ETHIOPIA

Wednesday afternoon, September 16th, Elaine, Yeen - Lan and I left for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I was very surprised to find a very modern, efficient airport. There was even a jet way, most times we have walk down stairs and up to the plane or vice versa.  The driver is on the left side of the car rather than the right. We stayed at a nice hotel though from the outside it looked rather questionable.
After a night's rest, breakfast and some shopping we were picked up by Dan, the village director, from the Rafiki Village for some shopping before leaving for Mojo where the village is located. Shopping was great and Dan knew where to take us and how to help us with the currency. It was inexpensive and I got some really good buys.

Walking through the streets is interesting, a lot of people trying to sell you something. It was pretty funny when someone tried to sell me a live chicken.

In Ethiopia for  3 days I was 7 years younger.  They had just celebrated the New Year.  It is 2002 in Ethiopia.  They also are celebrating Ramadan in Ethiopia and Kenya.  Monday is a holiday here.

The Village we visited still doesn't have any children, other than the 6 children of the ROS.  They have 3 very young, wonderful women training to be Mamas.  The first 2 children are expected to be brought in next week if the final papers can be signed.  A little boy and a girl were brought in for screening on Thursday.  The little boy would have stayed, he cried when they had to  take him to where he was staying.  The  little girl was with her elderly grandmother and was much more reserved.  Hopefully, they will pass the screening and be in first group of long awaited children.  The grandmother will be left with the comforting feeling that she brought her child to a good place.  These children are orphaned and come from very poor situations. No one accompanied the little boy and it was evident that the little girl's grandmother was very poor and could not take care of her grandchild. The village is set in a very beautiful, peaceful setting. Soon the voices and songs of the little children will echo through the Village

I spent most of thursday organizing a pharmacy from all the supplies we brought in, Elaine went into town for more medications which I inventoried Friday morning.  Elaine saw several workers while I finished organizing, then did a quick class on emergency care for the mamas and staff.  Then we all went for lunch  with the 2 ROS families before heading back to Addis Ababa, did some shopping and had dinner before retiring for the night.  We had quite a time ordering our dinner.  The English spoken here is not as easy to understand as in some countries.  This is also a challenge for the ROS as they work to set up the village.  The mama's here are  learning to speak English.   English is taught in the schools but not spoken in the classroom.

We left for the airport around 7:30 am.   We were up graded to first class on the airline.  We had to get a sticker  for boarding order and were standing near the desk when an attendant asked for our boarding pass and upgraded us. We were originally in the back of the plane.  As Yeen - Lan says, "We are in His Majesty's service."

Ethiopia's country side is beautiful. It is just coming to the end of the rainy season so everything was very green.  We even has some rain showers. Here in Kenya it is very, very dry. Ethiopia is like being in 2 cultures at the same time, a country struggling out of the past into the future.  They now have a democratic government out of what was a communist regime, but the remanent of the past government still is there.

I am truly blessed. This was a wonderful experience.  Would you believe that we had lunch in a restaurant owned and run by 2 men, one from Bellevue, Washington and another from Texas?  The food was excellent.