Leaving Addis...

The day finally dawned when we had to pack our cases into Selemnah's taxi van at 4:30 a.m. and head off to the airport on our way home.
"Home" ...I thought about this as we wound our way through nearly empty streets and into the airport parking lot. I was heading home to Canada and taking Ayana and Moses away from the only home they had ever known. I felt so sad, heavy-hearted and down. I didn't want to leave Ethiopia and I knew that even though we had pledged to bring the children back to their homeland regularly, it would be a long time before we were back in Africa.
We said goodbye to Selemnah and I stopped myself from crying as we hugged and shook hands in the classic Ethiopian way. It was heartbreaking to see him hold onto the children and wish them good luck in their new country.
We went through security and it took a loooooong time...after all...that pack of unopened crackers looked very threatening.
As we stood at the counter to check in, we heard an unearthly screaming that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Suddenly, a woman came running through the airport terminal, screaming and shrieking. She had a traditional long white Ethiopian shawl wrapped around her and she was running back and forth wildly. As we watched in horrified fascination, a group of men came charging after her, caught her and dragged her away.
Not the best start to a couple of days hard travel!
After another loooong wait at the check in (yes, we were the only ones there at the counter, but something else went wrong), we slowly headed down to passport control, grabbing a drink on the way. All of a sudden, we heard the screaming again and the woman reappeared, only to be wrestled to the floor by security, wrapped up in her own shawl and unceremoniously bundled out of the airport. I wonder what her story was and what happened to her.
Finally we got through passport control and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't know why, but I was scared of passports being wrong or documents incorrect, but all was in order. We were allowed to leave.
The departure lounge was full of so many interesting people. I love to people watch and imagine what each person's story is. There were groups of refugees, holding their UN refugee status bags closely..all they had in the world. I watched as they huddled together, off to start a new life in Europe or North America. There were many Aid/Relief workers and business people, but we were the only visible adoptive family.
As we got onto the plane and settled into our seats, I glanced out of the window and suddenly I couldn't stop the tears. I was so aware of the fact that we were taking these children away from their country with it's incredible history, culture, cuisine, languages, art and music. We were leaving the continent of their birth. It was a very emotional and hard time for me as we took off, leaving the patchwork of Ethiopia below.
I have to say that the trip home was horrific. Moses had two parasites (we discovered later) and he had unbelievable diarrhea almost every hour on the hour. To be buckled into tiny seats and have to grab all the change things and carry a wriggling, tired and fed up baby to be changed was a nightmare. However, the horror of all horrors was as we landed in London, UK.
Security was very intense as there had been the terrorist threats a couple of weeks earlier. We were late getting into Heathrow and could hear our flight being called as we were stood waiting in security. Of course, when I asked the security lady if we could be moved ahead because our flight was being called, we were made to wait even longer. The awful, rude woman got her supervisor to check and double check our bags, carefully checking BABY WIPES for drugs and making me suck on EMPTY bottles...just in case there was some poison in there.
When we were through, Dave asked BA to hold the plane for us, which they said they would do, but then they told us to RUN to the gate, which was a good 20 minute walk away.
So, there we were, running through Heathrow with our bags and our five children. We were frequently paged on the PA system and I ended up in tears.
To arrive on that plane out of breath, crying, heaving little children up the aisles and hear the Captain announce "Well, the family we were waiting for has finally arrived, sorry for the delay" was too much. I just sobbed....not helpful to anyone I know...but I was so overwhelmed.
I promptly sat down and spilled apple juice all over the dear lady sitting next to me, who proved to be an angel for the rest of the flight.
I have mentioned the diarrhea. I have not mentioned that as I frequently stood in the aisle, waiting for the tiny bathroom, with Moses squirming in my arms, other passengers were holding their hands over their faces to try and get away from the gross smell. I haven't mentioned that the flight attendants were walking behind me and baby Moses, spraying disinfectant and air freshener. I haven't mentioned that at one point, as people were literally moving away from me as I stood waiting , that I felt diarrhea dripping right through his sleeper, down my arm and splash onto the floor. It was a low point, a VERY low point!
I would stand in the enclosed bathroom, with the smell to end all smells (those of you who have dealt with this will be laughing right now...), desperately trying to scrub my hands and arms, to splash clean water onto Moses in that ridiculous tiny basin, to change his clothes...throwing most of them away by the way. I would wearily make my way back to our seats, only to repeat the whole thing about an hour later. I have to say, it was worse than a nightmare.
Ayana was fine, crying occasionally, sleeping occasionally, clinging onto these people who had suddenly whisked her away from everything familiar....we couldn't really communicate and it was so hard to be doing this journey without any kind of explanation to her as to why we were running, crying, hurrying, sitting for hours on a plane. When I wasn't changing Moses, I was holding Ayana, who refused to be out of our arms for long. It was hard.
Eventually all things have to come to an end and we arrived in Vancouver...stinky and exhausted...but we had made it! It was over! (We didn't know at that point that ALL our bags had been lost by BA, but that is for next time)
In my next story, I will also share about our incredible welcome party at the airport and then, maybe, I can move onto our life now that we are in Canada.
PS For those who are waiting to travel with their little ones...don't worry...it CAN'T be as bad as our experience and we survived to tell the tale!!!! lol

Frustrating...
I like to blame it on Blogger, but maybe, just maybe it was my fault.
I wrote a HUGE post today about our return trip to Canada...lots of pictures...lots of detail. Just as I was finising, the whole thing suddenly vanished and a little window popped up to say "press OK to continue" and so I pressed OK thinking it meant to continue on with the Blog.
I guess that was my mistake because it continued to shut down Blogger and the screen returned to my screen saver.
I was so mad.
So, when I have recovered and if I haven't thrown this computer through the window, I will write 2 posts (too big for one I have now realised) about coming home.

