Wordless Wednesday

Day 3-Sunday

Our first full day in Ethiopia was quite relaxing. The best part is, we were so tired from the traveling that we slept a full 10-12 hours and woke up at 8:00 a.m. Addis time. There you have it: adjusted to the time change! That was easy! (Don't laugh, it seemed that way. Then I came home....not so easy. Maybe still adjusting?)

We made our way to the lobby of the Union Hotel where the restaurant is located. I had heard good things about the pancakes, so I ordered that and a cup of coffee. The pancakes were pretty good, and the coffee was t h i c k ! The waiter brought it out in a small pot with a demitasse cup, a pitcher of milk, and some sugar. He filled the cup pretty full, so I just put a *hint* of milk and sugar in it and took a sip. The rest of the jittery first encounter with Ethiopian coffee went like this:

WHOA...that's strong! (More milk and sugar)

another sip

WHOA...still strong! (More milk and sugar)

and pretty much that way until I got to the bottom. I was glad I ate the pancakes first, or else I'd have had syrup splattered over my face from my shaking hands. It was incredibly smooth coffee though; unlike any coffee I'd had here in the States.


The hotel was pretty much empty except for one other AGCI family, so we had the whole hotel to ourselves. We spent some time on the porch watching people and traffic, took a nap, and tried to find Hannah's Hope from the 3rd floor window. I remembered HH being yellow, so I looked for a yellow brick building. Little did I know, the cute little RED brick building with the yellow front was where our Juniper was staying! AND, it was at the center of all our photos from that window! It was good I didn't know that our I might have headed over there!

Look how close I was to our little girl!!!

We enjoyed an afternoon thunderstorm (it's the rainy season) and finished the day with spaghetti with tomato sauce; my father in law had the roasted chicken. Both were great. Several other families had arrived (including Michelle and Chad's and Leah and Jay's families; I don't think the others had blogs), so it was great to meet them and wonderful to have company in the hotel!

We went to bed, prepared for paperwork the next morning with Almaz, the orphanage director. Our itinerary said we wouldn't meet the kids until Tuesday, so we all discussed a petition or something so we could meet our kids the next day rather than wait 2 days! (Fortunately, we were able to meet the kids on Monday!)

Day 1-2: Long travel day!

Leaving my family for a week was surprisingly harder than I thought. I knew I'd miss them, but I underestimated the depth of the emotions for them while I was gone. Jana and I haven't been away longer than about an overnight the entire 7 years we've been married, so this was pretty strange. We said goodbye at the airport, followed by about 15 minutes of her watching me while I tried to put my shoes and belt back on after the security checkpoint. Then, we were able to wave goodbye one more time.

My father in law and I flew to Minneapolis, then to Amsterdam. Can I say I knew the flight was 7 hours but didn't know what that was truly like? Sure, I watched movies and ate, um, delicious(?) rewarmed meals at crazy times, but it was pretty long. We had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam which was just the right amount of time for me to figure out how much a Euro was at the various stores and not buy anything. If you look close, you might see some tulips. I think. It IS Holland, after all.

We flew then to Khartoum, Sudan and on to Addis Ababa. We were more than ready to get to our destination.

Khartoum, Sudan

At the airport, we waited in LONG lines for our visas, immigration, and finally to xray our bags again to get out of the airport. The most interesting part was I was the only one irritated by waiting....all the other people were just fine, talking and laughing together. I realized I was the outsider! Definitely a good wake up call for me. We claimed our bags and found our driver. We were lucky enough to arrive at the same time as another adoptive parent, so we waited for her and her friend and then off to the hotel.

We landed in Addis at 10:25 p.m., so we weren't able to see much of the drive, other than a TON of traffic (Saturday night, I thought was the reason....but there is always that much traffic) and people everywhere. In the streets, sidewalks, buildings, in between traffic, in the medians, etc. All over! As we got further from what seemed like "downtown", the number of people didn't change either. I don't know where they were going, but there were a lot of them.

Example of typical traffic and people (taken later in the week)

At the one and only stoplight I remember waiting for, I looked out the window at the median and saw a boy, about 13, sitting with legs crossed and sandals on his hands. He lifted himself up with his arms and swung his body forward to get closer. He held up a brush and smiled, speaking in Amharic, but since it wasn't "hello" or "thank you", I didn't understand. (I'm pretty limited on my Amharic.) I assume he wanted to wash the van for money, but I don't know. My heart broke for him; I wanted to help, but we were driving off before I could figure out what to do.

We arrived at the hotel and the wonderful staff lugged our baggage (and 120+ lbs. of donations!) up 4 flights of stairs for us. I had one little bag on my shoulder and about had a heart attack climbing the stairs; Addis Ababa is about 8500 feet elevation! Our room was about 10 feet wide and 30 feet long, with a queen bed at one end and a twin bed at the other. A small crib was in between the beds (where my Juniper would soon be!) as well as a dresser and tv. I called Jana from the lobby phone and realized that we were somehow 4 hours (!) behind schedule. Jana had tracked our flight online to Khartoum, but then the website lost our flight, giving her an ominous "lost track of flight" message several hours before! It was so great to hear her voice and suddenly, I felt very far away from home.

Home away from home. Top right open window was our room!

After our conversation, I received our itinerary which showed nothing Sunday, paperwork only Monday, and then meeting the kids and going to the Embassy on Tuesday. Everything I had read before the trip showed us getting the kids Monday, so this was pretty sad to wait a whole extra day! I had no problem falling asleep that night, dreaming of meeting our Juniper Tesfanesh!

Welcome Home!

Juniper Tesfanesh
Born: October 15th, 2008
Gotcha Day: September 7th, 2009

More to come about our trip soon!

just a test...

I was assured by Verizon Wireless that Jana will be able to "hear me now" from Ethiopia, but I thought I'd check first from home. Since the service seems to be a bit...shall we say, shoddy? In town, on a clear day with no breeze, I think it's acceptable to be suspicious.

Hopefully the next update will be from Addis Ababa!

Girl, the Pasty Papa is riding to town!