Dog Survey comes to an end

As of this blog post, THE DOG SURVEY IS COMPLETE!!! Although there is a lot of analysis when I get home, and two more weeks in Ethiopia to complete the Spay and Neuter project, there is a great sense of fulfillment in bringing this portion to a close. With the help of Maria Belu and Ally Sterman, we have walked over 75 miles through this 15 square mile city and counted approximately 500 dogs.

Could it be a Corgi mix?

As far as what we have seen, dogs tend to stay close to a home setting. They act as guard dogs, and at night we can hear them fighting and howling. Although we see many dogs in the daytime, these vocal dogs tell us that there are far more that only come out at night. 

We have been very lucky in the past week to have a car that has driven us to all the transects, but we are still getting a good workout! The two graduate students Sam and Mame have been amazing and made everything ten times easier. When we get followed by troops of children, they help us talk to them so that we can use the kids to help us find more dogs. 

Our Car that can handle some major mountains

 

 

Sam in the Semien Mountains

It was so cold for him that Mame used my coat!

We had a light Friday, and so we took the chance to see the Fasil Castles and the Epiphany baths which only get filled once a year. In the bath we made our OHIO symbol and the boys.

Fasil Castle

Epiphany Bath Balcony

O-H-I-O !!!

Later we went to the market and the boys helped me haggle in this store for some fashionable Gondar clothing for Nathan's anniversary gift.

Kelsey measuring Nathan's pants

Saturday, the 21st, was my 5th wedding anniversary. Although it was hard to be apart from Nathan on a day of celebration, I was lucky to receive multiple emails from him, including photographs of the wonderful gifts he bought for the occasion. The traditional gift for 5 years is wood, and Nathan bought this beautiful antique stool for our harpsichord that I had been eying at the Antique market last month. It was a wonderful surprise.

New Harpsichord Stool!

In addition to other little gifts, Nathan tried to send me flowers, but since that isn't really possible in a small African city, he sent pictures of our beautiful garden flowers from home, which were far sweeter than a real bouquet ever could have been. One of the flowers was a new plant not yet bloomed, but he promised it would bloom by our day, and lo' and behold it did!

Not yet bloomed, waiting for our special day...

Blooming just for us! Exotic and wild, bright and awake, it reminds me what each relationship needs to thrive.

Other than our personal celebrations, our group was given the most incredible experience on my anniversary that helped me not only feel less sad about the distance, but absolutely thrilled to be in Africa. 8 hours of car journeying later, we found ourselves in the glorious Semien Mountains, one of the World Heritage sites, and an Ethiopian treasure. The car ride to the top of the mountains took 3 hours of twisty, treacherous, and bumpy mud roads. The views were so stunning that every turn of the road revealed another incredible ravine or mountain. Before we reached the top, one of the ladies had to pee, and we found this fabulous rock to hide as we all decided it was potty time.

The peeing rock

The true purpose of our trip up the mountain was to collect fecal samples of the wild animals and test for Salmonella. This included Baboons, Wild African Wolves, the Red Fox (only 80 left and we saw one!!!) and Ibex (mountain goats with large curled horns). 

Baboons!

 

This baboon is clearly wearing a Tina Turner wig

Love bird baboons cuddling because its my anniversary (fanciful thinking, I know)

Palm Trees!

I wont say much about the mountains, but rather just let the pictures speak for themselves. The low mist (well, at 4000 m it isn't low, but it is thick enough to feel enveloped) was magical, and there were many moments when I felt like a tiny speck of sand in an entire universe.

This post is getting so big, that I am going to do a separate Semien Mountian Pictures Post