Congo Elections 2011

The Democratic Republic of Congo is in the midst of their first nation wide election in over 35 years. Voting Poles in Congo are being extended until today to compensate for the amount of people that were not able to vote yesterday. Voting centers have been chaotic and have run out of ballots and have even had to make people walk in the mud and rain to get to other polling stations. Congo is experiencing a lot of tension right now between supporters of current president Joseph Kabila and those that are taking drastic measures to ensure Prime Minister Étienne Tshisekedi is elected. People transporting ballot boxes from remote regions are being tragically attacked and killed to prevent their votes from being counted. Some claim that ballot boxes are being stuffed and tampered with and as a result violence is breaking out across the country that believe this election is becoming illegitimate.

Please pray for these elections as more violence is bound to erupt from those opposed to the candidate after the winner is announced.

I found a couple articles along with a video that explains what is going on right now if want to read more.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/29/world/africa/congo-elections/

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/DRC-Voting-Extended-to-Tuesday-After-Violence-Late-Delivery-of-Ballots-134643203.html

Congo Video

Here's a short video of pictures and footage I took in Congo a couple months back.

Enjoy!

Congo: Day 5 Final Post!

It doesn't get much crazier then this.

This trip has become a complete turn around. On our first day here we were almost kicked out of the country, didn't feel like we were even accepted here, and weren't even sure if we WANTED to stay after everything that happened. But after our last day here I wanted nothing more then to spend at least one more day in Congo. I had just reached the point of enjoying being here and it was time to go. I'll explain...

In the morning we went Eden and it no longer felt like we were strangers to these kids. We were greeted by name and with lots of hugs and love, and I think they could tell that we loved them too. While my mom went off to take care of important things, the kids dragged me by the hand to play checkers with them. They were using a home made version with cardboard and bottle caps for pieces. And for the first time I really started to feel what it must be like living here. On our first 2 walk-thru's I felt more like just an observer, feeling sorry for the kids living in these conditions. But sitting there in the dark, on this rickety table, playing on this sorry excuse for a game, knowing that there wasn't much else for them to do, it made me wish even more that that there was more I could do. But they were still being funny and silly and before we even finished the game it it was time to go. There was a lot to do today and we were already behind schedule.

Then we were on our way to visit Mafe, a small orphanage in Kinshasa that I'd been warned by my dad that it was VERY difficult to get to. The first time my parents went to Mafe they had not been prepared for how difficult it would be. After a couple minutes of driving the sand was dubbed too difficult to drive through. They had been told to get out and walk the 1 and a half hours the rest of the way in their sandals and flip flops. NOT fun. This time we refused to go unless we had an appropriate car to drive us the entire way.

Well..... we were promised that the Mini-van we were in had made it to this orphanage and back and that we had no reason to worry. Hmm.... we were concerned but we believed them. We hit the section that my mom warned me was where they had to stop last time. Instead of slowing down and stopping we started to speed up!! "It is the only way we can make it" our driver told us!! We braced ourselves for the turns as we spun on the sand and the driver almost lost control!! I probably would have enjoyed it so much more if I wasn't so scared for my life! This continued for about 10 more minutes as we gained speed and spun around at EVERY TURN. We were all scared but laughter took over us as our coping method. I was laughing SO hard as I heard my mom gasp every 5 seconds! Sometimes I would brace myself for a crash against a building as our driver would changed directions at the last minute almost missing the turns!! I actually thought it was a fairly exciting drive... but my mom just glared at me when I told her that :P Buuut to our surprise we made it there!

The kids at Mafe were sweet and we brought them some cars and clothes and took lots of pictures of them :)

But when it was time to go we braced ourselves for the drive back. We just skidded around the sand like a ball on a pinball machine again. But this time... we got STUCK! :( I think it took about 2 hours to finally get out but I can honestly say that it was probably my favorite 2 hours from our whole trip. We had stopped right at the edge of a soccer game that had brought out about 50+ kids to play and watch. And I ended up hanging out with some "street kids" that had come to see what was going on. (But... I'm not sure if "street" is the right word though because this was like no street I've ever seen. Maybe "sand kids" would be a little more appropriate...) So I was surrounded by these "sand kids" and they were probably the cutest things in the world!!

