lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

or at least just lions. (I tried to add a photo of me less than 2 feet from the lion devouring it's dinner, but I'm having trouble uploading photos)
Adventure day in Addis today! Complete with visiting the "zoo" where there were many lions that you could get dangerously close too. You could literally reach your hand through the fence if you were so inclined. I, however, chose the safer route and just had my photo taken. I prefer to keep my limbs today, thank you very much! Very interesting experience. The cost for Ethiopians (Habesha) to enter is 1 birr. Cost for Foreigners- 10 birr. Cost for my camera's admission- 21 birr. Hmmm...
At the zoo, a very nice young lady from China came up to me very excitedly to ask me to take a photo. I thought she wanted me to take one of her and the man she was with...nope! She wanted to take a photo with me! It was hilarious! She was so excited and asked where I was from. Can't say that's ever happened to me before.
After the zoo, I experienced the National Museum, which boasts having the most ancient human skeleton "Lucy" that was discovered here. Again, price for admission for Habesha- 2 birr. Price for Foreigners: 10 birr. This time my camera came along for free. Many interesting artifacts and art. I was quite impressed.
From there we made our way to a different part of the city where I went to the Cinema for the 2nd time so far. Our options were incredibly limited so we saw the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Certainly not a movie I'd watch at home, but there were many hilarious parts.
The night was completed by the children behind us on the taxi trying to sell us some "nice chewing gum" as they chomped away rather loudly to advertise their wonderful product. I considered paying them to spit their gum out- ok, not really, but it was funny. One of the children was then fascinated by my hair apparently, and I felt a strand being forced from my head. My Habesha friend turned around to lecture them on the importance of not pulling hair and told them to apologize. It was followed with "I'm so sorry baby!" I couldn't help but laugh! I tried so hard to keep a straight face, but it was the kind of laughter that I just can't contain and soon my eyes were filled with tears!

Tomorrow, I'm travelling to see the child I sponsor for World Vision. I'm so excited and can't wait to share the experience when I return.