Day 2 in Ethiopia--Tuesday

We have been trying to "skype", but it is not working out for us......Whenever we are awake, the kids are sleeping or at school. We tried waking up at at 5AM ET time and skyping, but it kept saying weak connection. We are getting frustrated with it. We'll stick to email and next go round get an international calling card or something. Our internet is actually pretty good (for a 3rd world country) b/c we have a router right outside our door. Yesterday, Almaz (the director at Hannah's Hope) gave us a converter to use that works. Hooray! So, we'll have electronics and be able to charge things. I brought an adapter and plugged in my fan (due to deliriousness and sleep deprivation) when we arrived and burned it up. Thankfully, the hotel had a fan that is ready for 220 volts so they're getting it for us today. Everyone is so nice at the Riviera Hotel. They are very protective of us too. They want us to tell them when we are leaving and returning. They also have a big Christmas Tree in the lobby. It is funny b/c I was practicing saying "Selem" in Amharic which means "hello", but they all say, "hello and hi". That works for me!! However, I did practice ammasayganala over and over b/c that means "thank you". I got lots of practice saying that.

Today, we were at Hannah's Hope for quite awhile....about 3 1/2 hours. We played non-stop. I brought the  kids bouncy balls. They had different things on them...Some had Mickey and Minnie Mouse and some Spiderman. The special mothers taught me how to say "on" which means "one". The kids all rushed up to me like I was giving out hundred dollar bills. They are all excited and want one and it's hard for them to wait. After distributing those, one of the little girls came up to me and kept saying, "Sha-rik", "sha-rik". She was rolling her "r's" like in spanish. I thought that must be Amharic for the word "ball". The little girl kept saying it over and over getting louder and louder. I could tell she was getting frustrated with me. I told her that she had a ball and to go play. Finally, the lightbulb went off and she was saying, "SHREK"!! Oh my goodness. I didn't even notice some of the balls had Shrek on them. Obviously, they have watched SHREK before b/c all the kids went crazy when they realized it and they all wanted a Shrek ball. It was funny to me that they did not know who Minnie or Mickey mouse were, but knew Shrek.

Justus was more protective of us today....he played hard and is calling us "mama" and "daddy" some. That's the only english he knows...I taught him that "makinas" cars go "beep beep". He likes that and says it often. He didn't want to eat lunch while we were there. He cried every time they mentioned it. I think he thought we were going to leave. The special mothers told me that when mama and daddy are there, they don't have to eat.....I fed him some crackers that I had from the airplane in my bag. He really liked those. Then, he drank out of a water bottle for the first time. We taught him that you put your top lip inside the bottle so you don't soak yourself. He is quite a fan of the water bottle.

When we got back to the hotel, we ate some peanut butter crackers for lunch. I made our own with Jiff to go and Ritz crackers. Some people really love the food here, but as for me...we'll I loved having some good ole peanut butter and crackers.  After lunch, we took a taxi and went around the center of the city. He showed us a bunch of things. There is soooooooooooo much povertty and we haven't even been out of the city. I wanted to go out of the city but the taxi driver said it would take longer than an hour, so we opted not to go out that far tonight. Women would run up to the windows when we were stopped with their babies and would beg for money. It is a very humbling experience and their faces are forever etched in my mind. People walk everywhere there...hundreds and hundreds of people going to and fro. I especially enjoyed seeing all the children who were getting out of school. They wear uniforms there for school and our taxi driver said they do have public school in Addis, so we saw red sweaters, green sweaters, yellow sweaters, and blue sweaters. We knew each color represented a different school. The kids were smiling, playing and joking just like our kids here.

Tonight, we went to a traditional Ethiopian Restaurant. It was sooooooooo much fun. Our driver, Was (Wass) is hilarious. He has made our trip so fun. He explains anything we want to know about the culture and the dances. I think we asked him about 50 questions. At the restaurant, there is live entertainment, so the band plays and someone sings. That is alternated with a dance. We LOVED the dancing part. We camcorded a lot of it b/c people have told us that their Ethiopian kids love watching it when we bring them to the states. The food was yummy and everything was just....well, neat. Each song and dance that the people performed was from a different region in Ethiopia. During one of the songs that Was's family was from, he got up, put some money on the stage, and danced with the woman on the stage. It was great! He was such a ham. Then, the dancers went out in the crowd and would dance with people that were eating. Trevis got up and tried dancing. He was a good sport. A girl from our travel group danced too. We really enjoyed our time there.


Ethiopia is very rich in culture. I'm just trying to take it all in.....Tomorrow is a busy day!
oh.....I forgot one thing that's really important so I'm updating the blog.....Right before we left Hannah's Hope today, one of the precious ladies who works there came up and gave us a CD of pictures of Justus with his bio. mom (that they took on her court date)n and answers to interview questions about him. We were so thrilled and happy to have this additional info. about him and his family to share with him as he grows.

With Much Love,