"Mama again...Mama kisses"

(I promised that I would say hi to my brother David in UK and thank him for reading this blog!! HI DAVE...now you have to leave a comment!! )

One of the problems with doing a reflective type of journal is that so many things are happening every day in the here and now, that I don't get to share right away. I will eventually get round to them and catch up with our lives. In my next post I will share the horror trip home from Addis Ababa, but today I am going to jump through time and share something that happened today. It is important. It is significant.

Today, out of the blue, Ayana suddenly looked at me with a very puzzled look and said,"Amaya?" (mother?) then she shook her head slowly and said "No Amaya"

She touched the little necklace that her birth mother gave to her when they parted. She always wears it, and she said,"Amaya ciao, Amaya cry" (mother bye bye, mother cry)

I tried to stay calm (i.e. not burst into tears) and I asked her if Amaya cried.

"Ow, Amaya cry. Amaya Ermias chi-chee. Amaya ciao" (yes, mother cry. Mother carry Moses( on her back.) Mother bye bye)

Then she looked at me for a few minutes in silence. With a smile, she leaned over to me and said, "mama..again, Mama kisses" and kissed me.

She skipped off and went to play, her usual sunny, bouncy little self. She left me an emotional wreck!

This tiny 2 yr old had suddenly had a vivid memory of her mummy saying goodbye to her, giving her a necklace, crying as she left, carrying her baby brother on her back and saying goodbye to him too as she cried.

What prompted this memory? I have no idea. What have my two little ones been through in their other world, their other life? I have no idea... but I want to preserve this detailed memory. Ayana told me in her innocent little way that she had a mama again and that I was accepted as that mama. I want to be able to burn the image onto my brain of her little earnest face bending over to kiss me, saying "Mama...again. Mama kisses."

We have been given such a task in taking care of these precious children. I hope and pray that I can live up to it.

Last days in Addis...

(This is the view from our guesthouse...it overlooked part of the city but was set back and so the noise was muted..a little!)

It is incredibly sad to leave somewhere that has such special and significant memories and return home again to the world of lattes and washing machines.

Ethiopia is my two youngest children's homeland, their birth family lives(d) here and the language and culture of this beautiful place have washed over them since they first entered this world.

I longed to be back even before I had left. One day we will go back and visit. We will take our little ones back home but for now, we have these memories.....

(Waving to Dave from our window at the guesthouse. Josh is wearing his Ethiopian Rasta' hat.)

This is our room a few hours before we had to leave for the airport...a complete disaster. How do you possibly fit in all those little presents and bits of pottery??

We had to be at the airport at 4:30 a.m which meant getting up at 4 a.m. Not good with five kids ranging from teenage (never want to get up) to babies!

This is a view of the guesthouse. We loved it here.

This is where we sat as a family on our very first day in Ethiopia and just grinned ...we kept telling each other,

"We are in Ethiopia!! We made it!!Can you believe it..arrgghh..I can't believe it!"

This is where we came back and just sat on the bed and cried after we had been to the Hope project and seen the hundreds and hundreds of children living in the slums. This is where Dave and I said to each other that from this moment on, we would do everything we could to make a difference..

This is where we held hands and took deep breaths, just minutes before heading out of the door to see and hold our new babies for the very first time.

This is where we first gave a bottle to Moses and where I first tucked Ayana into sleep.

A lot of firsts in this guesthouse, I would love to come back and stay here, it is very special to me.

New Blogger Stuff:.....

Well, just to let you know that I have been trying to upload stuff onto Blogger but it seems to be having problems? I will be updating and catching up on leaving Addis and coming to Canada as soon as I've figured out how....... very annoying to wait ages for images to upload and then they...disappear.

I'm going to try and post a picture just to see if I've figured it out..so if it works...here is a picture of Ayana on Christmas Day. If you can see it, I did it right!.

Lesley

Last Days in Addis.....

(OK OK I haven't posted for almost a month...sorry)

I wanted to give a few impressions of beautiful Ethiopia before I talk about leaving Africa, returning home and starting life as a family of 7.

We loved Ethiopia. Yes, it is sad and haunting and incredibly heart wrenching. It is also joyful, exhilarating, beautiful and captivating. Much like the Ethiopian people themselves.
So, I am going to do a couple of posts with some of my favourite pictures capturing what we saw of Ethiopia, just to give you a taste of it.


These two boys were very persistent in trying to sell us gum etc through the van window. They were funny, they kept trying to do sad faces and then, they would burst out laughing. They were very taken with our girls and their friend in the back of the van. They were typical little street kids and (we asked ) of course, did not have the chance to go to school...










Another example of creative employment...a very typical scene of a teenaged boy trying to make a little money. If you gave him a "birr" (approx 7 or 8 cents), you could take a picture of him with this cute little pet monkey or have your picture taken with them.
Of course, we had to take a picture, so we gave him a bit of money and he smiled and got the monkey to run up and down his back etc.
For some reason, I always felt sad when kids lined up at the van window trying to scrape a living from the white people....




This is the foyer of the Hilton Addis Hotel where we had to go to exchange money. I say.."had to" because it really was a bit gross to be in a place of such extreme wealth and luxury while kids are lying with their begging mummies outside on the street. I could not stay here.
To even get in, you have to drive through a very poor area and then your vehicle is searched and you go through metal detectors to enter the building. Incidentally, our driver, our wonderful friend, was not allowed to even park in front while we exchanged money...he had to leave and they called him when we were ready to be picked up. As the bank was "not available" for about 40 minutes, our poor driver had to just sit outside the gates waiting for a call. I felt horrible.



