Embassy Trip: Day Five (Hippo Trip)

Another early morning for us, but it was a pleasant night’s sleep. The power went out temporarily, but we were so exhausted we slept really well and didn’t notice it. We had a pleasant breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, but one of the moms in our group started getting really sick. We loaded up the bus and headed over to lake Awassa for a boat ride to see the hippos. This place was absolutely beautiful. The grass was perfectly manicured and there was a swimming pool and a miniature putt putt golf course. The girls in the group went for a little golf game!!! We had our own private caddy too! We drank cokes in the shade overlooking the lake and had a great time, except for those getting sick L BOO!! A bunch of the people in the group were hesitant to go on the boat ride because it was really windy and the water was choppy. Andy and I loaded up though!!! We ride boats a lot and weren’t too worried. It was about a 45 minute ride over to the hippos, but it was fun and beautiful.

We got really close and saw a couple of young ones. It was a neat experience!!! I’ve only seen a hippo one other time and it definitely was not in the wild!
The ride back was much smoother. Once we got back we relaxed at the resort and looked for memory rocks for the kids. There were monkeys there too, but we didn’t venture over there. Our group decided to have lunch at this place by the water. The neat thing was that we were sitting right next to the second prime minister of Ethiopia!!! This would have never happened in the US. There were armed guards all around, but we didn’t really pay attention. Finally our guide told us who the important guy was and someone in our group took his picture. The guards soon surrounded us! A little scary!! We ate and loaded up the bus with the sick momma. Soon another person in our group got sick, poor Will. He got the same thing. We travelled back to the big city. When we had almost arrived home two others fell sick. One was even taken to the hospital that night to get rehydrated. We were really concerned because we did NOT want to get sick. We took a bunch of meds before we went to bed that night. We prayed and hoped for the best. The next day we would take custody of our baby girl. SOOOOO excited!!!