Awassa - day 2

Today is Friday, July 24, and we've been here nearly a week already. That week has been jam packed with family visits with a little sightseeing in between. The family drama unfolds as we see more and more of this fabulous country.

The initial reunion was followed by a day when Adanach was sick. On that day we moved to Lewi resort which sits on Lake Awassa. The property is filled with monkeys...Columbo and one other. A Colombo monkey jumped on top of a patron's table to retrieve french fries, causing quite a stir.

We ended up meeting some family, including the half brother who works to the west of Awassa, and his wife, several hours drive (more later), Senait, and Thomasyn (sp). We sat around the table at the Lewi Piazza for hours discussing family affairs and relationships.

Awassa - many days of family gatherings

On Tuesday we went to a Family reunion at home of Uncle T. Many people were gathered from Adanach's Mother's side along with her Aunt from her Father's side.

The family is protestant, so no alcohol is served (and supposedly no dancing, although we saw evidence to the contrary). The typical greeting is kiss to one side of cheek, kiss to the other, and then a third for good measure followed by a sturdy hand shake. Lots and lots of germs, the good kind!

The aunties set out a loaf of the giant, round homemade bread containing the as yet unidentified seeds. Also set out were injera, potatoes, vegetables, salad, a wat and more. Again we ate until full and beyond on the mostly starchy food. 

Hawassa and the Way to Hawassa

We are in North Africa where many people still dress in Biblical clothing and goats and pack animals share the road with cars and trucks. 

Our journey from Addis to Hawassa was slow going with many detours and traffic issues (read: donkeys, goats, cows in the road). People pretty much live outside and the landscape is filled with farms (lots of corn), children, fields being plowed with the help of brahma bulls, and so on.

We stopped outside of Awassa at Peggy's friend Saba sister's house (did I get the punctuation right?) They live in a solid concrete house with tile floors -- they are wealthy Ethiopians because he is a pharmacist and she is a nurse.

They immediately plied us with St. George beer and soft drinks. As soon as your class was only half full, they opened another beer....happy happy!

They then served an Ethiopian meal with injera, false palm bread, and a huge homemade Ethiopian bread made from wheat and seeds (need to look up name of seed). 

Peggy had dropped off a suitcase and given Etenesh and Deme money and in exchange Peggy will be bringing 15 kilos of spices back to Seattle. That's a lot of spices! After a few hours we waddled into the car and made our way to the resort...started by two Olympiads. 

Reunion of Adanech's Family

 Today I was a voyeur to a family reunion. Abraham picked us up at 10 to begin the search for Adanech's family. Truthfully I was skeptical...Peggy had a full report from a PI that they commissioned 10 years ago, I must say I was skeptical....a needle in a haystack. 

But no, thankfully I was wrong, Ninety minutes in, working with the detective's papers, the family was found and Adanech was united with her Aunt Senayt. 

How can this be? Senayt kept saying Thank you Jesus, they had tried to find her, the family had been thinking of her, but they had no news. 

We were very curious why the detective hadn't provided the family with Peggy's information, or provided Peggy with theirs, but it turns out that the government (or AAI?) discouraged contact between birth families and adoptees. 

Later that day all the family members that could be gathered on short notice (11) came to our hotel for a late lunch. I took names and pictures...hopefully I can put them together.

Later, we drove back to Shashomene where her little brother lived. We went to the restaurant that his aunt owned. All the neighbors dropped by to see the miracle. 

Even later we went to see the house Adanech was born in and the grandmother's house. 

Sightseeing in Addis Ababa

Today we toured Addis with our guide Abraham who was recommended by the adoption community in Seattle. He is indeed a treasure.

He took us up to Mount Entoto where King Melelik, the founder of Addis, lived.

The palace was very modest, built the traditional way with adobe (mud and straw) although the building was quite large. 

There were also two Eastern Orthodox churches and many nuns sitting around the periphery. We only knew they were nuns because of Abraham....they were dressed like Mary, but not in a uniform.

We toured the museum which contained Melelik crowns, thrones, old bibles in Amharic, and so on.

Abraham took us shopping to the fabric market and helped us negotiate a few purchases, and to a pottery shop run by former Ethiopian Jews.

Apparently these folks were descendents of the original Jew, but have since converted to Ethiopian Orthodox.

We each bought a few pieces of pottery.

The Ethopian National Museum (??) was very interesting with an exhibit showing Lucy and the There were also tribal costumes and Haile Salassie's throne.

Our final stop on this day was a visit to the Sod Abyssinia nightclub where the food was fabulous and the entertainment even better .... a dance and music group demonstrated many traditional Ethiopian dances.

One of the most interesting aspects was that the customers were mostly Ethiopian with a few Chinese, European and of course Americans. Makes you feel more like you're having an authentic experience!

Another Day at Sele Enat

Today was orphanage day again, but first we travelled to the Piazza (I believe shops built during the Mussolini occupation) to buy balls...soccer and volley. No Walmart here, everything small vendor. We are told by Lee (guest house host) that everything is cheaply made and doesn't last as long as in the states. We will never know, but the orphanage was filled with deflated balls, which is why we bought them.

Peggy, who works in a school, organized arts and crafts activities and I made some attempt to help, although as a non-teacher, this task was a bit beyond me. At the end there were crayons everywhere and markers with missing tops! 

Adanach was very attached to a two-year-old in the toddler room who was not yet walking. 

I attempted to play volleyball, but was quite rusty and almost immediately sprained my poor thumb. Peggy claims to have funny pictures of me attempting volleyball which I will not share here.

We had lunch at a little cafe, no sign, a block from the orphanage. This cafe was run by former Nannies of Layla House -- who were let go (as were all the staff) due to a problem (unknown). At that time Layla became Sele Enat.

At any rate, the nannies welcomed us and one thought she remembered Adanech. This was a real local cafe where workmen went for a quick lunch. The food was very good..Messer Wat? I need to learn the names of the dishes! They also had a lady in the corner making coffee and tea on a little brazier. The coffee was delicious! 

Driving and walking through Addis is a trip! Today we saw large cows, donkeys, and I think the same goats. No land planning here. As I look out from our kitchen, I see houses with small amounts of land surrounded by tall buildings, many unfinished. Everywhere there are cranes to building shells that look like they've been there for years. Walking so far has been either in dirt/mud or on sidewalks that have been dug up with many holes all around. Mind you there are areas that are city-like and stable such as the piazza, but it seems that there is quite a bit of the country inside of Addis.

Today we go to the ethnological museum where Lucy lives and to a fabric market. 

First Full Day Ethiopia

Tom booked an amazing suite for us at GT Guesthouse in Addis Ababa with three bedrooms, 3 baths, a living room, and kitchen. We are spoiled and I can assure you it makes going out very difficult.

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.