Ethiopia

Alright.  I've been in Ethiopia for over 3 weeks now and all I can come up with is "I absolutely love it here" ?  Why?  As each day rolls by, with all the events that unfold, through all that we get up to, I still keep asking myself why, why exactly do I love it here so much.
It's not as though this has been an easy stretch of the tour.  With everyone on the tour getting sick at one point or another, paired with an assortment of mini-epics, I need not digress to, I still couldn't quite put my finger on it.
After many hours spent staring out at the landscape going by, day by day, it finally came to me. I realized that my love of this place could not possibly spur from something so small.  I couldn't possibly sum this place up in one single sentence or feeling.
My love comes in the differences. Since my point of realization, I stated compiling a list.  A list of all 'Things' different between my day to day at home in Victoria, BC to my day to in the country of Ehtiopia.


And it goes:
The sounds of the city
The smells of the small towns
How people move themselves from one place to another
What fills a typical road, or highway
The food, drinks, snacks, beverages
The music you hear.
The temperature outside
The language spoken
The written alphabet.
The way men interact with each other.
The places you look to buy the things you need.
Peoples reactions to you.
Toilets
Showers
Kitchens
The cost of living
The average annual income
Government bureaucracy
Police.
Guns.
Hair styles.
The way the dead are handled.
Local produce.
How children spend their time.
Where water comes from.
How meat is sold.
What houses are made of.
What fences look like.
The shoes people wear.
What nightclubs are like.
The prevalence of petty theft.
Nearly every plant and animal in view.
Just to name a few...

In two days we cross into Kenya, where a great adventure awaits;
switching which side of the road one drives on, from one landlocked
country to another.
I can just picture the scene at the boarder now.