Ah, another wonderful Ethiopian day. We started early at the orphanage going over paperwork and we had a lot of time to snuggle the babies and play with the older children. I still can’t believe what incredible care the children get. They are so happy. We are also lucky to be sharing this experience with two other adopting families. Our boy Temesgen is wonderful.
He gave me a lot of smiles today and I was amazed at the amount of food this Buddha baby can pack away.
He was so skinny in his referral picture- it is amazing to see how round he is now!! He is still giving Michael the “eye” no matter how much Michael tried to get him to smile. We had the adventure today of picking up a sheep for Christmas dinner at the orphanage. For a gal who spent many years as a vegetarian, literally leading the sheep to slaughter was quite the challenge. Our driver took us to one spot- a small dirt road with lots of sheep roaming around and asked about prices. After arguing back and forth with the guy in Amharic, we all got back in the car because the price was too much and the sheep looked too old.
The second place was along the side of a large highway with sheep milling around in the dust.
Again they haggled for a while and then Dawit turned to me and said which one do you want? As if I know how to pick out a good sheep for dinner! They pulled several sheep out of the herd and stood them up on their hind legs (I’m still not sure what I was suppose to be looking for) and showed us their teeth.
It was Dawit who ended up picking out the sheep and within minutes it was in the trunk of his car. Michael paid them and then some men next to the man we paid started asking for more money for some kind of commission.
Dawit and Michael get back into the car and I try to get back into the car but they wouldn’t let me shut my door and continue holding their hand out. Dawit started driving away and we escaped with my heart beating pretty fast and my door flapping.
At Hope they were thrilled to have the sheep. (Dawit had some cleaning up to do in the trunk) Some of the children clapped. In the US the children would have run up to pet the sheep but here they were happy because they saw dinner. When we left the sheep was tied up in the court yard munching on some dry grass.
We went to the Hilton to exchange money and have lunch. It felt like an extravagant culture shock. After passing through a car check point and going through a metal detector and a security pat down, we passed into the land of the rich. Lush green lawns (the first green thing we have seen here),
an enormous pool, cabanas, fancy stores and several restaurants.
I was once again reminded of such inequality in this world. It made seeing the beggars along the side of the road all the more painful when we left. We then headed to the biggest outside market in Addis to complete the contrast. The best way I can describe it is to imagine taking Canal Street in Manhattan, enlarging it ten fold, don’t take the trash out for a year and construct most of the buildings out of various pieces of tin and you might come close to imagining this market. It is not a tourist place. We were traveling in two cars with the other families and they had a policeman bang on their car and look at them like they were crazy and tell them to roll their windows up. We were stopped by an officer and Dawit was asked to produce his license and then told to get moving.
A few shots of the market.
And finally, a quiet dinner in the hotel that took over two hours and cost eight dollars for Michael and me. Service is Ethiopian style: when they get around to it, but the food was good.
Our US Embassy appointment is tomorrow.
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