St. Mary's Day experience

Here's the explaination for my comment about the 500,000 Ethiopians in my last post. Our buddy Clark had arranged for a group of us to go to one of the ancient stone churches Ethiopia is known for on Thurday our last day (or so we thought). Almaz said we could go, but didn't suggest both parents go and one stay back with our kids. That morning starting at midnight, loud speakers all over Addis started with some type of religious chant that lasted until 6:00 in the morning. None of us had any clue what it was and possibly thought it was a Muslim call to worship. That morning when Johannas and Daniel come to pick us up, they informed us it was the Christian church proclaiming St. Mary's Day. So we got in the van and proceeded on our little site seeing adventure. The main thing we didn't realize is that we weren't going to a stone church, but to St. Mary's church about 10,000 ft above sea level and where half of Addis was also making their way. It took us about an hour in a van to make it to the top and we passed A LOT of people making their way up the mountain with A LOT of people already at the church. It was definitely an interesting experience and I'm glad we went because we got a private tour of the museum at the church and learned about the history of St. Mary's church. Needless to say, we were the only white people there and with camera's in hand, kind of brought a little attention on ourselves. These pictures don't do it justice on exactly how many people there were and what a weird feeling it was. We did get approached by a few people looking for money or food, but never felt in any danger. It was an experience that I will never forget.