Guess where the coffee bean came from??!

Landscape around Dube Bute in the Oromia Region (southern Ethiopia)

pic taken by Kristin Laughlin

Guess where the coffee bean originated from? Ethiopia!! As a dedicated coffee addict I find this quite exciting.  I've been reading up on Ethiopia on Wikipedia, and found lots of fun facts about the different regions and cultures. For instance, I had no idea Ethiopia has the 2nd largest population in Africa, or that there are still active volcano's in eastern Ethiopia. So much to discover about the culture and land of our future children.

It's a diverse land. In the northern part of the country you have deep gorges and steep towering mountain peaks of the Senale Mountains. In the central part of Ethiopia you have the highlands, and a giant rift called the Great Rift that bisects almost half the country. And in the south you have the lush greenery (see the pic above), and coffee crops. Like Texas where I live, in Ethiopia there is so much conflicting terrains smack up against one another -- lush hillsides, deserts, arid mountains, deep canyons that can rival the Grand Canyon, and some of the lowest points on earth. The picture of the south reminds me of what I thought Narnia must look like as a child when I read C. S. Lewis' series. Breathtaking. 

And the idilic scenery of some of the areas of Ethiopia makes the contrasting poverty seem even more cruel. To live in such a place filled with beauty and then to only have access to dirty water, hunger, poorly built school buildings, and few health clinics. 

The extreme poverty alongside the natural beauty and happiness of the people is a wonder. I have never been to Ethiopia, but I hear from my co-workers at Glimmer, a non-profit that works only in Ethiopia, that the rural people are a joyful, and happy people. Here is one of my favorite pictures of happy children living in dire circumstances. Clearly circumstances do not define your happiness. It makes you wonder what really you need to live a full life?