So while the men did a lot of this:

I just watched a lot of this:

But best of all I got to play with these guys:

These kids were ADORABLE! I took these videos when they just didn't stop cracking me up. The the funny little guys were doing hand noises and arm pit farts... boys will be boys.

The kids above inspired me to teach them one of my favorites... the "hand-snapping-thing-that-im-not-sure-even-has-a-name"!! They did pretty good too. I still laugh every time I watch this one...

How can you not love this little face?? This is the same little guy that entertained us all above.

But it was more then his impeccable ability to pull off mismatched women's shoes that drew me to him. The kid needed some pants! He was wearing underware for shorts, and they were so worn and tattered that it left him almost naked. I couldn't bear to think about how long he'd been wearing them! All of the other kids around at least had something on... I felt so bad for the kid! We had just visited one of our last orphanages so I thought that it would be a lost cause to check to see if we had anything he could wear. But after shifting through diapers and baby bottles for our final orphanage, I found a pair of brown 4T stretchy pants. It was unbelievable!! It didn't even hit me how amazing it was until later because there was no way that we would have purposely left these pants in the bag because the only kids left for us to see were babies! I can't even explain how excited I was that they were there. I LOVED seeing him with these comfortable pants on, perfect for this playful little kid. If I hadn't just been scolded for taking pictures believe me, the image of this little guy climbing trees in his new pants would probably have been one of my favorite pictures of all time. God truly showed his love for his people today. Not only the orphans in the DRC but for the "sand kids" as well.

"God loves to use things that we consider to be insignificant, like Moses' rod which parted the Red Sea, or Davids sling-shot that brought down a giant, or a boy's lunch that fed a multitude..." And I would add to that, "the pair of pant's that wasn't supposed to be there".

After visiting our last orphanage, Markos, we visited the Congo River! It was cool to see Brazaville sitting on the other side of the river, but other then that it was pretty anti-climactic. hah. From our spot the trees were covering most of our view and there was no way to even sneakily take pictures. It was basically the perfect storm of places that would easily land us in jail for taking a picture. Our viewing location was right in front of the American Embassy, we were viewing one of the most protected rivers in all of Africa, aaaand the President, Joseph Kabila himself, was getting ready to walk by!! And I guess this is as good a place as any to note that this was the 3rd time this trip that we'd crossed paths with the guy. Part of the chaos at the airport on our entrance was a result of the president landing at the same time, we passed him again in traffic when there was tons of police cars that I talked about here, aaand now we had to get out of this area to make way for the guy. I figured that he was must be trying really hard to see us and that I should at least go and say hi! But the guards would have none of it...

We enjoyed a nice classy dinner at the "Grand Hotel" and FINALLY got to relax and enjoyed being finished with our work. Buuut not without a small change of plans of course :) We checked our email and to our surprise found a reply from our friend "Welcome". Remember my angel that saved me at the airport?? We had planned to meet up again while we were here in Congo, but we hadn't heard back. He had written us the nicest email about how he had enjoyed meeting us, but had to take an emergency trip to Ivory Coast and couldn't see us. But, since he couldn't meet with us himself he sent his brother and friends to meet us at our hotel that evening!! His email told us that they would be at our hotel at 5 PM but we had only just gotten the email and it was already 8 PM!! There was no way they would still be there waiting for us. But they only proved to us to be about the nicest people in the whole world!! They had waited there as we strolled in at 9 PM and were MORE helpful then we could have imagined. They knew so much about the country and wanted to do everything in their power to help us get a house for the kids and/or other housing for ourselves while in the country. His brother knew so much about adoptions, and his sister wanted to take it upon herself to check up on our kids for us. But they didn't speak much english so they brought their 2 seminary student friends to translate :) I don't know what we did to deserve this, but we felt so blessed to have met them.

