This day (Day 5) was a little more laid back...Our director had 3 other families arriving at various times so we (the other family with us) agreed with him to just chill and play with our babies in the morning (gee-that was hard!) and then go to lunch and get some souvenir shopping done while he was busy greeting other families. We went and had lunch at The Sheraton. It was the biggest contrasts I've ever seen. The Sheraton is by far the nicest hotel in Addis Ababa (from what I hear) 5 stars. A bunch of restaurants, a huge pool, marble flooring, and you are patted down and sent through a scanner just to enter the building...High class stuff people! (We were, um...not!) Right across the street were the slums. Shacks, homeless people...The whole experience was an oxymoron. We had a nice lunch at the pool restaurant. Then our director left from there for the airport and his wife took his place with us and took us shopping. We didn't go to the main "Mercato" market for many reasons. (Theft, higher prices, get ripped off, etc) We went to another place that I can't remember the Amharic name for it...but it stands for Black Street.) We spent about 2 1/2 hours going from vendor to vendor and buying all sorts of great Ethiopian things. Wooden Orthodox Crosses, Ebony candle sticks, T-shirts, a bunch of little things for our boy to give him over the years, scarves and table clothes from his native region, etc. We got the girls some gorgeous dresses and him a native outfit too. It rained on us but not too bad. Outside each shop there were a lot of people wanting to sell us toothbrushes, gum, C.D's or shine our shoes. Some shop owners pay security to keep these people from coming in their shops and bugging customers....so they just stay right outside and bug you when you leave. There was also the occasional mom with a child strapped to her back begging for help and food. Sigh.
We returned to the guest house around dinner time and met up with the other families who had just arrived. It was neat to see them meet their kids for the first time. One couple wasn't expecting their babies to be brought to them so soon, so we all jumped in with our cameras to capture the moment for them...I don't think I'll EVER get tired of seeing those moments with families. It's the best!
The next day (Day 6) all 5 families left for an all day trip out of Addis. We drove about 3 hours to a town called "Dera" This town is one of the 5 main areas worst affected by the past famine. The climate is very hot, and dry. There is a big lack of water. People would walk 7km to get water and there are many stories of people being attacked by Hyenas along the route and not surviving. Because it's so hot in the day, they would have to leave in the middle of the night or early morning to go and get water. The most dangerous part of the day. While we were there we were able to visit a great water project that is in the almost completion stages. A huge well (understatement) and pipeline has been installed to bring water from the reservoir 7km away to the town of 58,000 people. We feel very passionate about water projects because it is so essential to life, that we were very excited to visit this place.
After seeing the well, we walked back to the vans and our director said, "Well now we will walk and have lunch at my parents home." I told you he always had something up his sleeve! I couldn't believe we were about to be guests in their home. Our large group crammed into their house and ate lunch which consisted of hard boiled eggs from their chicken coup, boiled potatoes, beans, corn and barley. (Oh there was Sprite and Fanta too!) And of course a coffee ceremony! They were so wonderful and gracious to host all of us! We spent about 90 minutes there before we left for an orphanage near by....
In Dera.
The water project we visited.
Local kids at the water project.
Where we had lunch.
More local kids....they enjoyed high fives and fist bumps :-)
After we left Dera, we drove to an orphanage where one of the families with us was going to see where their kids are from. At this point in the day, my mom and I were feeling pretty sick. There was a stomach virus bouncing from all the families that only lasted about a day, so this particular day was my turn and my moms turn to feel miserable. We felt so sick that we couldn't spend much time enjoying the kiddos at the orphanage. The team was there for a couple hours and mom and I just laid in the van and slept it off....with the windows down and doors open since it was so hot! But that meant a million flies buzzing around us. Meanwhile Adam had fun with the kiddos...The orphanage also had a coffee ceremony and performance by the kids for the team so he enjoyed that. The Director of the orphanage spent time talking about the history of the orphanage and what his plans are...Adam was impressed with how this Director has created a model for support for the orphanage and the kids that is almost fully self-sustained....You don't find that very often!After we left the orphanage we drove to a resort in the dessert and once again, our director had something up his sleeve. We stop at a grocery store, he and our drivers go in and come out with bags full of bananas. We were going to feed monkeys. Oh sure! Why not?! That was quite an experience!!I can't get our monkey pictures to load correctly-maybe next time. Mom had one jump right up on her and grab her bag of bananas....There were probably about 30 of them around us...No they weren't in cages. Just hanging around. I found 2 on top of our van at one point. Sheesh!
It was a great long day despite mom and I feeling sick. Another day where we were fully immersed in the culture and learning about the country. Seeing a water project under way to help so many families...eating lunch in someones home in the countryside, visiting an orphanage and meeting a director that "gets it" with providing for the kids he is responsible with and feeding monkeys. What more could you ask for?
Tomorrow was going to be a big day...The whole reason we all came to Ethiopia. COURT!
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