Our trip

In order for us to answer that age old question "How was you trip to Ethiopia?" I have decided to write a post about it. I know I have previously written about our day to day events while we were there, but I still feel people aren't able to get the whole picture. I will try to do my best to describe our wonderful trip and the great country of Ethiopia.


June 2011:

As we made our way through the airport of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia we soon realized we were no longer home. The faces all looked familiar but we didn't recognize any of them. If you have ever been to Ethiopia you know how familiar the people of Ethiopia can look. They have such gorgeous round eyes that seem to paralyze you with just a look. Their eyes follow you as you obtain your visa. They follow you as you make your way through security. They know within an instant why you have traveled to Ethiopia and they cannot look away. Unlike the typical eyes of an American they hold no judgement, they hold a deep sorrow buried behind a gorgeous smile. Their eyes say "selam" with a simple nod of the head and a raise of the eyebrows. Even in the airport these people were kind and generous. It was a great glimpse of what was to come.

The ride from the airport to the guest home was bumpy and full of black smoke. Little did we know that the dense fog of smoke we hated while we were there would be something we would come to miss once we were home. We saw things on this ride that can never be forgotten. We saw women and children begging for money, we saw people sleeping on the streets with nothing but t-shirts on, we saw terrible things on this ride. It was an awful site and to this day I cannot get those images out of my head.

Once we arrived at our guesthouse we were ushered to our room on the top floor and were astonished as what we saw. It was an almost empty room with no working electricity. We were a little shocked and upset by the lack of supplies in our room to say the least. However, as the days went on we fell in love with this room and the balcony views we were given. We also figured out how to make the electricity work...we had to turn the breakers on lol! Every morning we would walk out onto the balcony and stare down at the streets of Addis and watch people walk to work as well as those who were selling items on the streets. As we stood there and people watched we could smell the spices of breakfast being made and the sweet aroma of coffee filling the air. This place that we once were scared of was now becoming home to us.

Just a few blocks down the road was a home for children waiting to be taken back to their forever homes. This place was the foster home in which our daughter was living. Our daily trek to the foster home was always the highlight of our day. Come rain or shine we would be there knocking on the gate to be let in. We would walk up the stairs to the infant room and pick our daughter up out of her crib. Of course we could never leave that room until we had played with every other child in there as well. Once we had played with all the babies we would take our little girl back down the stairs and into the "family visitation" room. We would come to spend most of our days in this room and we would not have had it any other way. We made lifelong friends in this room and we will never forget the times we spent with them and their children.

Each day on our walk back to the guesthouse from the foster home we would interact with the people of Ethiopia. We would memorize phrases that our new best friend Joni would teach us and then we would try them out as we were walking back home. We learned how to say "hello" and "how are you." We also learned how to say " no, I do not want" as well as "no, thank you." It was so much fun to see the reactions we got as these words came out of our mouths in Amharic. Joni's, our driver/translator/body guard/new best friend, teaching moments became very valuable to us and we will never forget all that we learned from him.

On our last day we were scared to say goodbye for fear that it would be too long until we were able to come back. We were scared that our daughter would forget us and that Joni would think we had forgotten about him. We were scared to turn and walk out of a country that had given us so much in such a short period of time. We were dreading turning around and walking away from our new life in Ethiopia, but with tears streaming down our faces we left. We left our heart in Ethiopia and have not been whole since. We miss all of our new friends. We miss that big empty room on the top floor. We miss the smell of morning spices. We miss walking to and from the foster home. We miss our daughter more than words can say. We miss the feeling of holding our daughter in our arms. We miss Ethiopia and our beautiful little life we had while we were there.

We had the time of our lives in Ethiopia and we will forever cherish the memories that were made.