Streets of Addis Ababa

And finally, here are some street shots of Addis Ababa. Water tanks are on the elevated platforms. We wish we'd gotten more shots of Addis. It was a fascinating mix of new and old, as well as wealth and poverty.

We encountered homeless people and beggars, including many children of all ages, everywhere in the city. Within blocks of the opulent imperial palace compound (built during Haile Selassie's reign from the 1920's-1974), uniformed street patrol officers used large canes to wave beggars away from the shops and the tourists, occasionally striking them. A sad reality of a proud country in the midst of severe and chronic economic hardship.

Without question, our trip to Ethiopia was an amazing experience, both humbling and highly enlightening.

Good-bye Ceremony

Here we are after the "Goodbye" ceremony. Berie is in a traditional Ethiopia dress. This was obviously a very emotional day, both for us and the nannies. The kids sang to us and each adopted child was individually honored. Here, after a wonderful tribute and some very touching exchanges, a couple of the nannies wave good-bye.

Wash ritual

This is our beautiful daughter insisting on her washing ritual. The bidet in our bathroom was her wash basin of choice since it was the perfect height. I tried to redirect her to the sink but she yelled something in Amharic at me and turned on the bidet water. I decided not to protest since it was my first day as her mother. It seemed clean and Americans don't use bidets anyway, right?

Here she is washing her hair, vigorously slapping water on her face and scrubbing many times, doing a quick "farmer blow" of the nose, and happily mugging for my camera. This is the basic washing ritual after a quick "ka-ka" on the toilet. I would have been happy with a simple hand washing, but who am I to say?

Our beautiful daughter

Berie is such a sweetheart and very strong willed! The language barrier is tough. She says “mommy?” all the time, and occasionally throws in a "daddy?" We say “yes?” and then she rattles off something in Amharic. We'd like to be able to communicate better, but we’re getting there.

Visiting with Berie at the guest house.

Here we are at the guest house with Bereket--also referred to by the nannies and by us as "Berie" (pronounced Berry). She was visiting us that day; what she was thinking at this point we have no idea. She was probably wondering who these strange white people were hugging her and following her around.

The staff at the guest house tried to help us understand what she was saying to us (in Amharic) but for the most part, body language was the only way we communicated with each other.

Berie joined us permanently after our official meeting at the U.S. embassy a few days later.

A visit to one of the Cooling Huts

Along the road to Hosanna we stopped to tour one of the huts. The local children immediately flocked to where we parked, wanting to observe us and have their picture taken. They would say "please" to ask to have their pictures taken, and then hurried to see the image on the screen of our digital camera. They were very excited to see photographs of themselves. The cooling huts had dirt floors with mats to sleep on, and where the animals' stable took up about half the space, while the family lived in the other half.

Along the road to Hosanna

The kids loved to have their picture taken. They clamored to have their picture taken and always said "thank you" afterward, one of just a few English words they knew. The also referred to us as "faranji" (foreigner). The yellow plastic jugs are the water jugs that were filled up each day. There hadn't been rain in many days, so water was scarce.