By the end of the day I really thought about how many things had seemed to have gone badly at first but really turned out to be quite the opposite. Some of those circumstances that I can pinpointed as the most frustrating times, afterwards I looked back as the most memorable moments that have led to some even greater surprises. Getting separated for hours at the airport... pretty bad. Having Dereje held for ransom... that was pretty bad. Getting stuck in the sand for hours and putting us far behind schedule... that also on the surface seemed pretty bad. But truth be told, if we hadn't been stuck at the airport, we wouldn't have met Welcome (Bienvenue) and we would have left the country with SO many unanswered questions and frustrations that were easily solved in a short meeting with his friends. And through Dereje's situation at the airport I think that we learned a lot about the system that may help us later. But most importantly, getting stuck in the sand gave me a chance to really stop and "smell the roses" on my last day. I honestly can say that I loved meeting those kids on the side of the road and really brightened up my whole perspective on the trip. Sure, many aspects of this trip were difficult but i wouldn't have it ANY other way and I wouldn't change those circumstances even if I could. They have all lead to some of the biggest blessings from being here that we would have completely missed out on. We could have had a mediocre, unexciting trip in which we always got everywhere we needed to right on time... but what kind of story would that have been? I probably would have lost all of my readers by day 1! ;)

Congo: Day 4

*Warning! Long post! For some reason I felt the need to share minor details from this day and I don't have the energy to shorten it*

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Did i mentioned how expensive it is here? Everything from souvenirs to the hotels to the food! We had done some souvenir shopping the day before and it was just shocking! I love buying little things from other countries but I quickly found out that I did not bring enough money for everything that I wanted to get. Bracelets and earrings that would have cost 1-2$ in other countries were about 5$ here.

Shopping was not easy and there were 2 things that I wish I understood before we went.

1) I wish I knew how to convert Congolese Franc (CDF) to US Dollars

aaand...

2) that it doesn't really even matter if you can convert Franc to Dollars because if you don't speak FRENCH you won't be able to buy anything anyway!!

But, of course, if I had actually understood that my day would have been far less exciting. We had stopped at a tourist area that had lots of little stands with vendors selling all different things. Our group had all gotten separated as we lingered at different stands and I had found some little wooden boxes and animals that I wanted. I had asked at a few stands already about prices so I knew to expect to pay no less than 5-10$ on each wooden piece. Now... I'm used to going to a country and being able to barter the prices down in english and be ok (and resorting to hand gestures and counting with fingers if I needed to, hah) but this was not quite so easy. I wanted 2 small wooden animals and a little wooden box so I figured 15$ to start. But the vendor answered me in French and I understood nothing. "I don't speak French" I told her. (By then I had learned how to say that very phrase in French! hah. I suggest to anyone going to learn it too. To me it sounds like "Je ne parl pa fraces" You'll use it a lot :) But she was not happy to hear that. She sighed an exasperated sigh and I'm about 90% sure that I saw her roll her eyes at me! I should have just walked away then. But instead I lingered around as she got out her cell phone to type the numbers that she wanted to tell me which I got a kick out of... After a few minutes with each of us typing the prices we wanted we had settled on 17$. I was thankful that they usually take American Dollars (but ONLY crisp and clean for some reason) in the DRC but they usually give you change in Franc. I gave her a 20$ but I was not even sure how much change in Franc to receive! -hmmm.... See Regret #1- But I had an uneasy feeling about her the whole time and I could tell that she was not happy about the final price... (I take bartering very seriously.) So when she gave me 2000 CDF as change I just knew that she had to be taking advantage of my "foreignness". I acted more confident then I actually was as I argued with with her and told her that I needed more change. How much change? I had no idea, but she didn't know that. I told her that I would not take all 3 items if she was going to overcharge me and I began to put one of the items back and demanded my money back for that item. -Aaand that would be regret #2- But she didn't like that so much either but she finally hesitated toward her purse but pulled out a 500. And now... I don't know why I was so unsure about her but it still didn't seem right. Maybe I was just used to people doing whatever they wanted by now. I thought I had remembered the conversion was a little more rounded off then 1,250 CDF to the Dollar so I told her that it still wasn't right and that I needed another 500 CDF. Again, "no", but then she said something else to me but in English this time. I had to have her repeat it a couple times but finally I made it out. "I don't want to". What?? Was she serious?? just like that... she just didn't want to. This was not going to be easy. My boxing gloves had to come out. So I told her that I wasn't going to buy anything if I didn't get the right change. But... all of a sudden she pretended she didn't speak english anymore! -_- I saw our translator down the row and signaled for him to come over and help me. But before he even saw me waving at him the vendor realized what was happening and pulled out another 500 to finally be rid of me. There we go! 1000 CDF to the dollar. Much better :). I realize that in the end it was a lot of effort just for 1 dollar but I just couldn't let her get away with it! I should frame that dollar... it's the hardest i've ever worked for one lil buckaroo.

