Our first foray onto Addis soil was to get a SIM card was somewhat successful...no nanosims, so a two step process. Our walk to the sim-cutting store (which we never found) entailed walking around giant pits in the ground. No looking at your cell phone and waling here!
People are very kind and helpful.
Our guest house manager Lewam is very competetent and helpful. And, because she lived in the U.S., her English is perfect with no gaps. I swear I hear a tinge of spanglish in her accent, which is non-existent...I thought she was American...Valley Girl meets New Jersey? No? She said she lived in Boston.
We finally made it to Sele Enat orphanage via the guest house driver (whose name must be written down for me in order to remember it). Modern buildings sit next to shells of modern buildings sit next to dirt roads. People are leading calfs through the dirt roads and we see a flock of goats, again on a dirt road. Just a few feet from our guest house are lean-tos made with sticks and plastic where people congregate for cups of tea....there were six of these in a row. Also, in the streets, lots of women wearing beautiful colors and headscarves, the occasional man with cloth draped over his head (Adanech claims this is not so, but I swear).
Mittin (probably spelled wrong) tooks us on a tour of Sele Enat. The orphanage was previously called Layla House and is where Adanech and Manyahashel lived before their adoptions. It is a sprawling complex of sleeping rooms, courtyards, and classrooms. The toddlers first, maybe six or eight in a room, were going down for a nap...there were a few rooms of them. Also there were a few rooms of babies..some of these babies were waiting to be picked up by adoptive parents. I had heard that there were no more Ethiopian adoptions, but in fact they have slowed down, but not stopped.
Peggy, Adanech, and I ended up holding several of the babies for a time..the ones who were awake that is...their swaddling is very cute..they wrap the blanket over the back of their heads so they are wearing little blanket headdresses.
Next we saw empty classrooms that were being painted by volunteers--terrible toxic smells! And then the room of developmentally disabled kids. These were maybe 8-14 year-old boys..did not see a comprable classroom of girls. Although there was no language, we managed to have a good time with them. Peggy had brought a bag of toys...stickers, balls, bubbles, and everyone was overjoyed to receive these little gifts.
Finally we went to the dorm of the older girls who were hanging in their bunks...rest time. Everyone is off school because of summer and the rainy season. One of the girls..Y____ began speaking to us in English and the next thing we knew, we were out in the yard hanging out with them and the parachute Peggy brought.
Many children of all ages joined us for an afternoon of picture-taking, parachute playing, balloon blowing and popping and English practice. All of the pictures are from this time.
Today we go back...for another day with the kids.
The orphanage has several volunteers from Europe...high school girls who come for one or two weeks to play with the children. 
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