Trip to Ethiopia!

So we’re home from Addis Ababa…I know a few soon-to-be-traveling-themselves adoptive parents read this journal so I’ll go into some detail that might bore the general public…feel free to skim!



Travel:

We flew Ethiopian Airlines (DC to fuel stop in Rome to Addis)…not that I have much to compare it to, but it was a good flight! No hitches for check-in (although I’d stick close to the gate because they didn’t actually announce boarding…everyone just started to line up), they fed you quite regularly, our luggage arrived the same time and place we did. We met Ato Teklu (the man who runs the Addis Ababa side of WACAP’s Ethiopia program) at the airport and made it to the TDS guesthouse around 10pm or so.



Lodging:

TDS guesthouse is BEAUTIFUL (see photos). I really enjoyed staying there. They served an amazing breakfast to their guests 7-10am every morning (cereal, papaya juice with a slice of lime, fruit usually fresh papaya and pineapple, some sort of egg or potato, sometimes waffles, breads and toast with jam, butter or honey, and COFFEE. Oh the coffee! SO GOOD!!!). Lots of the staff spoke English and were really friendly and pleasant to chat with. All the staff cooed and talked to the babies, even the guards outside the driveway doors. They provided us with a crib, although we ended up just having Claire sleep on the bed next to us that we pushed next to ours. They have a laundry service that we utilized and there’s soda (pepsi and orange mirinda), beer (st. george) and bottled water in the mini fridges in the room for a few US cents a bottle. Our seven days with laundry and drinks add-ons cost about US$480. Fantastic!



Food:

We ate out A LOT. I’m not in favor of the occupation of another country, but Italy left behind some amazing influences in food! I ate pizza and pasta quite often. Lent is a great time to travel if you’re a vegetarian—Ethiopian Orthodox Christians don’t eat cheese or meat during this time of year. Even with a language barrier most folks know the word “fasting” so I was confident I’d get a meal I was able to eat. Touristy restaurants (the TDS hotel around the corner from the guesthouse for example) cost about 50 to 60 birr a meal. A restaurant for locals might cost 10 to 20 birr for a meal (that’s US$1 to $2!!!). The guesthouse does have a kitchen with pots and pans and dishes so if you’d rather eat-in, the markets have canned tuna, pasta and the like. One night Ato Teklu and his wife brought us all to Yod Abyssinia, a restaurant that serves traditional Ethiopian food (fasting and meat/cheese) and has a stage with musicians and traditional dancers. It was mind blowing—my body wouldn’t be able to move like that if my life depended on it. If you haven’t seen Ethiopian dancing, you’ll have to google it. It’s amazing!



Transportation:

Ato Teklu and the WACAP staff drove us everywhere we needed to go—to the WACAP house, the embassy, an afternoon outing to the mountains, souvenir shopping in the market (be prepared to haggle)...If you have anything in mind that you want to go to (touristy or an orphanage or something) Ato Teklu will get you there! You could take a cab (the blue cars that are EVERYWHERE) but he’d rather take you himself. There’s tons of stuff within walking distance of the guesthouse as well.



Interesting note about driving in Addis—there are NO stoplights, traffic signs, or street signs (except for the occasional ones in the larger areas of the city). There’s room for a four to six cars across, but no actual lanes are marked. It was wild! And yet I only saw one actually fender bender while I was there. I see more than that in St. Paul MN on a regular basis.



WACAP house:

So Thursday night we got to Addis we went out to eat a VERY late dinner and then went to bed. Friday morning at 10 am we met in the sitting room of the guesthouse to leave for our first visit to WACAP house! It’s only a few minutes away. They led us to the playroom area for the coffee ceremony and brought our children in. I liked having all the families together for the first meeting because everyone got to take pictures of everyone else and all ooh and ahh over each other’s kids! The nannies were there and I got to meet the woman who had taken care of Claire when she was so sick. I got to see how she played with her, comforted her, changed her diaper, how she fed her, etc. Some of the nannies spoke English and Ato Teklu was always there to translate as well. We were there a couple hours a day (didn’t feel like that long) and we got to play with all the children—they played with the toys that the families brought (soccer, bubbles, jumpropes) and all the children were very affectionate and wanted to play with you or touch your hair or sit on your lap. It was a hoot!



We went Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday we went back to pick up our children to bring with us back to the guest house permanently. (the families that were just there to visit their children pre-courtdate went back to visit in the next days). It was difficult, having a child you just met and barely know in an environment that you are not familiar with…and it was heaven at the same time.



We went back to WACAP house on Wednesday, the day before going home, for one last goodbye ceremony. The kids and nannies got to say goodbye to Claire and our favorite nanny even cried! I can tell they love those kids so much. I can’t express how wonderful that feels.



Flight home:

LONGEST FLIGHT OF MY LIFE. We left for the airport at 7pm Addis time on Thursday and arrived in St. Paul around 4pm central time on Friday. That’s about 25 hours in transit. Claire was actually really good—she slept during all the take offs and landings and for the most part was only cranky when she was hungry. The problem was that we all stunk like baby poo and formula vomit and b.o. and we didn’t get more than a few minutes sleep at a time. I’d never been so happy to get home. I even cried when we landed in DC. Cute story—there was a little boy about 6 or 7 years old on the flight with his new adopted family and when we landed in DC, he starts shouting, “Amer-ee-ca! Amer-ee-ca!” over and over again. He was so excited!!

The night before we leave for Africa...

It's 9pm and we've only just begun packing. I've been THINKING about packing for weeks now, even made a list; but the actual act of packing is daunting. I'm not even finished with laundry yet and I've decided it doesn't matter if the house is not cleaned.

The taxi comes at 10am tomorrow morning and then we're off! Hopefully we'll be able to update from the hotel. If not, we'll keep notes and catch up after we get home on the 27th!

Update on Visa Situation

Not TWO MINUTES after posting that last entry about the visa problems, I get a phone call from our case worker saying that the National Office received the paperwork today, processed it and it is already on its way to Ethiopia!

So we should be fine! Huzzah! Praise God! Alhamdulillah! Baruch HaShem! Howeveryouwanttosayit! It's all good.

Getting Ready to Travel

Well, We travel in a week and a half! We're getting everything ready--bought another suitcase for all the diapers, getting piles of Claire's new clothes and linens to wash and have ready for her, planning the trip to the bank for travelers checks...

There's only one hitch...the local office of the USCIS (immigration) FORGOT to send on Claire's visa paperwork to be processed at the national office. They don't answer their phone for some reason (not even the National Office can get a hold of the St. Paul office) so it took awhile to get a hold of someone we could talk to. So it's being rushed, but if it doesn't get forwarded to Ethiopia in time, the Embassy won't give us an appointment while we're there and then we can't get Claire out of the country.

God willing, inshallah, mertishem, howeveryouwanttosayit, everything will go just fine and Ethiopia will get the paperwork on time.