I was so exasperated after the encounter that I found my mom and adamantly told her to never leave me alone again! This was impossible by yourself and it was NOT fun walking around to vendors on your own. I couldn't even look at an item without being bombarded by other vendors trying to force me to buy their version of the same item. When I finally found a vendor that gave me enough breathing room to think, I ended up buying a few bracelets, keychains, and earrings made of the green Malachite stone that is abundant in the DRC, and then we got out of there. But on the way out I found my favorite item of all. Back at the entrance one man was selling these really cool cards with Congolese scenes on the front made of brightly colored sand. I was thrilled that they were a smaller alternative to a painting so I bought about 7 of them to decorate my new apartment with. And I must say they are the perfect accent to my mostly brown/dark colored African collection on my wall :)

Then we had our daily meeting with our lawyer and headed out for a long drive out of the capitol. It was a really pretty drive and the pace of life out there was just visibly calmer. People weren't as rushed and there was FAR less trash covering the roads. We had a really nice view with the mountains in the background as we headed out to the orphanage. This orphanage may be one of my favorite ones we visited whole trip. It helped that it was in such a peaceful area. We started by seeing the few kids we had at that orphanage but the poor kids were scared of us! The orphanage directors told us that some of the kids had not seen a white person

before and didn't know what to do!

One of the little girl's heart was just pounding out of her chest! Poor thing... they're sure going to be in for a surprise when they come to America! Hah. But they warmed up to us pretty fast, it probably helped that we brought toys :). They had a lot of fun when we brought out the super balls and they were giggling as they had them bouncing around the room. And they looooved having their picture taken and got pretty silly in front of the camera. But sadly all good things must come to an end and we left to see some more kids in that area that weren't in the orphanage.

One thing about being new to the Congo is that we usually don't know where we're going and just have to assume that our driver is taking us to the right place. (But before we know it my mom will probably get her own drivers license and car like she does in Ethiopia and know her way around better then the Congolese themselves! ;) But for now we are getting used to feeling clueless. So when we pulled off to the side of the road where there was a crowd of people we had NO idea what we were doing there. We quickly found out that this was the meeting place where we were going to meet the kids we came to see. "Oh good" my mom said, "and it smells like a pee". Opening the window's was completely out of the question and it didn't take a genius to figure out the source. We were parked RIGHT next to what was apparently the understood bathroom. Lovely. During the 30 minutes we waited there was a constant stream of men that would just walk over to the edge of the woods and just.... take care of business. Yes, gross. But I tell this story because I wish I could portray the absolute hilarity of the moment. We would try to talk to each other in the car but then another man would just walk up next to our car and take the peeing stance! Try having a conversation with that going on in the background!! haha. Dereje just laughed at us as we tried to cover the window with anything we could! But regrettably nothing was good enough...

I really enjoyed getting out of Kinshasa for the day and seeing the quieter side of Congo. But even better, I got to take lots of pictures b/c there wasn't many police around to make me stop! :) We had had an exhausting day so we went the Memling Hotel again for dinner but ate at their indoor restaurant this time. I have really enjoyed getting to know the Congo and it's culture, and although it's not the easiest place to stay and a very different living situation then our accommodations in Ethiopia, once I got to spend time with the kids they grabbed my heart and made it so hard to leave!

My next post will also be my last day in the Congo. And what happened on that day was the result of what seemed to be unfortunate circumstances on the surface but it actually turned it into my favorite day! It was a great way to end our trip!

