Americans = Ipods

The transition house is in desperate need of new furniture so after a quick trip to a couple different stores we found a set we liked, affordable, and comfy enough to be mine and Christy's future beds.

Since my mom had a day planned of boring meetings, Christy and I decided to go shopping on Churchill street. And this experience was incredibly more enjoyable than our shopping encounter in Egypt. We were pleasantly surprised to find that no one grabbed us or attempted to chase us down after leaving their stand. We seemed to find everything we wanted to buy fairly quickly and made our way to a restaurant for lunch (which I'm pretty sure is the first time we've had a real lunch since we've been here).

Then we went back to the office (after our taxi broke down about 10 times on the way there). And there we got to give out the second ipod since we've been here. I'm pretty sure that they're starting to assume that Americans just give out ipods like candy! The secretary, Betty, had never used one before but was excited to see that we brought her one as an appreciation gift for all the hard work she's done. And it once again was such a big hit!

Dinner at the New Flower consisted of leftover pizza from the Hilton yesterday, and ramen. By then it was only 6 PM and we were done for the day and we weren't used to being done so soon! Not wanting to waste the rest of the evening, Christy, my mom, and I walked to Kaldi's coffee for some mocha coffee and fruit drinks. Yum! The night was still young (yet pitch black!!) so we walked around the mall and took pictures from the balcony like the "forenge" we are. A coffee outing still did not kill enough time, so Christy and I sat on the porch with a nice cup of tea and enjoyed the peaceful, perfect weather we had.

We're enjoying our time in Ethiopia very much and absolutely love spending time getting to know the kids better. They've all been a joy and I wish I could tell you all how special each child is. They are the reason that we've been enjoying our time here so much. We are still unsure of our plans from day to day, but as of now we will not be able to visit our orphange in Kamashi (a 14 hour drive west of Addis and close to the Sudan border). But we hope to still find a way as Kamashi is one of my favorite parts of our trip. It's a beautiful yet grueling drive, but the boys at the orphanage are so great that it makes the whole trip worth while.

Thanks for watching the blog!

P.S. We found a spider in our room! It was scary and I didn't like it. Christy and I have found spiders in our room at school but this was bigger and worse. But... I guess I can't complain to much. It's better then the huge rat we found in our room last time I came...

Dancing Babies!

Today was Sunday and we attended Bedside Baptist here in Addis Ababa and celebrated the Sabath the way God origianlly intended. We rested.

Later on we all went to the transition house to video kids and get pictures of them to send to their adoptive families. After a couple hours of videoing one baby after another and taking note of their developmental progress, the older kids finally woke up from their naps and were ready to play! The most fun we had was when we broke out the ipod we bought for the house. We taught the nannies how to use it and were very impressed with themselves and their ability to use it. Christy and I had fun getting the kids to dance to the music we brought. It took them awhile to get warmed up, but after starting out with a few zumba moves they were having just as much fun as we were.

And as a reward for a day of hard work we went to the Hilton for pizza and to use the internet :-)

Woleita and back again

We finished the rest of the long drive to Woleita and spent a few hours taking pictures and video of the kids and played with the toys we brought with us. A beach volleyball that we brought turned out to be a bigger hit with the nannies than the kids! Christy started playing with a group of the kids, but they quickly lost interest until only nannies were left and loving every minute of it!
Most of the kids came from really horrible conditions but they were definitely the happiest of all the kids we've seen so far. Most of the kids looked malnourished as they were obviously not getting enough food to eat and their protruding bellies were a sign that the children were starving. Many of them had skin infections, but aside from that you would have no way of knowing how bad off they were because the kids looked so joyful and the nannies showed them so much love. When we had to leave Addis Alam, the caretakers were so happy to see him and were overjoyed to have him back. Although it was very hard to leave him there, we knew that it was a place where he was loved and was happy. Although we were sad to say goodbye to little Addis, we would NOT be lonely for the ride back. We took 4 kids back with us for the 7 hour ride back to Addis Ababa. The baby, Net, just slept the whole time and didn't make a peep the entire ride how which was AWESOME. I couldnt ask for anything more from her :-). Bersufican, however, made up for her absence of noise. He was adorable and he knew it. And it has probably helped him get by with a lot in his little life. And not being able to speak his language also allowed him to pretend like he didnt know that he was being bad. He would continue to mess with the 2 sisters we were bringing back and disturb them as they tried to sleep. None of our commands we were trying were working. "Don't do that", "sit down", "PLEASE go to SLEEP!". He didn't understand any of it until I remembered the word for "Stop it". "Bakka!" I said. And that boy's eyes got sooo wide!! Shocked he was. He was disapointed that he could no longer play us like he had been, and we were pleased to finally be able to control the smartest little 3 year old we have ever met.

On the road to Woleita

Yesterday, we packed up and prepared to embark on a 2 day trip to one of our orphanages in Woleita which was about 7 hours south of Addis Ababa. But first, since it was on the way, we got to stop at Project Mercy! Our friend from school, Bedru, was back in Ethiopia for the summer and had invited us to stop by the school that he grew up going to.Being the Taylor Students that we are, we had heard so much about it that it made for an offer almost too good to pass up.

