Best day in Africa yet

yesterday we had the opportunity to travel out of the city to visit the hometown and monastery of one of the translators and guides here at the guesthouse. It was about 2 hours away from Addis and the drive there was part of what was so special. Apparently the weather has been good lately, and the fields were all being harvested. By hand, of course. With scythes. I cannot imagine how hard that work is. My friend, Ginger has harvested hay by hand before and says it is intense until you build up the muscles for it. It was beautiful watching the groups of men, swinging rhythmically and getting huge fields completed by the end of the day. The women were also sifting the grain from the chaff and I was struck by how many examples the Bible uses from agriculture. Separating sheep from goats...(here it can be hard to tell: I've been told sheep are tails up and goats are tails down.) Not giving up during the hard work of planting for in time you will reap a harvest. Having too big a harvest and not enough workers.
Brian caught the vision of why I love this land and these people so much. He was truly able to see the beauty away from the craziness of the city. The Rift Valley is indescribably beautiful...like a lush, green Grand Canyon. which I've only seen pictures of. We dined at lunch with the most amazing views, hawks circling overhead and occasionally swooping down to steal bread from our plates. then we hiked along the rim to an ancient Portugese bridge, built in the 1600s. Absolutely amazing day.
The kids are settling in so well, it is like a dream. Yabsira has an enormous amount of English, can read it well and do math appropriate to his age. Emily and Enat are similar, and get along without having to have words. Emily is actually picking up an amazing amount of Amharic. She has always been gifted with languages, so it is easy for her. She reminds me what I forget. Yabsira is very easy-going and likes to hang out and play with Allen which delights Allen to no end. They kick the soccer ball around, swim and play electronic games together all day long. So far no quarrels between them. Emily is starting to get tired of Enat following her everywhere, but I told her long ago that this would happen, so she is bearing it fairly well.
The process is moving along slowly and it looks like we will be done before our plane ticket is due to return, so I am optimistic to be home for Thanksgiving. We will see. We certainly will pray.
In the meantime, we are having a grand old time together.