Our next stop, Ethiopia. Every time I try to make the long journey home, I know all over again that you can't do it. Everyone says so, and naturally everyone is right. The scenes don't match up with the pictures in your head--or they do, but in tantalizing fragments. But the smells are the same: a fresh cement scent inside houses, bere bere spices and butter. Every morning, the dogs start up their thin stream of sound...eventually scolded by roosters.

Chris Kurtz reading to students from the International Community School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

My brother and sometime co-author, Chris, joined me for this part of the journey. Victorian traveler Mary Kinsley wrote in Travels in West African that the ferns and flowering plants on that side of the continent "must get a good deal of their nourishment from the rich, thick air, which seems composed of 85% of warm water, and the remainder of the odours of Frangipani, orange flowers, magnolias, oleanders, and roses, combined with others that demonstrate that the inhabitants do not regard sanitary matters with the smallest degree of interest." After the thick air of Nigeria, the cool, clear air of Ethiopia made the flowers around the guest house stand out in sharp brilliance, and I was relieved to put on a sweater for the first time since leaving Kansas.

One afternoon, a shopkeeper gave me a new name as I admired his pieces of amber, dark red as the sun dropping into the ocean on the other side of Africa. Wezero Mulu. She who has it all. That's how I feel in Ethiopia. I see my characters as I walk around the streets--impatient Almaz and Alemayu, the dreamer; newly-brave Saba; Rahel and Sahay, clinging to their stories, learning that they can survive almost anything. I talk to the real Andualem from Only a Pigeon, once a shoeshine boy, now a mechanic for Ethiopian airlines, a magnificent job in a city with at least 40% unemployment. This time, again, it was all there--the howling heart, the laughter, the confusion and misery and delight of being home...almost. But this time, one thing was added. We opened a book center. This time I was finally able to bow reverently to the girl I was--the one who grew up in Ethiopia learning to tell stories, gripped by a passion for words, falling into the pages of books.

A Children's Book Center Comes to Ethiopia The new Ethiopian Children's Book Center provides the first library services for children in the whole city of three million people, and has been filled to capacity each day since it opened with 1800 visits for the first 18 days. The center was a long time dream of Gebregeorgis Yohannes -- a dream to bring books to the children of Ethiopia. Yohannes was born in the small town of Negele Borena in southern Ethiopia. He went to the United States and worked to make a difference in his home country. The Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation (EBCEF) is the result of a grassroots effort led by Yohannes -- and the efforts of many friends including Jane Kurtz who worked tirelessly to create the foundation and make the book center a reality. Read about the efforts on the EBCEF pages and take a look at the photo album from the opening ceremonies and from the earlier events from Jane's 2003 trip to Africa. The center will need ongoing involvement and help. The EBCEF will continue to encourage involvement by church, reading, or civic groups in helping the foundation keep the center open. Any organization or individual who wishes to be involved may contact Jane at janekurtz@earthlink.net.