My birthday

Day one of the holiday that almost wasn't- Addis Ababa. September 26.This day may prove to be one of the most exciting birthdays of my life. Perhaps because it was my golden birthday. (26 on the 26th, yo!)

The day started with an innocent and easy arrival in Addis.
We continued into the early afternoon with a pickpocket scheme. A man stopped, backing into me and forcing me to take my hand off my pocket (and camera) to stop him. As I did so- well! If I didn't feel my camera go! His little friend was on the other side of me taking it! I whipped around yelling "NO! NO!" Emily, behind me, was moved by my cries, and started waving her arms yelling "NO! NO!" And I simply took my camera back from the man. He looked really confused, glanced around, and ran away down the alley. Ha!

We were excited to learn that we arrived in Addis on the eve of Meskal- the celebration of the bringing of the true cross to Ethiopia. This is big! There is a huge celebration at the Meskal square, with music, bonfire and more. We couldn't really get close. There was a crowd estimated at 2 million people!



While cruising the periphery, we found ourselves in the middle of another difficult situation- a mad bull! Running towards us! You try to NOT run, but pretty soon you're with the rest of the people running and hurdling large bushes. He actually got one woman- rolled her around with his horns a little bit. In the end, she was fine. Just REAL muddy. Several men finally got it down in a hole.
(Crazy Audrey took pictures while screaming at us to run!)

And several hours later, my heart stopped racing.