Remember when I posted about meeting our Compassion child? Well, this is the group of kids that were watching us meet her. There was a stampede when we got the granola bars out and I tried to make a point of at least shaking hands with each child. They were so lovely, so beautiful, so completely desperate for a loving touch...do you sponsor a child? Doesn't have to be through Compassion.
To even qualify for this program these kids are classed as the poorest of the poor. I like this picture because despite their harsh lives, they are all smiling (and the little girl with a blue hoodie in the top right hand corner has to have one of the sweetest faces I've seen. )

Well, Blogger only allows 4 pictures, so I'll do a few more favourite pictures in the next few blogs before embarking on the trip from hell ...also known as flying back to Vancouver.

Sightseeing in Addis...

On one of our very last days in Ethiopia, I think just two days before we left, the group decided that it would be fun to do a bit more sightseeing in and around Addis. We wanted to go up a nearby mountain, I think Mount Moret (could be wrong) because we had been told of the spectacular views.

We set off in the two vans and it soon became apparent that our van was not going to make it through the city, let alone up a mountainside. As our family was leaving before the rest of the group, we switched vans, got into the healthy van with a few others from the group and everyone else got into the ailing van and limped back to the guesthouse. They would have another chance to see the sights.
Joshua of course hopped up in the front beside the driver and I took this picture of the street over his shoulder. This is typical of anywhere you go, people throng all over the road and vehicles kind of weave in and out! Usually there are a few goats and donkeys to add into the mix.

We started the climb up a winding, beautiful road in order to get our touristy shots and passed so many people struggling up the road that I thought it must be a festival or something. It wasn't a festival but the driver told me that people make their way up to the churches at the top of the mountain as a kind of pilgrimage. Some people ran up to the van and waved money to try and get on, and I have to say I felt a bit colonial as the driver waved them away with a sweep of his hand as we sailed past.


As we neared the top, I thought that the countryside looked familiar. Then it struck me that it actually looked exactly like the views of my home county, Cheshire in England. I took this photo because it reminded me of my home...how ironic is that? I was in the middle of Ethiopia looking at a landscape very similar to England and feeling homesick!
Very beautiful and pastoral, green, (I mentioned about the rains in another post) rolling hills, cattle grazing....

We got out of the van at the top and similarities to England faded as we were immediately approached by a group of young boys, wanting to talk, wanting money.
These boys were fascinated with Joshua (very typical, not many young white boys around!) and so began to tell him all about their lives. I have to say, their English was pretty good and I became captivated by their stories. (The African people I have met are the BEST story tellers, I find myself mesmorised by their tales of life and family.)
The boys told us that they lived nearby and they were shepherds. School was a magical dream...they would love to go but it was too expensive to pay the fees, get the uniforms, and get down the mountainside in order to join in. I asked how much it would be for them to get someone to take them down the mountain every day in order to go to school.
"Many monies " was their sad little reply. "How many monies?" I persisted. They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Maybe two dollars " (equivalent) I thought that was a bit much too until they added, "a month for all of us."
Two dollars a month for all these boys to get down the mountain to go to school??
"It is impossible" they added.
Impossible? I always start to swallow hard and try to tell myself that this is normal, but everything in me screams that it shouldn't be. How much is a coffee for me? How much did I spend, even in Addis, on my precious little presents to take home?
I asked these boys what their dreams were....I knew what the answer would be.
"To go to school" they replied immediately.
Ah, life isn't fair.







They then told us that it was their job to collect the bark from Eucalyptus trees and weave it into whips to scare the hyenas away from their livestock. A boy ran to get his whip and gave us an awesome display of...I guess it would be called whipcracking.
The whip literally cracked like a gunshot and it was LOUD! Easy to understand why the hyenas would take off if they heard that in the dead of night. I took some video and pictures of it and he was so proud.


I got a bit nervous as he danced around cracking the whip pretty close to us, but luckily nobody was hurt. Very cool though.






You will notice that the ground is full of piles of...crap... and we all checked our shoes pretty carefully before we got back into the van, As we left, the boys directly asked us for money and so we gave them a little. It's always so hard to know what to do, but sometimes I just don't care about what is correct and what is not.
Of course, as SOON as we gave them a tiny bit of money there was a group of ragged, children all in a row....
Looking at us with huge, beautiful eyes, bulging tummies, thin faces and white fungus all over their little heads. Pleading.

I recently read Steven Lewis's brilliant book, "Race Against Time" and he writes of meeting a similar little ragged group of children in Africa.
"Time stopped. I looked at these lovely kids...faces shining through the greys of malnutrition, every one of them seeking an adult touch or hug, and I thought about the often unbearable lottery of life. Has there ever been greater injustice in this world"
I can so relate to this.. My mind goes back to all the hundreds of children that I have met both in Uganda and Ethiopia and I ask myself the same question.

Mountains and pilgrims, shepherd boys and Eucalyptus whips....another interesting and fascinating day in Ethiopia.

I went to the Mercato and I bought...gum...




