Day 3....adventure in Ethiopia!!!!

Day 3…..oh boy. So, the day started normal…got up and headed out to the TH to see the kids. It was fun because all the older kids were there having school. Emi and Tadele came running to us again! :) Soon we were asked to go speak with the TH psychologist as a family. His name was Emmanuel. He said that the only thing that he needed to tell us about them is that they both have been waiting for us for a long time and they are anxious to go with us (ya….waiting since November!). He interpreted for us and asked them to tell us what their brother and sister’s names were, and they smiled and said, “Hannah and Abrham”. Very cute. Next we were called to the TH doctor’s office. Again, all is well. Good reports all around. The amazing thing was that we didn’t know Tadele was so malnourished when he arrived. They said that he was underweight and sick. He has gained 14 pounds in a year….and he’s still skinny, so we can’t imagine how weak and sick he must have been. We are so happy he made it there to get help! After that we were taken over to the older kids’ TH. That was so cool because we got to take pictures of their beds, etc. It was nice and clean and the nannies and teachers were so nice. When we left the kids looked a little sad so we asked one of the teachers to explain that we would be back tomorrow, so they both smiled and hugged us. Then Tadele just pipes up with, “see ya tomorrow” in English. Too cute. We went for lunch at Lucy’s and I didn’t realize how big the pizza was. It was only 60 birr, which is $4.00 so I thought it was a personal pizza. No, it was more like a large! So good though. I only ate 3 slices and brought the rest back here for later. The cat under the table got a little of it too. :)


So, now for the not normal part of the day! We all went in 3 vans to go shopping at the “post office”. Who knows why it is called that, it’s a long strip of teeny souvenir shops. Each with it’s own owner, beckoning you to come inside and look at their things for sale. There were about 25 of us who went shopping in the 3 vans. Well, Ted and I had a list of important things to get, and got really into it. One of the shops we remembered was way up at the end, over a mound of gravel that had just been dumped in the street. We wanted to go there to buy some traditional clothing. I guess we lost track of time because when we got that feeling that we should head back, there was no one around us. So we walked faster. We got back to the vans, but there were no vans. There were no people from our group, none of our guides….nothing. Basically for me, the world started spinning. We couldn’t speak Amharic to even tell anyone that we were lost, and this city is so gigantic, and there are 8 million people, and we looked like big targets. Of course I didn’t have the emergency contact numbers in my backpack either!!!!! No phone, nothing. Ted and I just stood there staring and the traffic going by for about 5 minutes. I got this idea….one of the shops we went to had a really nice guy that worked there and he had been funny and joking with us when we were shopping. When I has asked him how much the scarves were he had told me, “pick out what you want, then bring them here, and we can have a discussion about it.” David our driver had been there for that part. So….I thought maybe that man could speak enough English to help us. We walked in and I blurted out, “we need help!”

In the end, two boys aged 14 and 15 helped us get back to the guest house!!!! And all they asked for in return is that when we come back for embassy we bring them each a pair of tennis shoes! They were so sweet. One was attending school here sponsored by a family from the U.S. The other was putting his way through school by selling gum! Remind us to tell you the rest of the story next time we see you.