Ethiopia, Episode IV, A New Hope

After only two and a half months we have decided to post some pictures and tell everyone a little bit about our time in Ethiopia. I know what you are thinking, "But Gary, we were really hoping you would wait another 6-7 months."

Let's see, when we last left our heroes...

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy….

Ooops, wrong story. WE were in Cairo. In my defense it did seem a lot like another world.



So let's see, we arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia on Friday night. We were met by a representative from our agency. His name is Masey and he was pretty much in charge of getting all of settled and assisting us with any and all of our needs. We were the third family to arrive. The rest of our group were due in the next morning. The guest house is amazing. It is a very large home with 7 or 8 bedrooms. It has a large living space were we gathered to watch TV and chat. There is a kitchen upstairs but it was not really used. The kitchen and dining area downstairs was were we all gathered to eat.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready to meet our children for the first time. I can't properly describe how it felt waiting to see Tariku for the first time. We were led into a large room at the care center and one at a time, each family was led to another room where their child was. The agency creates a video "Life Book" for each family and part of the video is our time there including our first meeting.

So once we were led into to room and shown Tariku, Jen of course started crying. I being the manly man decided not to.
On a side note, it must have been really dusty at the time because dust particles got into my eyes and made them water. I hate when that happens.


We only got to spend a short time with Tariku because we had to get to the office and meet the rest of our travel group and discuss the agenda for the week. What I remember most about our visit that day was how quiet and sleepy Tariku was. In hindsight I should have realized he didn't feel well.

Meeting the rest of the group was interesting since they had all just gotten off the plane and looked half dead. You are pretty much on a plane traveling for close to 18-24 hours and I can't even imagine what was going through there heads at the time or even how much they remember. After introductions they all left to meet their children. The rest of the day was getting to know everyone and preparation for our trip to Hossana the next morning.

HOSSANA

Sunday morning we all got up early, 4am early, in order to make the trip south. This trip is optional but it is an opportunity to maybe meet the birth family, see the care center where the children were dropped off at, and also see Ethiopia. Each family had it's own Land Rover and driver and at about 5am 8 vehicles drove out of Addis. The trip itself was really something, watching the sun come up and burn off the mist from the mountains was amazing. We were able to see small huts in the distance, some were close to road, and watch the Ethiopian people start their day.

Once we reached Hossana we went to the CHSFS office and waited for our visit. At first no one from Tariku's birth family was there and when it seemed that we would not be able to meet anyone, word came down that his birth father was on his way. Once he arrived we went into an office and had a nice conversation and afterward took some pictures. There is probably more to say but we want to wait until Tarik is older and we can tell him about it first.

On the way back to Addis we stopped at one of the homes and visited with the family who lived there. We were also able to go inside see how they lived .While we were there lots of children and adults appeared and watched us. We interacted a little bit with them. I found a small group of children who were facinated with my video camera. Once I turned the screen around and they were able to see themselves they about flipped and I had them had a large group of children. I did end up giving some change to them, we were encouraged not to since it has in the past caused some problems, but we were in the car and it seemed like the right thing to do. I forgot to mention that while in Hossana we stopped in the care center there. Jen and I had brought some gifts for the children in the area, crayons and granola bars if I remember right, and we asked the guard at the care center to hand them out to the children that had gathered outside the walls.
We made it back to the guest house in Addis late afternoon and spent the evening watching a movie I brought along. Thanks Netflix!

Jeez, I am only thru Sunday! I better call it quits for now and take up the next chapter later. (SPOILER ALERT!!! We find out some interesting news about Luke's father. You don't want to miss it.)



Oh, we also got new pictures taken and wanted to share some of them.