Toward the end of our visit we had the chance to visit the Mercato. This is the largest open air market in Africa and sprawls over many miles. Narrow paths wind in and out of crooked little stalls and take you from blankets to baskets, from pottery to spices and shoes.
Anything that you want, you can find here and we had all been very excited about a chance to visit this famous shopping area in Addis.
Incidentally, we were informed that the Government is wanting to tear down the whole thing and make more formal shopping areas...which sounds sad to me...but then I do not live there and I know that it has a huge crime problem.
Selemnah took our backpack and carried it himself, turning it around and putting it on his chest, with all the pockets tied shut. He told us to empty our pockets and lock everything in the van and he also told me to ask him when it was OK to take pictures. Even though this sounds a bit scary, it really was a great experience and we loved wandering around looking at all the different sections of the market. We saw hundreds of baskets, mounds of rubber boots, spice stalls with piles of gorgeous coloured spices and blankets piled up in wobbly towers.

Of course, the people were friendly and called out to us the whole time to come and buy stuff, joking with Selemnah and grabbing Ayana and Moses to kiss them. This custom of holding out their arms for your children and kissing them was a little different at first, even sometimes a little daunting. At one stall, an old lady held out her arms to hug Moses. I looked over at Selemnah and he nodded and said it was OK. The woman held Moses, kissing him, cuddling and crooning to him and then she said something that made Selemnah shake his head and laugh, then he told her to give him back! Finally she handed him over to me.
Selemnah told me that she said she wanted to keep Moses and that he was beautiful.
At one point a man asked if he could have his picture taken with Joshua and he told Selemnah that he thought Joshua was so cute!
The sights and smells, the array of colour and the sounds of hundreds of people shouting out their bargains and yelling at each other was wonderful, we really enjoyed the whole time there.

In Addis however, as I have mentioned before, there is always something to remind you of the ever present poverty and this market day was no exception. We noticed after walking through the stalls for about ten minutes that we were being followed by a tiny, ragged girl selling gum.
As you walk around, you are often followed by children begging or selling something, but what made this little one stand out was that she never lost sight of us. If we lingered around a stall, we would turn around and she was there. If we went into one of the covered areas, we would emerge to catch a glimpse of her peeping out from behind a stack of blankets. If we were on one side of the road, she would inevitably be trailing along the opposite side of the road, keeping an eye on us. I noticed that sometimes she would suddenly turn and run as fast as she could and I would look around and sure enough, there would be a policeman waving his stick at her....but she would then appear a few minutes later. Over the morning, I saw several people reach out and cuff her on the head as she waited by their stalls and my heart went out to this little child. Finally, Selemnah called to her and she crept over to us and he told her that when we were finished, we would buy some of her gum.
Sure enough, as we walked back to the van, she ran alongside us down the street and we of course all made a big deal of choosing lots of gum. In fact, we bought all the gum that this little girl was carrying and watched her carefully tuck the pittance of money inside her shirt.


Here she is showing us the different flavours.
This was her daily job.
She had to "work" the dangerous market selling gum, getting cuffed by stall owners and threatened by police officers.

















I asked Selemnah if she had parents and she told him she had a mommy and sisters that begged in the market.
I asked him to ask her how old she was....
...she was only four years old.

I almost couldn't take these pictures because I was trying not to cry.
Oh Ethiopia, so beautiful and so tragic.

A Visit to Kechene Pottery.

One day we had the chance to have our wonderful friend, Selemnah, drive our family around for the whole morning...we could go anywhere and we asked him to take us to a pottery and the market place. After driving through Addis for a while, dodging donkeys and cattle, we headed into the Northern section of the town. Selemnah informed us that this was traditionally known as the Jewish Quarter, and many of the Jewish people were skilled at crafts including basket weaving and pottery.

The pottery that we arrived at was a Women's Co-operative, something that I am always glad to support. The women were able to work the hours that they chose, the more they worked, the more they were paid and they also could negotiate their rates etc. They sold their pottery to the market stalls. It was cool to actually go right to the site where they were making the pots instead of buying them from a middle man on a market stall..

As we walked into the dimly lit room, we were met by a circle of women in the middle of a meeting, trying to negotiate for a bigger plot of land to build a new pottery works on. They agreed that we could come in and look around and of course, buy their pottery.

This picture was taken as we left. I went around and shook hands (and kissed that gorgeous little baby!!) We asked Selemnah to translate for us and told the women that their pottery was stunning and that we would be giving it as gifts in Canada...and also that we would let people know about them. (which I am now doing!)
They were so delighted.










This is the display room and it was so hard to choose what to buy and what to leave behind. It was beautiful. There were traditional coffee services, stunning bowls, plates and serving platters.
A lot of the pieces were decorated, it was all hand painted in the most intricate designs. The lady in the picture was one of the painters and she said that the smaller pieces took only about 15 minutes to complete!
We then toured the pottery works which were extremely rough and basic and it was amazing that such beauty could emerge from these squalid little sheds, stuck in the middle of a muddy compound behind an old fence.











As we left, a little group of children magically appeared, as is the case all over Addis...they just appear out of thin air!
They were delighted to pose for me in front of the pottery gates and a couple of the younger ones pretended to be karate champs or something similarly heroic. They screamed with laughter when I showed them this picture!
We gave them fruit bars and granola as we left.













Here is a little glimpse of the road we drove down to find the pottery...























...and the sign telling us that we had found it.


We left the pottery works to go to the market place which I will tell you about in my next post.

(PS...Not one of the many pieces of pottery that we bought got broken on the long journey home...proof of Dave's expert packing!)

Hi there..a few people have asked me for the site address of Hope International that I wrote about a couple of posts back.
(I am delighted not only because people are interested in Hope because of what they read here, but because people are reading this!)
Anyway, here is the link. Check them out...again...they are AWESOME!!!!

www.hope-international.com

Sodiere Hot Springs (Part Two)

OK, first of all, I'm sorry about these huge delays in between posts. I have been busy but that's no excuse!

