Addis, Day 2 and 3

The Bean and I woke up at 4am (before we figured out to take the Sleep Aid!) so I crawled into bed with her and we read. Boy, as I mentioned before it was cold! The Bean said she had a sore throat, something she complained about throughout the day. The ladies at Bejoe made some tasty eggs then we caught up with Solomon to start our day. We started at the National Museum and were really glad we went there. We were assigned a guide who had a lot of pride and interest in the museum and I have to say what we saw was fascinating. I can't remember seeing skulls spanning 4-5 million years in one place in my life. In one room feet from one another we saw how the shapes of human skulls changed so dramatically over this period of time, primarily evident in the jaw and eye socket area. Amazing. Lucy was out on tour but they had a replica and in those days humans were only 3.5 feet tall. On another floor there was a beautiful collection of African Art. We were especially interested in the paintings, perhaps not so much the contemporary ones, but the others were really lovely. They also had sculptures, old artifacts, silver crosses etc. there.
Throughout our visit were were passed by groups of children, perhaps from a church group, that were very interested in us and each shook hands with us as they passed. They cracked us up and we loved seeing them. As we started taking pictures of them we became very popular. They obviously knew that on the back of digital cameras you could see the photo you'd taken, so they'd run together into a group then run over to see their photos. It was so cute and funny and we really enjoyed them! On another level we saw many things belonging to Emperor Salassie. The clothes (really the fabric/brocades) were so ornate and incredible. There was a throne which when the Bean stood next to it dwarfed her. After the museum we visited the Lion Zoo. There were a lot of men in their 30's - 40's standing around which was in hindsight odd, and within minutes we'd had both Blackberries pick-pocketed. Totally our fault for where we had them. My camera bag was locked except for the very front pocket where apparently I'd decided it was a good place for my phone. Duh! John's was on his belt in the holster. Duh again. I mention this so you don't make the same mistake we do. It was interesting to see the animals close up, and they had a couple of nice gardens there too. We were certainly oggled at there. I couldn't tell whether it was curiosity since we looked so different, or being scoped out. Despite having our phones taken I didn't feel unsafe there though. After lunch we drove up Entoto Mountain. Since it was Sunday we didn't see the women carrying their heavy loads of wood down their mountain. Six days a week they pick up sticks and branches from the forest at the top of the mountain, creating roles of wood that weigh 120-130 lbs and carry them down the mountain without shoes to sell for $2-$3. One Mom had gone back to ET to take shoes for these women and had fit them herself to try to help their quality of life and let them do this walk much more safely. Solomon asked if we wanted to go back later in the week to see them but it didn't feel right. I'd seen Lori's photos and read her blog, so knew of their daily burden, but I felt that if we didn't have something to offer to make their life better or easier that driving past them amounted to us gawking. Similarly to driving down the mountain and seeing the homes on either side of the road up close. They were so humble. Blue tarp roofs. Corrugated tin walls leaning up against wood poles. Dirt floors that must turn to wood in the rain. I love photography and rely on my cameras to document so much of our lives, and though I snapped a few photos, again it didn't feel right. I felt like I was driving past gawking. An outsider with a fortunate life having the time to drive by but without anything to offer. Just inappropriate. I put my camera down and just tried to take it in. Hops dried on mats outside several houses. Many of these houses also had a stick outside their house with a white cup on top. Solomon explained that this signified that that house had homemade beer for sale inside! He then drove us through a market area. There were so many people. So many. That was another thing that I will always remember about Addis - the amount of people. Most are walking. I don't know where. Solomon said many were probably off to visit someone. Some sat on the sides of the road either on walls, rubble of crates. Men sitting on crates offering shoe shining seemed to be a popular way of trying to make some money. Being a pedestrian was certainly something you undertook at your own risk if you asked me. Traffic was insane, and the rules of the road were very different than here in the US. If we were going to turn off a road and a pedestrian had just stepped off, the car didn't slow down or stop, just drove in front of the pedestrians nose by about 3 inches. It was a tad nerve-racking! By the time we got back to Bejoe late afternoon I have to say I was burned out from it all. I was exhausted by Addis. I felt bombarded by all I'd seen and perhaps it was all overwhelm. Perhaps we'd tried to cram too much into 2 days. I'm not sure, but I was over it that night. Happily at Bejoe we got to meet Genet and she was a welcome sight. What a lovely lady! So friendly, happy and a great smile. It was easy to see why so many families loved staying with her. That evening we ordered in from Makush. It's a restaurant across the street that is also an art gallery. We gave Solomon money to pick up dinner, though later in the week we stopped by to look at the art and did by 3 pieces from them to bring back. We might well have ordered the wrong thing since most families said the food was good there. We thought it was edible, but I wouldn't recommend the calzones, pizza or 'foccacia.' By the end of our trip I did decide that I thought ordering protein such as chicken seemed to be a better bet than most pastas. I had Nile Perch too which was very good.

