Mt. Entoto

Today started off really well. This morning we were ready earlier than the schedule said to cover our bases with Ethiopian time.

Our activity for the day was a trip to Mt. Entoto and then a visit to a new school / orphanage or something we are not quite sure about. On the way to Mt. Enoto, we took the opportunity to snap a few pictures along the way. One thing that we felt compelled to take pictures of was the construction activities taking place everywhere. Of particular interest / amazement is the scaffolding used during construction. Yes, that's wood scaffolding, maybe 3 inches in diameter.

Mt. Entoto is the original town site for Addis Ababa and was founded in the early to mid 1800's. The elevation is approximately 10,000 feet, sufficient to get us above the horrible smog. We visited a small museum attached to the first Orthodox church in Addis and the Emperor's palace.

The museum was the best by far. This was due to the museum tour guide. He was an older fellow with a good sense of humor. He asked if we (the 4 of us and 4 other families) wanted the tour in Amharic or English. I asked if he could do both. He gladly obliged and the girls seemed very engaged. Rediet even asked some questions and the tour guide seemed to enjoy that interaction.

The palace was small. It was three buildings all built out of mud with a thatched roof. The walls are constructed as one continuous element like a poured concrete wall. The mud is strengthened with straw and sticks that functioned like rebar. Amazing that it was still standing given the amount of rain they can get here. The first building was a reception "hall". There are 4 rooms totalling maybe 1,500 sq. feet; the main reception room, two food stores and one public viewing gallery. The most interesting thing about the reception hall was the food stores. One was for the Emperor and his wife and the other was for everyone else. Embedded in the walls are horns. The horns are used to hang slabs of raw meat. That way, during receptions when you get hungry you can get a snack of raw meat. Eating raw meat is still quite common. After the museum tour we started noticing small shops selling raw meat all around Addis. Ethiopia's version of fast food?

The second building was the royal bedroom. It was two stories. The top floor was the bedroom itself. On the ground floor was the "treasury" and the royal guards station. The third building was a guest house for visiting dignitary.

After several years of living on the mountain, the Empress became tired of always being cold and moved down to the valley. Eventually, a new palace was built in the valley. Over the years, all the trees on the mountain, surrounding hillsides and valley were cut down to clear way for the growing population and also to support the people. And, I mean all the trees. At this point the Emperor began plans to move the city to a new location. Then the French stepped in and introduced the Eucalyptus Tree, a fast growing tree. Today the entire mountain and surrounding hillsides are covered with Eucalyptus, but the evidence of massive erosion that occurred once the forest was cleared is still present. Most of the valley is now urbanized or in agriculture, but in some areas pockets of Mesquite trees have managed to reestablish and out compete the Eucalyptus.

After the tour, the day seemed to fall apart. There was a great deal of confusion about going to the school / orphanage or whatever it is. Some families wanted to go back to their guest houses. For whatever reason, we got left at the HOH while the 4 other families were either taken to their guest house or to the school. The way they were doing it made no sense logistically, but hey it's Ethiopia. So for the next hour or so we got to see a small snippet in the daily life for the kids at HOH. This actually was a good thing. While we were just hanging out, one of the staff came up to us and told us how much he loved the girls and how happy he was for them. He then gave a book to us which he used to read from to the girls. It is a lecture / interpretation of the book of Romans. We accepted the book and promised to continue reading from it. Later, the same fellow and one of the nanny's was leading the older kids in some songs. It was a lot of fun and Stephanie and I joined in.

Shortly after that the van came back but had only dropped off two of the families and still needed to take us and another family back to our guest house and then the last family to the school. But, at this point is was already 5 p.m. Several of us had dinner plans that evening and we were concerned that there would not be enough time to drop everyone else off, get the family to the school and back again. Remember, this is Ethiopia. So, grudgingly, we abandoned that plan and just went to dinner.

Dinner was at a touristy place with traditional food, music and dancing. The adults enjoyed it, but the kids were not impressed. We got back to the guest house around 10 p.m. and hit the hay. Sleep didn't come though. The ever present nighttime chorus of barking dogs and nervousness for tomorrow, meeting the birth mother kept us awake.