Anyway, back to the Hot Springs.
As we drove into the resort area, I noticed that it was beautifully situated with profusions of exotic flowers everywhere. It was like a calming oasis in the middle of a red, sun-baked wilderness. After the long, dusty and hot bus ride, it was a welcome relief to stagger out and head into the restaurant for lunch.
There was a traditional dining area set behind screens and an open, more informal area (where we ate) at the front, overlooking a small pool and lovely gardens.

This is the traditional dining room. In the corner, it was all set up for a coffee ceremony with rushes spread on the floor.

Here is Ayana sat at the big table with a menu...she ended up eating some injera dipped in various sauces from our plates.

After the meal which was really good and a lovely long glass of chilled Mirinda, (Ethiopia's equivalent to Orange Crush which is totally addicting) we piled back in the van and headed off to the actual pools fed by the Hot Springs.

En route, we made a little stop to look at and feed a troop of monkeys that were (literally) hanging out beside the road.

As we went into the bathing area, we noticed that there was a beautiful, large pool complete with diving boards and a tiny shallow area that was cordoned off. It was similar to a little kids pool attached to an adult pool here in Canada. The big, spacious pool had about ten people in it, all hanging onto the side. There were a couple of adults swimming lengths. The tiny, shallow pool was completely full of people, adults and children, so crowded that they were basically all standing still as there was no room to even breathe.

We went to the side, found some chairs in the shade, and then the braver members of our group emerged from the changing rooms and stood looking at the two pools...mmmm...tiny pool crowded with people OR a lovely big empty pool with diving boards. My son could not believe his luck as he ran with joy and dove into the big pool, hauled himself out and ran over to the diving boards. He climbed up and waited behind three big Ethiopian teenagers. He waited and waited as they just stood and stared at the water and then he asked if he could go past them. They looked at him in complete shock and moved aside. As he jumped off with a loud "YEAH", they covered their mouths with their hands, their eyes as big as dinner plates. I'm still not sure whether they were scared for Joshua or horrified that his mother was at the side cheering her son on in this madness. (Of course, my camera battery ran out at this point so I can not show pictures.)

We then realised that the Ethiopian people were scared of water...of course not all are...but we asked Deb and she confirmed that most Ethiopian people do not have the chance to go swimming and the rivers etc are often crocodile infested. Remember that the Hot Springs are for the wealthy only, and it is a rare thing to go swimming as a recreational activity. Hence, everybody crowded into a shallow little pool and almost had a heart attack when a little 9 yr old boy calmly jumped off the high diving board.

Soon Joshua had a little fan club going, with a line up of teenage boys all hanging onto the side and cheering as he jumped into the water. Joshua LOVES to perform so he was doing starfish jumps and flips to the awe of his followers. Selemnah had accompanied us and he was not scared of the water, jumping in with Josh and having a great time.

It was actually quite relaxing for me, which is not often the case at a swimming pool. Usually, I am constantly scanning the water to make sure that I can see my kids the whole time. Here, I just sat and could easily spot my little blonde son and my daughters in the middle of crowds of Ethiopian people!

Ayana went into the water with Erin and Megan and loved it, but Moses sat out with me and did one of his famous exploding diapers. He was covered from head to foot and so was the stroller. I will say no more on this other than it is truly a unique African experience to change an awful diaper with one hand and to swat clouds of flies off with the other hand.

The drive home was wonderful until we hit Addis. There was a huge traffic jam and major congestion throughout the whole city because people had heard that gas prices were going up the next day...so every taxi, bus and car was out filling up at the lower price. We crawled through Addis with a bus load of very tired, hungry and fed up children adding an extra TWO HOURS onto the already long and hot trip. We loved the day but were so relieved to see the guest house, and the food we ordered in tasted extra special that night!

Immunization...

Taking a little break from Sodiere Hot Springs to let you know that Ayana and Moses had their first round of "catch up" immunizations today.
I don't know how you feel about immunizations, (I have a couple of friends that don't "agree"), but I have to say that I feel it is a privilege to be able to have a shot and be immunized from a childhood disease. When you see kids dying from very preventable things in third world countries, I think that we are so lucky to have the luxury of protecting our children. There, that is my only rant I promise...I could go on, but I won't.
I started the morning with them both in the bath getting washed with divine Winnie The Pooh soap, the smell is so delicious and they looked adorable in new little outfits. I wanted them to look great for their first trip to Public Health.
Of course, they had other plans and Moses did an explosive diarrhea diaper just minutes before we needed to leave, covering his entire outfit and Ayana had an accident (very rare actually) and was crying because she was wet. Needless to say, they were put into whatever was clean and ready to grab out of the closet and they didn't smell too sweet. Such is parenting.

When it was our turn, the nurse was trying to talk to Ayana, and she was saying "Ow" (not sure of spelling) which means "yes" in Amharic, but the nurse thought that she was scared and was saying "ow" for pain. She was repeatedly telling her everything would be OK, and she kept telling me how brave Ayana was. Eventually I just had to tell her that Ayana was actually just saying "yes" to everything and wasn't really aware that she was getting shots because I can't explain that to her yet.
Then Ayana said "shinti" which means that she needs to go to the bathroom. I was putting Moses into the stroller and so couldn't get to her right away and Ayana kept saying shinti and the nurse kept saying, "yes, shh for the sleeping babies, shh" Again I had to say that she meant bathroom, it was funny.
Ayana really screamed the place down and would only be comforted by sitting in my lap with her face buried into my shoulder...sobbing "mama, mama"
Although I was sad that she was hurting, I was happy to see her look to me for comfort and reassurance.
Moses did his famous grin in between shots and the nurse and student nurse both said that children don't usually smile and coo during immunizations. He then promptly screamed so loud for his next shot that my ears hurt.
He did enjoy batting a little bell right out of the nurses hands though, the sound it made as it rolled away was highly entertaining for him. He also enjoyed chewing up and spitting out the schedule for their next shots.
The nurse was really wonderful and so helpful and lovely with the kids, she made the whole experience as positive as a trip to the clinic could be. I have her card to specifically request her next time.
So, that was my day.