Day 3 - Monday -
A BIG day! We were going to meet the girls today! We started off by giving the Bean Claritin though! That cured the sniffles and the sore throat in about half an hour, and fortunately she didn't need anymore the rest of our stay. Go figure! On the drive out to meet the girls we hit traffic. Apparently not too unusual for a Monday:) Imagine a 2 lane highway, but there's no lane lines so there are as many cars/vans across as can fit. We only saw one stop sign and stop light while we were there so all the cars just sort of sort themselves out! Well it's more like to get through an intersection cars just go through and cut off the traffic from the other direction, and when you're in the backseat you just hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed! Anyway, the drive there is really interesting. A ton of construction: buildings and roads. Donkeys wait in the median of the road to be used for the construction. You also see them along the sides of the roads a lot carrying really large water jugs, or roles of hay herded in 2's of 4-5's by a keeper often quite a way back. Solomon would laugh at the Bean (who loves animals in addition to chocolate) because she'd coo "Oh look at the donkeys, they're SO cute." I don't think it had ever occurred to him that donkeys could be cute! On the side of the road was a row of perhaps 8 open-sided stores that sold construction materials. Solomon was explaining that the Chinese are building a lot of the roads there. With all the construction projects we saw each day it really was amazing how few of them had people working on them, or on those that were active how few people were there working. Finally we just drove across the median of the main road we were on and drove onto what appeared to be a rock and dirt road. You'd never have found it without a driver and I'm not sure how you'd give directions to find it. Did I mention there were no road signs either?! Down the road that on different days had different animals along it - cows, sheep, goats, you turn right bend and you're in a really nice neighborhood. This is where Gladney's houses are. We met Heather, Rolyn, Davis and their moms and Genet took us first to #2 to meet their little boy. It was so emotional to watch them meet him for the first time. Heather held him, Davis kissed her little brother. Tears sprung for us all. Then John, I and the Bean walked with Genet to #4 to see our girls. It was so hard for me to hold it together on that walk. It seemed to take forever to walk there (it was very close, it just felt that way because I so wanted to be there.) We walked through the high gate and in front of us on foam pads covered with sheets were all these sweet little babies sunbathing completely nude. All those little bum-bums were such a cute sight and one which we'll never forget! Genet said "Do you see them?" It took but a second to recognize our girls lying side by side, and it was the most amazing sight ever. The lack-of-diaper-risk meant nothing and we just scooped them up. We had told the Bean she could hold one of them first since we knew how much it would mean to her, and I scooped up the other. They were just the sweetest, lovliest butterbugs ever! Their caregiver diapered and dressed them pretty quickly and we just spent our time hugging them, touching them and looking at their little faces, learning their features up close. We were quite certain that though they were identical we'd be able to tell them apart since one had a small spot on her forehead. Then we looked at them and realized they both did! We're in trouble now! We're going to paint one toenail on each a different color with a flash card reminding us whose we painted pink vs purple for when we're tired in case we forget. No, I'm not kidding! About 9:45 the caregivers take them all in for food and an nap. We kept them out a little longer then took them up to their room. We weren't ready to say goodbye since we'd only seen them for about 35 mins at that point, so we offered to feed them which of course was a joy:) The Bean fed her first bottle and did very well! John was having a very animated, nonsense conversation with the other which seemed to amuse the caregivers. We then laid them on their tummys, Isabel crashed out and Rachel bobbed up and down and side to side in front of her crib mirror which made us laugh! We were also thrilled to realize our girls were in the same room as Wes and Layla's son so we were able to love him and photo/video him over the next couple of days for them - so fun! Solomon had mentioned to us that if we had food leftover after a meal we could get it for take-away and we could then find someone who needed a meal to give it to. After having lunch with Heather/Rolyn et al we did just that and not a block from the restaurant we saw 4 boys who lived on the dump who we gave it to. When they looked in the bag as we were driving away it was very humbling to hear there appreciation and surprise as they saw the food. Right after lunch we went to the Alert Leprosy Hospital. An absolute highlight of our trip, and we have Solomon to thanks for that. He made sure we were there at a good time when people were there and the store would be open. Let me tell you, it didn't matter where we went while in ET Solomon knew everyone and everyone loved him. He took care of us, had our backs, knew exactly where we should go never mind what we wanted to buy/do, helped us in the stores, gave us tours and was a wealth of information and history. And to boot he was a lovely man. As the trip went on our phrase was "In Solomon we Trust!" That afternoon he showed the Bean how to spin cotton from the plant into thread and putting it onto a bobbin, he had the women showing her how after he had shown her, we watched the patterns being made that would be used to embroider bags/cushions etc., fabric being made on the looms, door mats being knotted and women doing their beautiful needlepoint. A lot of people there had missing fingers or parts of their feet. Disabilities which could have easily impacted there spirit, outlook or hospitality, but these men and women were so welcoming, happy, friendly and patient. They were great with the Bean, and so kind to let her try everything. I really feel so fortunate to have gone there and met them. We bought a ton of stuff at their store for us, the girls as they grew up, our home, friends and Christmas gifts. Later that afternoon we bought a lot of coffee to bring home from Tomoca, and then did our stop to look at art work. The man who owned the gallery when he realized we were with Gladney had some very touching things to say to us about our adopting which I was really touched by. I explained how fortunate we felt to be bringing ET into our lives and family, but I was pretty choked up from his kind words. We really met some very lovely, kind people in ET. For dinner we met up again with the other Gladney family (H/R from now on to save me typing it over and over,) and decided to go to this cool restaurant called Kurifta Diplomat. It's menu represents a different country each month. Angola had been the previous month, but we should have called ahead. We got there only to find that December was AMERICAN. No way! We ate there anyway, and it was amusing to read the menu. We learned from it that Americans eat corn bread each night for dinner - Heather and I realized we needed to do a better job of that! There's were a little like unrisen biscuits, but overall the food was good and we loved the company:) This was a great and enjoyable day for so many reasons. It restored my enjoyment of Addis and made me ready for what was to come for the rest of our trip. We went to bed that night reliving each minute we got to spend with the girls:)