Ethiopian Picturebook

Women carrying big earthen water jugs on their back, their strong green, red and yellow dresses in stark contrast with their chocolate skin;
small children framed by a narrow gate in the wooden fence waving and laughing at us;
the vultures devouring a goat;
men ploughing the field with their oxen;
the supersize puzzle of field patches in distinct shades of brown and golden;
the young chocolate girl with the wide brimmed straw hat and a bright smile;
the young mother holding and feeding her son;
the solitary tree on the hillside;
the herd of cattle returning to the village in the late afternoon shrouded in clouds of dust;
the hundreds of golden straw stacks dotting the field after harvest;
the huge well entrance dug deep into the limestone allowing access to the water to people and cattle;
the acacia tree in blossom;
the pelicans on lake Tana;
the woman filtering the hulls out from the grains;
the golden lake at sunrise;
the vivid colours of the monastery paintings;
the old blind man praying in front of the monastery;
the shepherd under the large tree;
the chocolate girl arranging items in her little souvenir shop;
the stunningly beautiful young girl looking at and through me from gorgeous yet sad eyes;
the crowd cheering on top of the hill;
the boys dancing around me at dusk, singing and clapping their wooden sticks;
the abandoned tanks rusting along the roadside;
the young women walking on the market balancing big bags on their head their hips swinging synchronuously;
the lovely little blue bird in the morning;
the little round huts dotting the hillside like a set of identical hats on a shelf; the random arrangement of rocks in the water;
the gorgeous amaryllis thriving in the garden;
the orange butterfly;
the beautiful castle in Gondar;
the jacaranda trees;
the twisted thorntree against the blue sky;
the white termite hill reminding of a Buddha statue;
the layered ridges of the Blue Nile Gorge at sunset.

Many pictures have I taken with my camera. A lot more I've taken with me in my mind and heart and it is these that I'll carry with me everywhere I'll go.