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My trip to Ethiopia

My trip to Ethiopia

These are photos from my trip to Ethiopia.

The first few days I was in the capital Addis Ababa, a bustling city filled with poverty and construction. Residents of Addis say that there is anywhere between six to eight million people living in the city, although the government claims there is only around three million when they checked last in 2008. I visited the merkato, the largest open air market in Africa and took photographs in several dangerous areas including the metal recycling compound.

My trip continued as I flew out to Gondar and drove to the Simien Mountains for a three day trek. In the Simien Mountains I encountered beautiful landscapes and lots of baboons! I also encountered the local people of the Simiens who live up in the mountains and was invited to witness a Muslim wedding in which the bride and groom had met that same day.

My trip ended with a visit to Lalibela or what the locals call "the new Jerusalem". It is called this because of the numerous holy churches that were carved out of stone during the reign of Lalibela in 12th or 13th century. In one of the churches I saw a woman with foot pain had asked to be blessed by a priest to help her pain, the priest in response to the woman's plea, proceeded to wave a cross over her feet and body whilst reciting a prayer.

My trip to Ethiopia was extremely eye opening for me. To see a way of living so different from my own was very moving and interesting and made me put my own way of living in proportion. I can definitely see myself returning to Ethiopia in the future and for a longer period of time. 

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