Travel Day Three

Monday, February 1st 2010

After a few hours sleep at the House of Hope guest house in Addis Ababa, we were off to the airport again. This time to catch our early morning flight to Mekele to visit the orphanage. It's a one hour flight over mountains to Mekele. To take this trip by land would be a many days journey from what we've been told.

Charles and I were met at the airport by the orphanage director. We were so excited to meet him as he and his wife have taken care of our girl for the past three years. We started our day by taking a driving tour of the town and we also had the privilege of visiting the Bible Society of Ethiopia, an Ethiopian Orthodox Bible college, a castle/hotel where we enjoyed a Coca-Cola outside on a patio overlooking the city. This is also where I got sunburned. It was so pleasant out and the wind was always blowing. I should've known better, but the African sun got the best of me and my fair skin.

Then it was on to the orphanage to meet and play with the kids. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! Charles played soccer with the boys and they laughed at him. A sweet, sweet girl attempted to teach me how to play jacks with stones and she promptly giggled at my inability to even pick up one rock. The kids danced for us to Ethiopian music and then we went inside where I shared the musical instruments that I had brought. As a former Kindermusik instructor, I had lots of gently used instruments that I was able to donate to the orphanage: egg shakers, rhythm sticks, one-bell jingles, sandblocks and bright, colorful scarves. I showed the kids how to use all the instruments and what fun we had making music! All the children were so attentive and there were genuine smiles on every single face. They really loved the scarves and even the boys were wrapping them around their heads and around their waists and even used them to carry baby dolls on their backs with them. Of all the music classes I've ever taught, this one had to be the most rewarding EVER!

After we left the orphanage, the director took us to an Ethiopian restaurant. This was our first experience with Ethiopian food. I so wanted to like it. I really did. But injera is just not my thing. Charles enjoyed it and ate quite a bit of spicy food. I ate enough to hopefully not be rude.

Today, we also had the honor of meeting one of Libby's birth relatives. Although it wasn't the sister we had hoped to meet, it was a cousin and he was able to give us some additional background on the family. He also traveled a great distance to be there we were humbled that he went to such great lengths just to see us. We were able to share a picture of us and our home with him and hopefully he'll be able to pass that along to Libby's oldest sister along with the reassurance that she will be so loved and taken care of in our family.

Back to the Sabi hotel in Mekele where our room was about $17 US dollars per night. We had hoped for a room at the Axum hotel but it was booked due to a two-week holiday celebrating victory/independence from Eritrea. The room was...interesting. I had never taken a shower with the shower head coming directly out of the wall in the middle of the bathroom with no shower curtain and just a flat drain in the floor. There was also the problem of smell. I can't describe it and I don't know where it came from, but there was a smell that made me physically sick while we were there. We also were awakened by Muslim prayers over a loud speaker. And the staff of the hotel were not English speaking, which was a problem. Especially when we had finally bought two Cokes but were unable to get anybody to understand that we needed a bottle opener... At the end of a very long day, I was literally almost in tears as I struggled with trying to pry this bottle open with our room key. I was sick and tired and I just wanted to go meet our daughter. Tomorrow cannot come soon enough.