Congo: Day 3

I wouldn't say that I'm scared here in Congo. However unsafe I know that it is, being in Kinshasa does not seem to be the same country that I've read about on the internet. Everyone is warned to travel to the DRC at their own risk due to the recent war ending, but I never felt that I was in danger by being there. At first I was uneasy and careful, but I realized that as long as you aren't breaking any rules there is no reason to be concerned. There are officers, soldiers, and UN trucks all over the city to preserve safety, but if they were not there it would be a completely different story. Probably the closest to being scared that I was during the trip was the time we were passed by 7 police cars and motorcycles blaring their sirens! They were followed by 4 huge trucks of soldiers, and every one of them was carrying their big scary guns. I just sat completely still. What was happening?? These were the images I'd seen on the internet that I prayed I'd never have to come across. I had to fight with all my strength to not take a picture. "This would be the worst possible time ever!" I had to tell myself. I finally found it in me to move, so I turned to Dereje sitting in the back to get his input. But to my surprise... he just laughed at me! He said that this happens in Ethiopia too when there's an important president or official coming through. Well then... That settled it. I had no more reasons to be scared. However intimidating they may seem with their giant guns and stone cold looks, they were just there to keep the city safe and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I felt so comfortable around the soldiers after that, that I almost asked one of them to smile for a picture for me. But I stopped myself... sometimes fear is a good thing. It keeps people from doing stupid things.

When I woke up my mom was already at the doctors office with a group of kids from Eden. Dereje and I had breakfast at our hotel and my mom sent a van for us to join them at the doctor. We picked up the kids and most of them were sadly wearing the same dirty clothes that they were wearing the day before. We crammed them all in and we fit about twice as many people into that van that would ever be allowed here in America. Given... most of them were just little shorty-pants kids. But they weren't used to being in a car and were deathly quiet the whole time, some even went to sleep. But the little 2 year old girl I had on my lap just played with my hair and smiled the whole time. By the end of the ride we had to peel sound asleep kids out of the car and send them back into that orphanage. I hope the place gets renovated fast otherwise we're going to have to work out another living situation...

Afterwards we went to a feeding center a few hours away. They provided kids with meals that needed food whether they had family's or not. Along with that program, they also care for pregnant women and help take care for the baby's after they're born. On our tour of the place we saw a woman in the back room sitting on the cold dirty floor and in labor! There were doctors around to help, but I felt for her. I knew living in Congo meant a hard life, but this just confirmed it. The tour ended and we handed out some of the donations we had brought. We passed out clothes, candy, and toys for the kids. But for some reason, the only toys we had with us this day were 4 toy cars for this group of over 50

kids! So I quickly invented little a game with them of trying to pass the car through a couple of other kids' legs without them catching it. It was just a quick solution to my realization that there wasn't going to be enough to share! But it didn't take long before most of the kids were involved and they barely realized that there weren't very many cars to go around. They weren't used to having a lot of things, so they were all really good about sharing the cars. But now we know where to bring more toys next time! This center was doing so much for the community and needed all of the help they could get! They also cared for a few kids who had been orphaned so we got to spend some time with them and take their pictures before we left :)

We treated ourself to the 5 star Memling Hotel for dinner and ate outside by the pool enjoying the weather after dusk. We asked the waitress if we could get internet from outside and she responded in ENGLISH that she only spoke French... Great. I was more then a little frustrated, being that internet was the same word in French with only the hard, phlegm spewing, "k" sound in the middle that I have attempted and failed at many times! It baffled me that the cleaning ladies that

came to my room this morning tried harder and were able to communicate better with me then the waitress at this classy hotel. My guess is that it's probably for the same reason that the people with money here make sure that they let the world know their status in society through their attire. Its a form of separating themselves from the lower class because the rich don't want to be associated with the poor. By speaking French the were trying to show us their status level... but ironically my interactions with the women that came to our room to clean were FAR more pleasant and enjoyable :) This is only an observations of mine, but it makes sense to me as this air of superiority translates into the way the poor and the orphans are provided for in the country. There are some people with A LOT of money but they ignore the suffering around them and instead build expensive homes in private neighborhoods. We continued to gather our thoughts from the trip and got to hear a lot of input from Dereje.

Since the program in the DRC is new and this is only CCI's 2nd trip to Congo, there are still things to be figured out in order to make these trips go more smoothly. We really appreciate your prayers for the adoption program here, but especially pray for the kids and their caretakers that are trying so hard to provide for them.

Congo: Day 2 - TIA!

I was going to post this last night but the power went out in our whole commune… right before I was going to shower too! But, as our translator reminded me “This is Africa”! It was not the best timing but after everything we’ve been doing and seeing I haven’t really been in a complaining mood or even remotely deserved the right to self pity. Mom and I leave for America in the morning, and I'll hopefully add more updates when we return.

