Update!!!!!!!!!!

OK, so this is a general update by your resident CarmeninEthiopia correspondent ThatDude.

Carmen has officially landed, and has been settling in quite nicely. She's gotten everything she needs for her time there, and with all that shopping, our favorite genius has already started to pick up bits and pieces of Amharic.


In her own words: "Its so weird, the moon is upside down here! I've found the most amazing birds here too, just wait till i show you pics! we went shopping today, and i only spent $100.....sounds like a small amount, but it really came to $1000 of their dollars. Its ridiculous, I got everything i needed and more. We hired a guy to come with us, he carried the bags around and followed us to make sure we were OK and that no one harassed us. he was very good, and really polite. i felt really weird though, I'm not used to being very rich, and here I'm totally loaded. Its hard to not feel bad. There are many beggars, some who are beggars because they cant work, but a lot are fake beggars so that they don't HAVE to work. Its so hard to tell the difference. Women actually "hire" or rent babies so that you will give them more money for being a homeless mother."

This next week the updates will be sparse, because she's going into an area with no Internet at all.

She's doing well and is enjoying herself thus far, however, she's somewhat worried about going to Gesses. Apparently it's a place that the natives call "The Devil's Seat", so she's asking for added prayer for herself while she's there (which I believe is for most of the trip, although I give all of you permission not to quote me on that).

She sends her thanks for all the prayers of everybody so far. She says they can be felt by everyine there, and they are having real effects in their lives. She sends her love to everybody as well.