The area around Durame was beautiful, and thankfully I didn't have any run-ins with the hyenas.
These are the students from my OT1 class. They are in groups going over the lecture material in Amharic. Bridging the language gap was a major challenge during the two week class.
This is a local church I visited. I could understand almost none of the service because it was half in Amharic and half in the local language of Kumbatina.
After the service I sat down with three students and the pastor for beans and coffee. The coffee was very strange because it had a traditional, slightly rancid, butter in it. However, the conversation was phenomenal. We discussed how the church is too focused on building buildings instead of building people.
After the class was over another missionary named Jeremey (the only other white guy in the picture) joined me in Durame for the weekend. We visited the house (the hut in the background) of one of my students named Wabel (he's directly in front of me with the blue polkadot shirt). Wabel's family is completely Muslim, and he used to be persecuted by his family because of his conversion to Christianity. But once before Jeremy visited and his family stopped because they realized that Wabel was becoming a "big deal" since he had American friends. So we visited again to help him receive respect from his family.
In Ethiopian churches men talk off their hats before entering the building.
After visiting another church we sat down with three of the elders. Meeting these men was the most honored I've felt since coming to Ethiopia. It was a high privilege.