Visa Appointment

The driver was supposed to pick us up at 9 a.m. to take us to the HOH and then to the Embassy. In true Ethiopian fashion he did not. Uncharacteristically, he came early. When we arrived at HOH and met up with all the other families, we reshuffled into various vehicles. We road with the director of the HOH. Up until then, we had been riding around in Toyota minivans with fairly poor visibility for the passengers. This is a good thing given the Ethiopian driving habits, traffic and pedestrian congestion. This time, I got to ride up front in a small car, an opportunity I prefer not to happen again!

The good thing about the ride was learning a few important tidbits of information about the girls. They very much like music and in particular Christian music. The Director had a CD playing of a very popular Ethiopian signer and the girls were signing along especially Mihret.

The Visa appointment was everything we were told it would be, anti climatic. When we arrived at the Embassy, we were surprised..."This is it?". No flag, no military guard, just some small buildings behind some barricades. Apparently, the "real" Embassy was just beyond these buildings in a large walled off compound. When we all arrived (10 set of parents, 12 kids and 2 HOH staff) we sat on benches outside the building. There was some sort of process for clearing the first of two security checks but whatever that was, was a mystery to me. For some reason, I set off the security alarm at the first check, but they let me through without any question. At the second check we left our cell phones, batteries and other items of which we had only batteries for the camera (which was allowed!). I did not set of the alarm this time.

Once through security, we (all 34 of us) jammed into a small waiting room with another 30 or so Ethiopians. We waited for about 30 minutes until the first family was called upstairs to the "Clerk's" office (Clerk is just a name I'm using for descriptive purposes as I really don't know what the official title is). The Clerk's office really wasn't an office at all. Instead it was another waiting room with about 20 or so people. The room was lined with bank teller like windows. We were called to Window 7. We gave the clerks our forms, which she didn't even look at. We were only asked a few of the questions we were told to expect. Right in the middle of the process, the Window 7 woman started arguing with the Window 8 guy about proper protocol for copying others in e-mails. This lasted for about 5 minutes. Once she felt content the argument was done, she simply proceeded on with our paperwork without explanation or apology. One question we were asked at least 3 times was if the girls were siblings. No idea why three times though. She also asked us twice if we knew what happened to the birth father. Again no idea why twice. All other questions, like our citizenship, the girls citizenship, she only asked once. Then, after a brief period she stated there was something unusual about our files. Panic immediately set in and I managed to babble something the Clerk correctly translated into a question about the problem. The only explanation she offered was that there there were two of something in the file. For siblings, there is only supposed to be one of that something. Again, I'm sure everything will be fine??? With that said, there was a very vigorous flurry of various stamps that she placed all over the documents and then she stuffed them through the window and said the passports would be ready by 10 am Friday (two days away).

By the time all 10 families were finished, it was time for lunch. Lunch consisted of injera (the spongy, vinegary bread I mentioned before), spicy beans and salad. The salad was delicious.

After lunch we split into two groups. Our group went to the Ethiopian Cultural Museum. The museum is located on the Addis Ababa University campus. I enjoyed this more than the National Museum. The girls also got more out of it. The exhibits on display were items of every day use from past to present for many of the different cultural groups in Ethiopia. Many of the items on display were things that the girls were very familiar with. However, more important than that, the HOH assistant director in Ethiopia (who was leading our group) told us something Rediet had told him. Apparently Rediet was disappointed that we didn't pray before meals. This explained why the girls would just sit and look at me before starting to eat. Another useful tidbit for bonding with the girls.

On the way back from the museum we stopped at the Hilton Hotel. There I exchanged some more money. The Ethiopian currency is called the Birr. The exchange rate is 10 Birr for 1 US Dollar. We also took the opportunity to confirm our flight reservation home at the Ethiopian Air desk in the hotel. This was a very confusing event. When the Ethiopian Air agent confirmed our reservation, I asked if he could check the availability for the Friday flight (just in case we wanted to leave early). After a few moments, he announced that our flight had been changed with no additional charge and we were confirmed for two passengers. After some back and forth miss communications, I think we got everything set back the original schedule leaving on Sunday. It's our hope that it is safer to keep to the original plan....

By the time we got back to the Guest House dinner was already being served. We dropped our stuff and dug into a tasty rice dish (chicken carrots and a few other things). After saying Grace! We all went to bed happy.