Is Ethiopia Safe?

A trip like this makes me in awe of the size of our planet, it's HUGE! We completely flew into the next day on our journey over.  It was fun to watch.

I returned 1 week ago from an incredible trip to Ethiopia.  Today is the first day that I am feeling up to getting anything done.  Therefore, I am blogging!!  Unfortunately, I got very sick at the tail end of the trip but that will have to be for another blog post.  I am just thankful to have a little energy and so is my family :-)

One of the main questions I get asked about traveling to Africa is, "Is it safe?"  It is a legitimate question, after all, the images that we often see in the media show other parts of the world as dangerous.    I know that the question is raised by friends and family who care about my well being and safety.  It's a good question.

So is Ethiopia safe?  Overall, I would say YES!  Ethiopia is a very stable country and my 2x of traveling there I have felt extremely safe in regards to being an American overseas.  The Ethiopian people are in general very loving & gracious and treat "ferenge" (foreigners) with respect and as honored guests in their country.

We traveled with 4 Ethiopians who all spoke English.  We had 2 hired drivers who not only drove us around but were responsible for helping keep us and our belongings safe.  We also had a host from Children's HopeChest who was with our team the entire time.  His name was Alex and he was AWESOME!!  We also had an additional translator, named Thomas, who was a pleasure to travel with and we all had a lot of laughs!  Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel with, we had a lot of fun!

Thomas, our translator, Bonnie & Tom (my big brother and sis-in-law), Antonio (my neighbor kid), Alex our HopeChest host (and his son who we met at the end of the trip), Abby (my cousin), Dr. Rob, Tamara & Ryan and me.

The scariest part of traveling to Ethiopia for me is 1st flying, I don't particularly like to fly and this is 7700 miles one way in the air.  Yikes!!  The other aspect of this trip, in which I felt a little unsafe, was that our vehicles didn't really have seat belts.  I am a seatbelt fanatic and did quite a bit of praying as we drove 7 hours south of the capital and back.  Thankfully, we had wonderful drivers and I felt they took every precaution necessary to ensure our safety but you just never know.  Medical care is available in Ethiopia but it's not like the local emergency response is going to show up within minutes of an accident.  I would say the biggest risk in traveling to Ethiopia is the lack of immediate medical care in the event of an emergency.  Again, it's about prayer and trusting God.  Also, one of my requirements to travel to Ethiopia is that we must have a medical person on the team.  God provided this year and we had a doctor, which I was SO thankful for especially when my illness hit.

In the end, I would say the safest place to be is right where God wants you.  He has led me twice to Ethiopia and I felt very safe in His will and pray I can return to Ethiopia again.

I love this picture of beautiful southern Ethiopia.  It's an area of mountains, lakes, warm smiles, it's definitely worth the long trip!