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I love people watching. I’m sorry if that sounds creepy, but I do. I love trying to figure out what a person’s thinking by watching their body language. I like trying to figure out who they are and what their personality is like. I’m probably usually wrong but I let myself believe it b/c I would have no way of knowing otherwise :P. Here in Congo though, this game is a little bit less fun for me b/c almost everyone seems so serious! I knew that they weren’t “friendly people” but I didn’t expect them to be showing such little emotion! And I can’t help but feel a little intimidated driving around and receiving only serious stares from everyone. I can’t tell if they’re plotting my demise or if I’ve just got something stuck in my teeth. It could be anything! Our translator assured me that they’re mostly curious when they stare because they’re not used to seeing white people. He told us that the best thing for us to do is just smile and say “bonjour” and they’ll usually stop. But there’s another cultural difference for you… it’s not rude to stare!

I love seeing the color in everyone’s clothes! Both men and women wear lots of color but women oftentimes add large jewelry. And add to that the fact that every other woman on the street is carrying something on her head, this place really makes me feel like I’m in Africa! (You know that’s true when an Ethiopian says that himself!) I read that the Congolese like to dress in style and judge you strongly on your appearance. That was a huge bummer for me because I always like to dress as comfortably as possible when I travel.

But one woman in the airport completely caught me off guard! Get this... and I'm not exaggerating when I say that she had on a leopard print jacket and matching tight legging pants, zebra earrings, a LARGE giraffe bag, she was blinged out in gold necklaces and bracelets, aaaand to tie it all off… bright pink pumps. This is not a joke. Now… I’m all for adapting to a culture when you travel but everyone's gotta draw the line somewhere… mine is at wearing mismatched animal print.

We had a meeting with our lawyer in the morning, and I think it went well. Dereje was very helpful as we talked about the process in Ethiopia. It was really great to compare programs and what needed to be done to keep the Congo program successful. Then we were off to Mama Ester’s orphanage, Eden. This was my first orphanage since I’ve been to here in Congo and if it is any representation of the rest of the orphanages here… lets just ay there’s a lot of work to be done. I spent most of the day on the verge of tears as we saw the conditions these kids were in.

We got a tour of the house and Dereje, who’s seen almost every orphanage in Ethiopia, was even shocked at the “lack of standards”. We got to the kids room and it was dark, but I saw a little girl on one of the beds that looked sickly. I sat by her for a while until she was comfortable with me, and then she climbed on my lap. As I held her, I heard the story Mama Esther was telling about a baby who had died in this very place, just weeks before. The little girl on my lap continued to cough and I just thought that it could be her next! How could we prevent this from happening again?? Whatever it takes we need to improve the conditions these kids are in, whether it’s getting a house ourselves to care for these kids or some other way, we need to help these sweet kids.

We’re staying at a new hotel this trip and got a feel for another place that we may suggest to family’s coming to pick up their children. It’s in a nicer area of Kinshasa, but that doesn’t stop the bugs from biting or the electricity from going out. Internet is still slow and the hot water runs out fast. But what was I expecting… TIA!

Taking pictures are “illegal” here, so for all intensive purposes I don’t know where I got all of these photos that suddenly appeared on my memory card. But, I’ll hopefully post some of that as soon as I get back to the land of the free and the home of the fast internet.

Thanks!

Julie

Congo: Day 1

It's taken me awhile to post and a lot has happened since we've arrived to the Congo. It's not always easy for me to put things into words so I've been thinking about what I've wanted to say very carefully in order to be both realistic and accurate... all while not sugar coating anything. Before I came I was expecting to have a lot of good experiences that I would be excited to share but there turned out to be very few happy, blog-worthy moments. If I continued this way there would be nothing at all to talk about. So, here we are, at the end of day 3 and I've decided to tell it all. The Good, Bad, and the Ugly. For this post I'm going to start with just the first day.

Day 1:

This trip to Africa started out with my mom and I heading to Ethiopia for 9 days. During that stay we decided that it would be a good idea to bring our Ethiopian country representative, Dereje, to the DRC with us. He could help us by talking to our new Congolese workers a little about Ethiopian adoptions and give and them an idea of what's worked well in the past and what hasn't. It turned out to be a good idea... but more difficult to accomplish then we could have imagined. It turns out that bringing an Ethiopian into the Congo is not just a difficult task... it's a nightmare! We had done all of the appropriate steps before coming but that wasn't good enough.

