Ethiopia Trip-Day 3

We woke up very early the next morning to the sound of the Orthodox Prayers over a loud speaker from a church nearby. It started around 5:00am and lasted until 8am. Intermingled with the prayers was the lovely sound of the cow and rooster on the property next door. I was ready for some coffee. We got dressed and went down to the lobby/dining area of our guest house and had a nice breakfast. We met another couple who had already been there for a few days. (Side note: There were 5 families on this trip together...all came and went on different days...we were only all together for about 3 of those days)

After breakfast I couldn't stand not seeing our boy anymore so I grabbed my camera and went over to his room. The nannies are so sweet and let me in, but gave me a "shhh" sign. Darn it-he was sleeping. That's ok....I watched him sleep and played with some of the other babies and even helped feed some of them. He is in a room with 5 other babies. 3 in a divided crib and 3 sleep on a mattress on the floor. I was thankful to see mosquito netting over the bedding. He is a lucky little boy-gets to share his room with 5 other girls...Don't get used to it buddy! :-) He finally woke up and I quickly grabbed him and kissed him...The nanny changed his diaper and handed me a bottle. I took note of the set up in the room. Each room has a small bathroom with a shower and baby bathtub and a sink. There is a cabinet with clothes, formula and diapers. Then there is a nightstand with all their bottles in a row with their names on them. They prepare the bottles with water early in the day, then add formula before nap time to have ready for their next feeding when they wake up hungry. We played for about an hour, then it was time to go. Our director had some culture plans for us which I appreciated. Even though I wanted to stay all day with our boy, I was also eager to get out and see some of the city and country!

As we pulled out of the guest house and started to drive, we got our first glimpse of being in a 3rd world country. Even though we were in such a big city, poverty was still all around us. Everywhere. Couldn't escape from it. Tin shacks, mud & stick homes stacked next to each other. Homeless people asleep in the median of the road. Little kids carrying babies on their backs walking down a busy street all by them self. My eyes were quickly opened. Nothing totally shocked me, but I wasn't prepared to see it all over the place. Maybe a few examples of it here and there, but not everywhere.

First we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was fabulous. And Cheap!

Then we drove through the city and up to a mountain called Entoto Mountain and we visited an old Orthodox church there. (Picture below) If I remember correctly, it's the first orthodox church in Addis. We went inside, had a tour, and walked around the property. Then we drove back down the mountain and went to the Ethiopia National Museum. At this point jet lag was hitting us...I'm not a huge museum person, but tried to remain awake and interested...This was difficult as our guide was a very nice, very eager 3rd year history student. The museum has 5 floors. He took us to each floor and stopped at every.single.exhibit. Yawn. Parts were interesting and other parts I couldn't even tell you what we saw...Sorry. I remember telling myself "Be present...soak up each moment." yeah that didn't happen for me at the museum. Oh well. I tried.

The church at Entoto Mountain.
After the museum our director told us before dinner we were going to go have a snack and coffee break...I was very excited for more coffee! We went to Kaldi's coffee-It was fabulous!!!
After coffee, we went to dinner. We went to this great cultural restaurant called "Bata". It was a large compound property that was being built for a guys entire family and extended family...large buildings, a huge courtyard, fountains, and pools. But the guy passed away before he could finish it, so his children turned it into a traditional cultural restaurant. We had a typical Ethiopian meal which was delicious! During dinner the entertainment started. It lasted about 2+ hours. A 4 person dance group did the traditional dances from the different tribes across Ethiopia. I was impressed with their stamina and those women can flip their heads and hair around!! At once point they did a marriage ceremony dance and pulled me and Adam up to participate...We had to hand feed each other and the others that they pulled up....Nothing like sticking your hands in other peoples mouths that you don't know and vice versa! Then we had to dance up there with them. Oi. We were not good. At all. Mom got it on video of course. But no one needs to see it. Ever. But it was a great night...We got back late and hit the sack.

The next day was going to be a big day-we just didn't know how big in our son's journey to our family...