Our new little buddy Addis Alam (meaning New World) also got to spend these 2 days with us. He had only come to Addis Ababa for a doctor's visit and we needed to take him back to Wolita since he didn't have an adoptive family yet. But by the end of the trip we had fallen in love with him and we didn't want to give him back! Addis spent the night with us in Hosana (with his adorable footie pajamas!!) and he was such a good baby for us! For dinner we tried to feed him injera but he snubbed it. He would only accept bread and milk, but we gladly gave him what he wanted :-)

Day 1 in Addis Ababa!

We arrived in Addis at 3 am this morning and I was immediately reminded why I had missed it so much. Alazar, our taxi driver friend (the dedicated fellow he is) picked us up at the airport and greeted us with a warm welcome. He took us to the New Flower Guest House where we stayed for a couple nights. The showers weren't working (Surprise!!) but I wasn't too upset because the only thing on my mind at that point was sleep. So instead, Christy and I just crashed to rest up for another crazy day of business that my mom had planned for us.
We woke up to a freshly cooked plate of scramble eggs and delicious Ethiopian Coffee... or buna. The day started out relaxing but the rest of the day was everything but. We visited 3 orphanages across the city and were so involved that by dinnertime we realized that we had completely forgotten about lunch! We spent the whole day playing with the kids, taking video of them to send to the families that would be adopting them, and giving them gifts and donations that we had brought with us. I was most excited to visit the transition house again and see the nannies that it had been a year since I last saw. I loved spending time with them last year as they laughed at my attempts to speak Amharic and taught me new words. They are all a lot of fun and most of them are about my age.I was also pleased when Nanny Chef (who's real name is Sanite, but that's not as much fun) was still happy to see me even after our monkey incident last year ;-). I really enjoy spending time with them, and I hope Christy and I can move to the transition house soon to spend more time with our nanny friends and the kids they take care of.

Our 10 hours in Egypt

Before going to Ethiopia we got to stop for a 10 hour trip in Cario, Egypt! We took the 10 hour flight on Egypt Air and it made for a long, incredible day. It was a long flight but we made our own fun. Along with practicing our Amharic and sign language, we also got to watch some TV. But since we couldn't understand any of the words to the Egyptian soap opera we made up our own, rediculous, story lines to what was going on. It quickly turned into a far-fetched story of magicians and costume party's that was mostly based off of our own imagination. But we're pretty sure the actual story line was about as weird as the one we made up.

Finally we arrived in Cairo around 2 and spent about 10 hours sigtseeng with our tour guide Hany Hassan. I can't believe everything we squeezed in today! We got to visit the pyramids (the last standing of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World), sphinx (which is a lot smaller in person than what they lead you to believe on tv), and got to ride camels.

Afterwards, we went to a museum with actual Egyptian relics from King Tutankhemen's tomb... who apparently had a thing for ducks. Then we

had dinner on a floating resturant along the Nile, experienced a papyrus making exhibit, and got to go shopping at this crazy bazaar. We've never had that many people in our faces in our entire lives! Some vendors were very nice and honest ("What can I do to take your money today") and others were outright mean. One guy took us into his shop and shut the door behind us! He was very upset when we asked

how much his scarves cost so we just left. He followed us down the alley shouting, but we kept moving. Very creepy! We ended up going back to the first vendor we had met who was very helpful.
It was an exciting day to say the least, and late tonight we arrive in the long awaited Addis Ababa!

-Julie and Christy

And here's a short clip of the call of worship from one of the mosques that I took right after we went shopping.

Getting ready to go

I can't believe I'm coming back! I got really excited when my mom told me that she was able to take me back to Ethiopia with her this summer and that I could take my roommate, Christy, with me. We're expecting to spend a lot of time with the kids at the different orphanages we will be visiting, and we are both looking forward to the trip. As for the flight home, we will have 2 babies with us who we will be escorting to their new families in America

My First Post on my First Blog

In my mind, my summer started today. Yesterday didn't count, because packing up like crazy to make sure we didn't miss check out time and almost missing our flight (We literally had to run to our gate) isn't exactly my idea of a relaxing summer. But it's good to finally be home in Florida! At least for a few days anyway :-) My college roommate, Christy, come home with me because in just 2 days we will be getting on another plane, this time to Ethiopia (with a 10 hour stop in Cairo)!!

I'm very excited to be able to have this opportunity to go back to Ethiopia again. I have really enjoyed getting to know the kids and following their stories from the time they were orphaned through their search for a home, and oftentimes get to see them again once they've gotten adjusted to their new life in America. It's beautiful to see the world they've come from, and watch how adoption has changed them and their family's so much. It's very emotional to see how God's been able to change these kids lives and give them a family that they've been praying and hoping for, for so long.

I have high hopes for this trip as we visit many orphanages, one of which is in the western region of Ethiopia, Kamashi, which is about a 14 hour drive from the capital, Addis Ababa. I anticipate posting about our trip throughout the next 2 weeks but that may pose difficulties as internet is scarce (especially as we travel to Kamashi), but I hope to update along the way!

Thank's for watching my blog!

Julie Hedberg