Ethiopia Day 8 part 2

Our film crew
Traditional dinner

After touring the LDS church grounds Kate and I headed back to the Leprosy hospital. The sweet people there asked if we'd bring copies of their photos back to them. How could we say no? They were so kind and welcoming to us that we were happy to bring them their photos and spend more time with them.

Later we met Captain Solomon, the pilot who flew the plane that rescued Kate's brother-in-law Wes after his accident. He's a great man and like all of the other locals we've met he's a self made success out of extraordinary circumstances. He has a lovely office in a high floor of the building. There are large photos of various planes and landscapes that wall paper the open room. My favorite is of Capt. Solomon and Brad Pitt from a time when he flew Brad while he visited Ethiopia. There aren't many pilots in Ethiopia due to the cost it requires to train for such a job. In addition to his charter service, Captain Solomon also runs a flight school at a limited cost in hopes to allow others to fulfill their dreams of flying.

Captain Solomon's recollection of the events surrounding Wes' rescue paint a grave and stressful picture. Like everyone else he was most impressed with Wes' wife Alyssa's calm and faith. It was a stressful situation and Alyssa had every right to be frantic but instead she was steadfast and stalwart.

After our meeting we head down the street to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant that serves dinner with a show of Ethiopian dance. It's similar to what a luau in Hawaii would be like. It's for firinji. As we sat down a camera crew from ETV asked if we could be interviewed for a story. The crew was friendly and the interviewer a beautiful and sweet women. She asked us each the exact same questions so by the time it was my turn I decided to answer in very strange ways instead of the canned usual answers. Kate did the best job and after my return to the states I git an email saying she recorded us on Ethiopian tv. Hopefully I'll see that some time.

We ate injera and wat while we watched some very lively dancing. The crowd was so fun to watch as there was a local wedding party and a table of diplomats from the UN near us celebrating a birthday. I wanted to join in on any of these festive times bu decided to just sit back and people watch. I was really missing having some of our local friends with us.