We began our day by taking a hike up a mountainside to explore a part of Debre Zeit. We piled into the taxi to the center of town and then found a bajaj to take us part of the way to Lake Hora. I use to walk this road several times a day when I lived in this section of town and today I was sharing it with three friends. Once to the top of where the bajaja could go we began our journey up the side of the mountain. This mountain side is not steep but more a gradual incline walk in the countryside. Beautiful red and orange flowers and cactus were growing along our dusty path. We passed by a cemetery which was on the edge of our hike. For a while we shared the path with two young girls. They were four and seven years old. They were carrying water containers back to their home. One of our interpreters, Misgana, helped the youngest one to carry her gallon container. As we went our separate ways I couldn’t help but wonder how far they had to go to reach home and how long that water would last them.
As we reached the top of our destination, we saw a beautiful sight of the area. Lake Hora and the vegetation of the surrounding area was a peaceful sight. We weren’t there long before some boys from the area joined us. They were gathering the fruit from cactus. They had a seven foot pole with a nail sticking out of the edge of it. They would use the pole to stick a piece of fruit. Since some of the cactus were on a steep hillside edge that hung over the lake, it was sometimes hard to watch them for fear they would fall down the cliff. Without any difficulty they filled up a piece of the plant and brought back for us to try. Although a little hesitant at first, I tasted the somewhat sweet fruit. When the boys saw we liked it, they went back and gathered more for us. The cost of a few US dollars to us was a fortune for them that day.
