Ethiopia football fans all told me it didn't have a chance. It was coming off a loss to Madagascar, but it had to win its Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 qualifier against two-time African champions Côte d'Ivoire to have any hope of  advancing. But it was a beautiful day and I had never been to an international football game. After we met with the President of the University and a reviewer of our Ambassador's Program from Addis, my BDU colleague and friend Zewdu suggested we take this beautiful afternoon off with Jill and Merouane to watch the game.
It was a great game. You could feel the air go out of the stadium when Côte d'Ivoire scored the first goal just minutes into the game. But then something happened. But the despair only lasted about 10 minutes before Ethiopia tied the match, and another 10 minutes before it went ahead. The next hour of play was holding onto a slim lead. It was a great game.
https://www.cafonline.com/total-africa-cup-of-nations/news/ethiopia-shock-cote-d-ivoire-morocco-win-in-bujumbura

This Ethiopia Orthodox Medieval Church, Ura Kidane Mehret Church, is worth a second visit. These churches seem to have similar characteristics. They tell the stories of their religion in colorful murals so that the illiterate part of the population could be taught about the religion. The murals cover all the walls on the inner sanctum.  The guide on this, my second trip out to the trip, helped bring the murals and their stories to life. The violence of these stories is not censored. Above this first panel are some of the depictions of the apostles' deaths. 

Below you can see how illustrations also made it into the ancient texts for Ethiopia's Orthodox Church. The museum that holds these artifacts provides a modern glimpse into the ancient religion. 

The walk to Ura Kidane Mehret Church and museum includes a shopping mall of crafts and their creators. I missed getting a picture of this guy on my first trip. 

Chicken isn't neatly packaged in plastic in the refrigerator section of your supermarket in many developing countries. Chicken on a stick in Ethiopia is bought as fresh as can be. The consumer does the rest. In Ethiopia you are never far removed from the source of production. We took Sami and Kathleen to the big market in Bahir Dar. Then to our favorite fish restaurant right on Lake Tana where local fisherman come in to have their catch cleaned and sold. That's why you see all the pelicans hanging out by our lunch table. Kathleen's Kuriftu resort serves as a final, and greatest contrast between the real world and the one we often find ourselves isolated in. 

Sami Andrews is a fellow Ambassador's Distinguished Scholar who came from Gonder University to lecture on “Globalization, Sovereignty and Ethiopia in the Age of Creativity Jurisprudence”. This spurred a discussion on the Marrakesh Treaty, amongst other things. The Marrakesh Treaty is an international copyright treaty to create "limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired, and otherwise print disabled (VIPs)." For more information on this treaty go to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) site.
For more information on this creative clinic, or to get involved, contact David Tushaus at [email protected].

Faculty took me on a tour of a couple of Legal Aid Centers that Bahir Dar University operates. The 6 Centers depend on in-kind donations of office space and a small budget from the University. The goal is to expand the visibility of the centers and increase their outside funding so they can be a greater force for change in the community and education for the students. 
This is the Center in Bahir Dar close to the Court of Appeals and where I live. I was also able to visit the center in the prison. That was especially interesting and active. I sat in on a couple of interviews of prisoners by students, which was interesting, even if I could not understand a word of the Amharic spoken. The problems, summarized for me later by the faculty supervisor, included a prisoner who has merely been accused and has waited months for a trial. This is a critical issue in many countries, including the United States. BDU needs funding to be able to do more work at these Legal Aid Centers.

Visiting villages in Ethiopia is a real treat. The countryside around Bahir Dar is beautiful. I get to see what a cow shed looks like, how they dry crops and bricks in the sun, everyday life and best of all the children. This day trip was to see the last palace built by Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's 225th and last emperor, serving from 1930 until his overthrow by the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974. For more information on the Emperor see https://www.biography.com/political-figure/haile-selassie-i

There are no supermarkets here. Well, there are, but they are more the size of a very small grocery back home. Most people shop at smaller shops on the street or something like this large open market in Bahir Dar. You can get almost anything to be found in town here. The market is divided into large sections of various items, similar to a supermarket here. There's the poultry section (look closely for the chicken on a stick, spices, beans, vegetables, tef (the ancient grain unique to Ethiopia and injera) and even plastics. One vendor pointed out that his section was all Ethiopian goods, nothing from China, to try to sell us on his vendors.