More scenes from our journey to Sodiere...

Lots of horses pulling little carts like taxis and also working as you can see here.

Typical scene of a lady driving a donkey along. Maybe she is going to market...

Some of the ever present, beautiful children of Ethiopia...running to catch up with the bus.

Some Scenes on our Way to Sodiere...




Donkeys are loaded up with incredibly huge burdens.

You have to watch where you step!

A typical house in the country...

(Very impressed with this shot as it was taken by my daughter sticking the camera out of the bus window and clicking randomly. Not bad!)

Blogger is only letting me load three pictures at a time and so I will do another post with three more.

A Fun Daytrip... (Part One)

On Saturday 26th August the whole group set off on a daytrip to one of Ethiopia's famous tourist areas...Sodiere Hot Springs. Actually, Joanne and Rick didn't get to go as the deadly tummy bug had hit Joanne...we promised to take lots of pictures... :(

The Hot Springs are located about 4 hours drive south from Addis Ababa, I was really excited to go as it meant seeing a part of Ethiopia that I had not seen yet. Spirits were high as we all trooped onto the bus, little snacks were neatly tucked into backpacks and water bottles were lined up.

Addis Ababa is at a very high elevation (can't remember what it is right now, but will get back to you with that info!) and so being in the middle of rainy season, the weather was actually quite cool and blustery. However, as we drove out of Addis and headed South, the temp picked up and the scenery started to change. We passed acres of industrial looking compounds which turned into mile upon mile of agricultural land. Fields were bursting with crops ripe for harvest and stunning flowers bloomed in profusion. I asked Deb (our trip leaderand agency director) if it was unusually green and she agreed that it was the most green/lush she had seen in ten years. She went on to remind us that there was terrible flooding further South which was displacing people and destroying land.

I thought again about this being a land of contrast...more rain than usual had turned the area we drove through into a paradise, but the excess rain further South was causing death and destruction.

We stopped at a beautiful lake and took a break (picture above...note how green!) As we walked around part of the lake we were followed by a group of young guys in a boat slowly edging along the waters edge. They were asking if we wanted a ride in the boat, only 5 Birr (CHEAP) and they would take us right around the lake. Selemnah, our driver and friend just started to laugh and laugh and then told us maybe not to go in the boat. We all agreed that it had probably last had a safety check circa 1900 and I had visions of us getting to the middle of the lake, without life jackets and the boat starting to sink. I asked Selemnah if there were cocodiles, "Of course" was his reply.

We continued onto Sodiere, with the heat rising and the scenery again changing. It became more rocky and dusty as we wove into the valleys and chugged up through the hills. We started to come across lots of traditional huts, and clusters of tiny mud houses making up little villages, home to the farmers working the fields. As we entered towns, the bus would slow down and crowds of children would suddenly appear as if out of thin air, pushing their hands through open windows offering everything from tissue paper to baby alligators for us to buy. It actually came as quite a shock to be confronted with a baby turtle being thrust into my face, it's wrinkled legs frantically waving back and forth. Little beady eyes stared balefully at me as if to say, "Buy me or let me go..please" Of course, the children on the bus were highly entertained. One boy in the crowd was wearing a Manchester United T. shirt. It was so incongrous to me, I was in the middle of Ethiopia and there was Man Utd! (I am English for those that don't know and grew up very near Manchester...my brother is a dedicated Man U fan!) I pointed to him with a thumbs up sign and said "Man U!!" He totally understood, pointing at his T. shirt and laughing. (On the way home, we again passed the same crowd of kids. Suddenly there was a knock on my window as we slowed and there was the Man U fan waving at me and shouting Man U, Man U! Funny.)

We finally arrived at Sodiere and had to pass through a check point to get in. I need to explain that the Hot Springs are for VERY wealthy Ethiopians and tourists, nobody else would ever have the means to get all the way there and then pay the entrance fee, just to go... and ...do nothing but have fun? Life in Ethiopia is too hard for that and so we were quite concious of the fact that we were very priviledged to even be there.

(Part Two will be posted shortly)

I will quickly show you some pictures of the countryside etc...I'll have to open another post though :)

Home Visits...

(I actually didn't take my camera into the slum area, as we were visiting homes of people that I didn't know. Wherever you go in places like this, there are always crowds of people following and I didn't want to be insensitive to the fact that I was entering their homes. I wish I could be invisible sometimes and not have to school my face to be neutral in front of people watching my every expression. Consequently, there are no pictures ...sorry! I know it's way more interesting to see pictures than to "listen" to me...but there you go!)

I mentioned that I would tell you about the home of the kids in the project.
We left the school and were almost immediately in the slums. When I say slums, I mean bits of iron or cardboard or whatever other material, all thrown together in a seemingly solid mass, with winding alleyways inbetween. The alleys or "streets" were just rough stones and dirt and as Freihwot led us in, she told us to watch our step.
Mmmmm, let me see now, would that be because it was rainy season and the ground was a slippery mess or would that be to avoid the piles and oozings of human waste??

