muslim and 50% Christian.  The government owns all property, including automobiles, and leases it back to you.  In school the children are tested and based on their scores, they are told what vocation or profession they will pursue.   Our reason for going was to find a National Public Affairs Director for Ethiopia.  This first picture was taken from our hotel balcony and shows the roof tops nearby.  We found it to be a clean city with a satellite dish on nearly every roof.  They must be a prosperous nation as there is more building(both commercial and residential) in Addis Ababa than anywhere else in the world. 

 

The Humanitarian couple, Elder and Sister Campbell from Hurricane, Utah took us to their home on Sunday for dinner.  On the way we stopped by the apartment of their office manager.  His name is Chewaka, but they called him Chewy.  He has recently moved into his own apartment and is planning on getting married in a month.  This apartment complex is about 1 square mile and has 70,000 occupants.  There were many complexes similar to his as we drove through the countryside.  There are 4 million people who live in Addis Ababa.  Notice the cattle and donkeys wandering through the streets.     

 

 

Chewy has furnished his apartment and he had covered the concrete floor with what appeared to be sticky contact paper.  Notice the sofa and animal hide covered foot rests.

 

This is a picture of Chewy.  He is a sharp looking young man who is a returned missionary and now serves in the District Presidency.  There are 6 branches of the church in Ethiopia...no wards or stakes.

Across from Chewy's apartment large stones had been dumped into a field.  The government gives homeless or street people huts nearby and they cut cobble stones by hand in return for their housing.  We found the main roads were nicely paved, but streets in the housing developments were made from these stones and last a long time.

 

We took this picture of an Ethiopian Orthodox church.  Notice how brightly it is painted. 

 

This is just a picture of the countryside around Addis Ababa.  The sky always looks hazy and they say it is most likely dust blowing in from the Sahara Desert.

 

This is the chapel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  It is in a gated complex with a mission office and an office for Latter-day Saint Charities in other buildings on the complex.