We had nothing but difficult experiences the first day accented only by an encounter with a Congolese man whose name means "welcome" and a very appropriate meaning as he was the first person I met worthy of that title. He was very friendly and was kinder then anyone we'd met so far. By the end of the day I was referring to him as my angel because I probably would have ended up in tears within the first few hours upon arriving if I had not met him on the short ride on the people mover. We lost sight of him as we made our way to the immigration lines but that wasn't the last time i'd see my new friend.

We finally got to the immigration desk and my mom was first. She went through without a problem. When I went up the only question I was asked was if I was with the woman who was in front of me. "Yep." Apparently that's all she needed and I was through just by uttering one syllable. But Dereje did not get so lucky. Mom and I tried to wait for him on the other side of the counter so we could walk to baggage claim together but the guards were not happy with our lingering and briskly sent us away. We didn't need more then 5 minutes to realize something was wrong. My mom left me to wait for our 7 duffle bags while she went to go look for him... but we didn't realize that it would be over 2 hours before we would see each other again.

I don't know the details of what happened during that time, but all I knew at the time was that I was starting to get scared. All I could do was to keep watching for the bags b/c worrying wasn't going to help anything. During a small confusion that involved a lot of people running I realized that we had been waiting at the wrong conveyer belt and that I had just lost my wonderful spot in the front. But that was ok because that led me to finding "Welcome" again! Normally I would be more hesitant about talking to a "stranger" in a brand new place but this man was the only english speaker I'd met and was just a kind man. He eased my nerves as he told me about his return from America and what I could expect in the DRC. And then he emphasized what i'd been told many times. Congo was not a friendly place and that if I didn't speak French i would have many difficulties. And he was very right... When the conveyer belt came to a stop and none of my bags had arrived yet, "Welcome" encouraged me to go look for the other 2 members of my party. But I was not treated very well at all by the guards and and one laughed as he told me that my mom and Dereje had been taken away. What?? Why? They were set on speaking French until one finally told me in English that she knew where they went but I couldn't go see them until I had gotten all of my bags! So many things were wrong with that... What if they never arrived? So far there had been none at all! I was about to breakdown but "Welcome" saw my distress and just talked to me some more while we waited and waited... He told me that sometimes this happens and all that the security guards want is some money in order to let someone go. That is just wrong. That's not how a system is supposed to work at all...

I had long lost track of the time when finally I saw my mom coming back through the doors and I could just see the distress on her face. She explained what happened and how after the security found out that she had come with Dereje, they took away her passport so that she had to be retained with him! She had already been let through once but then all of a sudden she wasn't even allowed to come tell me what was wrong! But after a couple hours of misery she was allowed to come find me, but Dereje still needed to be questioned. I was starting to think that he was being held for ransom after all. Mom helped me find the bags, which was not easy when it's a system of every-man-for-himself. But we made it and went outside to find our translator, Dido. Finally! He found us and we were escorted to his car to wait while he

talked to security to try to get them to release Dereje. And boy did we wait... because all I could do for my first 3 hours of being in Congo was sit in a van playing angry birds :P. But at last we saw our Abyssinian friend was free! Whatever Dido did saved the day because it turns out they were getting ready to send the poor guy back to Ethiopia! The entire day was gone by the time we reached the hotel but we were just glad that we were all finally here to stay and could get started with seeing kids the next day.

I doubt every entry to this country will be this difficult but we learned a lot about the system just through this experience. People have warned me that this is not an easy place to stay and after several difficult experiences I've seen this for myself as well. As hard as it may be, it's not a good enough reason to stop what we're doing. Immigration may try everything in their power to keep us out and the government may not consider adoption work and helping orphans a good enough reason for Dereje to enter the country but that's all the more reason to get as many of these kids into family's as possible! These orphans are the victims of a system that considers them of the lowest priority and they are not being cared for adequately. I have seen some of the most malnourished kids I have in my life here and they are the ones suffering, not us. We will find a way to keep coming back because this may be some of these kids' only hope.

I Never Want to Leave!

Can i sound any more cliche? But it's true. My time here always feels too short, and especially now more then ever. Every place we've been has felt a little bit rushed, so I was glad to spent a few full days at the transition house... because with 25 kids and 10 nannies there's always so much going on! Today is my last day in Ethiopia before we leave for Congo so I'm going to sum up what we've been up to from where I left off...