We went into a little shack, probably half the size of the office that I am writing in right now. It was very dim and damp. Here we met a lady that rented a rag on the floor to sleep on. She had three children, two year old twins and a five year old daughter. The daughter was at the school we had just left but the twins were there and I felt my stomach do a flip when I saw them.
I knew they were going to die soon, they were about the size of healthy 6-8 month olds here.
They had that pitiful, mewing sound of hunger and misery. The floor of the shack was squelchy and the smell....
I asked where they cooked and the woman led me outside and just pointed at the ground to a blackened pile of wood. Again, there were piles of human waste everywhere with the obligatory clouds of flies.
Freihwot told me there were three families in this place, a total of ten people. She had not just invaded this woman's privacy to "show" us the home, she had had a message from the woman that day to come and see her. This lady had taken her twins to the clinic and been handed some medicine but didn't know what it was for, she needed someone to read the bottle of pills to her and explain how to give them to the babies. It turned out that it was medication for epilepsy...she said she didn't know what that was.
I smiled as she bowed and shook my hand and thanked us for visiting...these people were truly gracious and beautiful. My fake expression stayed plastered on my face as every couple of minutes or so, another woman would come and beg to be part of the program. Inside I was crying.
Freihwot said that there just aren't the resources or the staff to take in more families.
Why don't you look up Hope International and see how you can help out?

I feel so sad when I remember that place, it is full of people hurting, hungry, sick and desperate. I think of my life and I feel ashamed. Not because I have "stuff" particularly, but because I often seem to want something else. Something that will ease my already comfortable existence. Something that will make me feel even better about myself or my family or...you get the picture.

I don't want to paint this picture of Ethiopia being all complete misery and sadness, I am just going through some of my experiences while there and the impressions that the country and people left on me. I LOVED Ethiopia.
I was telling a friend recently that Africa has a way of charming you and getting into your blood, so that you feel a deep connection. It also has a way of being so disturbing and heartbreaking that you think you will not ever be the same, not ever... and maybe that's a good thing.

Pictures belonging to my last post...


This is the beautiful child I introduced last as "little David".

Look at that face!




















This is minutes after getting out of the van...











Dave talking to Frehiwot...truly an angel in disguise. When I asked her how she coped with all this sadness and poverty, she told me that she prays about it every day and then leaves it up to God.."I can't do anything, he'll have to do it" was her response.
I have the deepest admiration for this woman.

Introducing..."Little David"

(As usual, this post is too large, I will post a picture of little David and a couple of the children in my next post. Also, in my next post I will tell you about visiting the slum that these children call home)

We had the honor while we were in Addis Ababa, of visiting one of the projects of an organization very close to our hearts. It is called Hope International Development Agency ( look it up, it's awesome)

We have supported this agency for many years and were really delighted when it was arranged for us to be dropped at one of their sites in Addis, and get a glimpse at the work being carried out at the grass roots level.
We visited a school that is being run for the orphaned and street children of Addis. When we arrived, we had a brief overview of the project, meeting all the staff and the incredible Project leader, Freihwot.
After she had given a small tour of the offices and the newly constructed HIV/Aids clinic, (the waiting shelter was enormous and hundreds of people come to get the free testing..much needed), we went to the school to meet the children.
I was constantly reminded of opposites while driving around Addis, especially the back streets and into the slum areas.
Full/empty, rich/poor, have/have-not, joy/sorrow, beautiful/ugly, peace/anguish...the list went on and on in my head. I watched as kids played with stones at the side of the road. Dirty, hungry, wrapped tightly in poverty, and yet they would jump up with huge grins and wave frantically, screaming with delight if you smiled or blew kisses to them.

The school was actually an experiment of doing "Summer school", which I think just meant that the kids got a meal when "official" school was out. We entered into the facility that was being lent to Hope by a local public school and we couldn't get out of the van because of the crowds of children thronging around to greet us.

I get a lump in my throat when confronted face to face with these crowds of orphaned children. These are not looking at me from the T.V or out of a magazine, these are real, warm little children bumping into me and scrambling to hold just one of my fingers...yes, I usually walk around with ten children hanging onto my arms!
I look into their eyes, and realise that they are looking at me like an alien has just dropped out of the sky. We are so far removed from each other on so many levels. They have no idea of my life or my lifestyle and yet they know it feels good when I hold their little hands. I always have to swallow hard as I kneel down and hug them, because I think to myself,
"Right now, at this moment in time, they are actually happy"
I love to give "high fives" and stroke their hair and show them their picture on my camera, always a huge hit.
We stood in the middle of a crowd of the younger children and had a few pictures taken and suddenly, I felt as though I just could not take another minute of this. I found it hard to breathe, my eyes started to run with tears and my heart felt as though it was in a press. I had an overwhelming urge to scream about the injustice of this. These were little kids, they shouldn't have to be scrambling to get their own food, watching their parents die and taking care of siblings.
I thought that if I could just get everyone I knew on a plane and stand them in the middle of this crowd of children, then we could all help to raise awareness. We could really do something. I mean, we could...right????
I pleaded with God.
"Where are you?, You cannot be here in this mess, where are you for these children?"
I felt a tug on my arm and a little face beamed up at me,
"Photo?"
I was introduced to "little David" he was an orphan (of course), he smelled very bad, he was in filthy clothes, I could see the lice in his hair...and he was beautiful...just beautiful. I wanted to take him home.
I took a picture of this little boy looking up at me because he wouldn't let me walk away, he just hung onto my hand and then clung onto my leg as I started to walk.

