4.07.2010

Ethiopia Day #3

Holy COW today was exhausting. But wonderful.

We took today to see the capital city, as once we have our daughter with us, we won't be traveling around outside of the guest home. It was hard to delay meeting her by one day (especially since we're SO close now) but in retrospect, I'm so glad we made that choice.

The excitement built throughout the day as an awesome dude named Yoseph took us all around the city. We shopped like mad, visited the National Museum, found the best coffee in the city, went to the leprosy hospital (fascinating that leprosy is still considered a curse in Ethiopia), drove the city for hours (with windows down and cameras working overtime), and had an amazing Ethiopian meal - who would have guessed Ethiopian food tastes better in Ethiopia. (Ginger - guess what - the injera is SUPPOSED to be cold... just much, much better tasting!)


The city actually feels like a combination of Mexico City and Chincha Baja, Peru. The colors, the smells, the overall feel - it is so hard to get our brains around the fact that we are in AFRICA. We saw presidential palaces and the poorest of slums. We saw entire skyscrapers covered with scaffolding made of twigs and sticks. The enormity of the poverty is overwhelming because of the sheer volume - the conditions (while dismal) are better than what I have seen in Haiti, and about the same as Peru.

The streets are packed with people on all socio-economic levels - the amount of life is breathtaking. Fernando said today, "Yoseph told us that there are 7 million people in Addis Ababa - I think I saw them all today!"


On a side note... it's interesting to NOT speak the language. Typically we have traveled to places where we do speak the native language and this was definitely different. We both felt a little left out - ostracized and vulnerable. Amharic is beautiful but complicated. It sounds like an Eastern version of Spanish with extra sounds - clicks and breaths. Written, it is purely symbolic and indecipherable to our (sorely) untrained eyes. On the up side, we could speak Spanish to each other and no one understood a word!


We picked up some special gifts for our daughter, one for each birthday and a special one for her wedding and first child. We found jewelry, dresses, wraps, toys, and lots more... it was so fun to shop for her in HER country and imagine the significance it will all have later. Of course we want to bring her back to Ethiopia at least once, but in the meantime these gifts will be something tangible to tell her story.

At the end of day three, at our guest home awaiting our 10 am meeting with our daughter in the morning, butterflies are in full force. She has no way of knowing that tonight is her last night away from us.

We are mere hours away...

1 comment:

Ginger said...

I will believe it when I taste it! Love the pics. :)