The 4th day, Wednesday, we started out slow and spent the morning at the Hilton... which was basically a small taste of the pleasures we are used to at home. Internet, pizza, A/C, and lots and lots of "forenge" that look like us. After mom was done with meetings there, we headed off to the transition house. I love that she has a liscense now b/c we feel so independent... but it means we REALLY have to learn our way around... We spent the rest of the day at the house taking, video and pictures of the kids and having the best game of frisbeen in our new large-ish yard. We had an exciting and very random encounter with our next door neighbors who turned out to be American's, so Yours Truly was dubbed the one to shout over the wall and introduce everyone :P It turns out they were just as curious about their new neighbors as we were. They actually enjoyed hearing all of the "joy" coming from the house. That was truly a suprise b/c some of that laughter sounds a lot like screaming sometimes... ;) We'll see how they feel in a couple months, hah.

The 5th day was essentially the 2 hours we spent in Wolita. It was about a 6 hour drive each way and the roads are just awful. My manner of coping is by popping a couple Dramamine and hoping that it knocks me out for most of the drive. Although it was a very quick trip, we had a very successful and worthwile use of our time there :) But no thanks to my new favorite yellow pill I actually have "0" new pictures from this Thursday in Ethiopia.

Day #6: So I didn't get to go to Nazareth to see the babies that many others are coming from far and wide to see while bearing gifts of clothes, toys, and love. But I did however spend ALL morning with the group of kids from Nazareth that came to Addis for a doctors visit. Some were not in pleasant moods after spending a good 5 hours in the car to come down, while others were happy and content to just be out of the car. I loved seeing some of their personalities come out throughtout the day, sometimes quickly dampened upon being sent in to the doctor to get shots :( But all in all, they were a great group and I am excited for anyone that ends up with one of them in their family. After that, Mom and I got to REALLY know Addis Ababa a little better after mising a turn and finding a new way to get to the transition house! It even took us down Churchill street so we could get some last minute shopping in ;)

Day #7: We went back to Miskaye for the morning to finish up some unfinished business that were weren't able to do when we were there a couple days ago. But upon talking to the orphanage director we discovered another child that we would need to go see immediately. We wanted to go see this child ourselves and talk to the birth mother in person while we were in country. It was truly a touching experience and hearing the mothers story about why she was giving up her child was truly heartbreaking and... well... there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Seening the pure love behind what she was doing makes it easy to see that this is what all this is about.

The best decision I made though, was to spend the night at the transition house. I knew my time was running out and I didn't want to miss a minute. And the nannies had only just started doing my hair when my mom had to leave! It was a typical rest of the evening... wagon pulling, jump roping, looking at old pictures of kids, kids skyping home to parents... But after dinner I got to break out my movies that I promised them that I would bring this time. The kids all watched Monsters Inc which I may have enjoyed more than some of them did... and after we put the little ones to bed the older boys picked Men in Black. Good choice. After a few minutes all of the nannies joined in and it was a big party. Everyone was laughing through the whole thing and were completely hooked. And my favorite part may have been the long in depth conversation afterwards about aliens and vampires, and A LOT of things that I thought were common knowledge... but apparently weren't :)

My 8th and last full day in Ethiopia I got to wake up to laughing kids and Ethiopian music playing on the Ipod we got the house last year. It wasn't a sad day though. Although we all knew it was our last day we didn't really talk about it and just enjoyed being there. Each of these kids are really special and really made my time here truly enjoyable. Writing this now it's just starting to sink in and I'm really really going to miss them. The nannies were always great company and although communicating was difficult it didn't stop us from finding a way to have fun :) And I promised to go home and learn more Amharic for the next time I come back. One of the girls even showed me an Ipod App that I'm really going to enjoy practicing with!

Tomorrow my mom and I leave bright and early for the DRC along with our Ethiopian lawyer to protect us! hah I've been told many times that Ethiopia and Congo are very different and right now i will welcome the HEAT as opposed to this COLD Ethiopia that I've been experiencing. I'm excited to finally see this country that i've heard so much about.

I will add more pics (so check back for that :) and I'll update as soon as I can!

Julie