I watched Frehiwot with all the kids, smiling at them, laughing with them, hugging them and I suddenly thought...you ARE here God. You are working through these staff tirelessly slogging it out in these awful conditions, you are here as Hope reaches out to children and families like this all over the country (the world).

All the children kept looking at Moses and Ayana and saying something over and over, trying to touch them, trying to stroke their hair...
Frehiwot explained that they were asking why we had black children with us. She said that she had told them that we had adopted them.
They were just wanting to touch them. She said that they were saying,
"These are the lucky ones"

I think a little piece of my heart actually did break that day.

A Trip to The Hospital...

Well, I will take a quick break from reliving our Ethiopian trip to let you know that our baby boy spent the better part of the night last night in Children's Hospital.

He had a fever for the last couple of days, but last night it wouldn't go down and in fact was steadily climbing...when it got to 39.4 and wasn't responding to meds, we decided to take him in.

We left home at 8:20 p.m, arrived at the hospital at 9 p.m. and then started the marathon evening of tests, needles and more tests. As Moses is from Ethiopia and does not have an established immunization history yet, they seemed worried about infections and "nasty things from Africa growing in the blood" (direct quote!) At one point, a Dr. said to us that if he was "just" a "regular" kid coming in, he would have been discharged way earlier and we would have been told it was just a virus.

Now...the staff were actually wonderful and fantastic with Moses, but it was a little disheartening to have several medical people all wanting different tests, just because he recently came from Africa. I know WHY they wanted to do it, and I CAN see the wisdom in it, but it meant Dave and I being stuck in the E.R. for 6 hours while they took blood from his arm, mucus from his little nose, and poked, prodded and tested him ad nauseum.

I remember at 12:30, Dave and I just looked at each other and almost died laughing because Moses had morphed into "hyper-baby"...I don't know if it was the stronger fever meds they gave him to bring his fever down or what...but he was hysterically funny. He was laughing LOUDLY, throwing his arms in the air, throwing things off the bed, blowing raspberries at us, kicking his legs up and banging them on the bed over and over...and then lying down and laughing again. All the other babies in the E.R. were crying and screaming, and we were trying to stop Moses from laughing so loud.

He didn't laugh at the bloodwork or the nasal collection or having a little urine bag attached...that wasn't funny. Eventually the bloodwork and other results arrived and sure enough, it was "just" a regular virus. Maybe his little body wasn't used to our horrible Canadian viruses...maybe he's only used to African viruses, I don't know.

The final funny episode (funny now, not then) was that we were kept for the last hour just until he peed into the little urine bag so that they could check his pee. They kept coming and checking if he had peed (remember he had the bag on for 6 HOURS) and finally they said they were going to have to put a baby catheter in. A few minutes later the Dr. came back and said that they didn't need the urine sample any more...and of course Moses filled the bag to the top...straight away! His leaving present was an enormous poopy diaper that leaked out all over the sheets and the bed...the smell was horrific and we quickly made our exit. We arrived home after 4 a.m. What an experience.

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

I can not even describe for you the excitement that we all felt as we left the guest house to pick up Ayana and Moses...they were going to be a part of our family forever now. (here are Erin, Megan and Joshua as we set off!)

The vans were not as quiet as the previous day as we traveled along. People felt happy, anxious, nervous, chatty and giddy with excitement...we now knew the route to the foster home ...I felt like cheering as we turned into the bumpy dirt track leading up to the gates.

Unlike the day before, we all went in together and sat in the living room waiting for the children.

Suddenly, the nannies started to slowly enter the room, all carrying a baby or leading a child by the hand. My eyes filled with tears (yes...I cried again folks!) as I spotted a beautiful, smiling woman carrying Ayana in, she was all dressed up in the special outfit that we had chosen for this incredibly momentous day. Then there was another nanny with Moses and before we knew it, we had been handed these children FOREVER!

I again marveled at the enormity of it all, our family was now a family of seven, I had five children to care for! Ayana and Moses were a bit stunned and again looked around the room for a while before really looking at us. Moses was quite fast with his smiles this time and even laughed as we tickled him...a big open mouthed smile that we now know and love. Ayana seemed slightly more relaxed, but still smiled with a forced anxious smile if we caught her eye.

We had about 10-15 minutes with the head of the foster home, a wonderful woman that loves these children so much. She went over their routines, likes and dislikes and tried to answer any questions that we had. How do you prepare a list of questions to enable you to take over the care of two children? We asked about sleep, soothing methods, toilet training, foods, birth history etc, but it was so fast and emotional that I forgot most of what was said to me. Dave took notes thank goodness!

Every family had a chance to spend time with the head woman and then we said goodbye to the caregivers, we got to take lots of pictures of them with the children. It will be an awesome memory to share with them as they get older...we will be able to say, "Look, these women looked after you and loved you...here you are with them when we picked you up."

The nannies kissed the children and hugged them goodbye. It was so incredibly moving to watch these women saying goodbye to the children that they have taken care of and grown to love over the last few months. They sang with them, stroking their faces and kissing them. They picked them up and cuddled them, cooing to them in Amharic, gently touching their hair. Every single woman was crying as they said a final goodbye and as we walked out, holding our children, they came running out for one last cuddle, one last kiss.....everyone was sobbing as we left, it was just so overwhelming. We will never see those women again, but I know that they were sweet and gentle and loving and giving with our children...I have the deepest admiration for them.

I will post some pictures of Gotcha Day in the next post as this post is ...again!!!...too big for images.