June 16

The Journey to Nazareth
Nazareth Ethiopia that is...

Today we went to Ezras birthplace. It is called Adama it is also
called Nazaret (Nazareth). It is a two hour trek from Addis along a
bone jarring hiway where our talented driver dodged In and out of
traffic to avoid the really smelly diesel trucks and the cows, donkeys
and goats that constantly cross the hiway at random. T.I.A is what the
local folk tell us... "This Is Africa"!!! Indeed this Africa. After
today we are done with day long treks to the country side... We arrive
back home exhausted... Literally the diesel exhaust is enough to make
us sick...

Today was worth every effort:
Nazret though only 100 km away has a very different climate than
Addis. It is very dry and hot. The landscape looks desertish and very
barren... Nazaret has a more city in the county feel with it's horse
draw carts and buggys, horses, donkeys and goats EVERYWHERE we also
saw a couple camels. Nazaret also has those minature three wheeled
mororized taxis... They are the same kind we see in Thailand (took-
tooks) or in India (tap-taps). Nazaret is a busy commerce center as it
is along a major north to east Ethiopia route. This is just a breif
description of Ezras birth town.

Our first stop was the Saalem orphanage where Ezra spent his first 4
months. We met Saalem a young Ethiopian woman who started the home 3
years ago. She gave us a tour and we got to see his crib in the baby
room. Each crib covered with mosquito netting. Saalem then accompanied
us to the nazret hospital to meet Tsedale the nurse who cared for Ezra
the first two days of his life. She immediatly recognized him and
asked to hold him (infact she took him and held him for the rest of
the visit) She was happy to see him so chubby and healthy because when
she saw him last October she did not think he would survive. This is
why she choose the name Esuendale meaning: As God Has Said.
She chose that name then because she knew that whether Ezra lived or
died it would have been "As God had said"...
Wow!!! We had no idea of this part of Ezras story... Both of these
women are Christians and we see the hand of God on Ezras life. Ezra
means "God is my help".
It was a very special & emotional visit...

To finish off the visit we went for lunch at the Merrcii restaurant.
the Candians ate the injera with bean paste (yum) while the Ethiopians
ate hamburgers with fries (go figure)...

It was an emotionally exhausting and totally God ordained day!!!
To answer the age old question:
Can anything good come from Nazaret?
Yes!!!

Koen and Chris