The Lion Zoo

We also visited the Lion Zoo while we were in Ethiopia. This was a great way to spend the afternoon. It is very small and probably has less then thirty animals. There were lions, birds, antelope looking-animals, and some monkeys. Of course, the crowd was in front of the monkey cages. I have never seen a monkey jump straight up about 15 feet!! It was craziness!

The zoo also had a few rides for the children. We paid extra for this, but it wasn't much. The funniest was the jeep ride. The child climbs in the car and a young man walks him around for about 15 minutes. They did turn the motor on and give Liyone a few seconds alone at the wheel, but after he came inches from crashing into the tree, they decided to steer for him again :)

I do have to admit it was awkward walking around the zoo with our driver and our two new children. Many people would turn away from the animals and give us more attention. We had several people stop and ask to take our picture. I felt like a movie star! The second time, several young men would take turns getting in the picture with our group. All we could do was laugh about it. When they were gone, we asked our driver why they were so interested. He said they probably have never seen our skin color before.

The funniest part was one of the men with cameras knew our driver. He insisted to take a picture of him and Melanie alone. He threw the driver's arm around her and pushed them close together. Both were very embarrased, but Adrian and I were standing in the background rolling with laughter.