Day 6 - Focus Groups and Castles

Last night was an adventure. :) The hotel temporarily lost power, so Dan and I ended up teaching Nicole and Mustofa Euchre by candlelight. When the power came back on, Nicole, Dan, Mustofa, Dr. Gebreyes, Dr. Wang, and I had this crazy 3 course meal. Apparently that was the hotel special for the evening? I had chicken soup, lamb with rosemary and rice, and a strawberry crepe. It was delicious, but so much food!! I always feel bad not finishing all my food, because the server asks "Not good?" and thinks I didn't like it. But the food is always good. :)

Euchre by candlelight. How romantic ;)

This morning we had our first 2 focus groups. Men and women from Gondar came to answer questions about rabies and give us feedback on some messages and posters pertaining to rabies prevention and vaccination promotion. They both seemed to go well! I couldn't understand any of it, as they were all speaking Amharic, but all of the participants were talking and answering the questions, so that bodes well. :) After the focus groups, I had lunch at the hotel with Mustofa and Dan. While we were eating on the patio, 2 huge tour buses pull up and out pours a ton of white people. It was hilarious how surprised both Dan and I were to see them. We really have not seen many white people thus far (as expected lol), so it was pretty funny. :) 

After lunch, we took a mini-bus taxi to the Piazza area where the historic castle grounds were. There were 7 castles total on the grounds. Apparently, each King would build a new castle when their reign began. There was the main palace built by the first King, then each of the new castles built had some special purpose (archives, a library, concert hall, banquet hall, etc.). I took a ton of pictures, but I'm only going to post a few of them here.

Our lil' family in front of the main palace

3 of the 7 castles 

View from the banquet hall

After the castle grounds, we went to the baths built by the one of the Ethiopian Kings. They were about 2.5 kilometers from the castle, and there used to be a stone bridge connecting the two so the King and his family had a private road to travel between the palace and baths/pool. There is a big festival/Ethiopian holiday at this location. It is a celebration for when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. Bishops come and bless the water and hundreds upon hundreds of people dive in the baths. That would be amazing to see!

Front entrance to the baths/pool

The bath! It's bigger than an Olympic size swimming pool

Banyan trees

For dinner tonight, Dr. Gebreyes took the whole group (Nicole, Dan, Sharon, Sarah, Dr.Wang, Mustofa, a veterinarian from Ethiopia, and myself) to this new restaurant at a hotel that was recently built. It was at the top of a hill looking out on the city of Gondar. I had something called fish goulash. It was DELICIOUS. Favorite meal so far. :) Now it's time for bed, and I'm not setting an alarm because the focus groups aren't until 2:00pm tomorrow. :) Goodnight!

Much love,
Joslyn :)

P.S. The verse for today was, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed by day. For this light momentarily affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. I needed this reminder today :) :). I was extra tired lol.