Ethiopia - Trip One - Day Two

Tuesday, August 2, 2011
We slept really well during the night - yay! In fact, Shana slept for 12 hours straight! We got up this morning, had breakfast in the hotel dining room, and then met several other families in our travel group that arrived early this morning. One of the other families brought along their 12-year-old daughter, "S", and she and Shana hit it off right away. They had fun planning the activities that they were going to do with the kids at Hannah's Hope today.

Here we are this morning at the Riviera Hotel, ready for a new day with our boys!

At about 11:00, Danny came and picked us up and we headed back to HH. When we arrived, Chris took a video of a family that was meeting their children for the first time, and I snapped some photos of another family while they met their daughter. Then, off we ran to find the boys! "O" looked so sad again when we found him. One of the other families, who arrived at HH earlier today than we did, told us that when they got there, "O" ran up to the van and was very disappointed when we weren't there. Awww!!! That made us feel good. The boys seem to be attaching to us pretty quickly. At one point today, "U" said, "Ababa, na!" Which means, "Daddy, come here!" He was also freely handing out kisses to Chris.

We spent about 5 hours at HH today, and had so much fun playing with all the kids. Everyone, even the staff, loved all of the candy we brought with us, and had fun making necklaces with the beads Shana and "S" brought. We made one for each of the boys with his name on it. 

We fed the boys their lunch - spaghetti, which they loved. This afternoon, "U" fell asleep in my arms. It was so sweet! Soon after this, it was time to go, so we took him upstairs to his bed. We told "O" goodbye, and then Wass drove us back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped along the side of the street to buy some bottled water. This is a necessity in Ethiopia, because the water from the tap is not safe for drinking or brushing teeth. Anyway, the streets are always PACKED with people, and as we waited for the men to get back with our water, the people outside the van were very intrigued by Shana. They kept smiling and waving to her. I think they were surprised to see blond hair! It's sort of an unusual thing in Ethiopia. 

We ate dinner tonight at the hotel, and then met with Ephrim, the driver we had lined up to take us to Ziway. He told us that he won't be able to drive us on Saturday, but that he will get someone else for us. He then gave us three more bags of coffee, since he runs a coffee business on the side. Yum!!! And we're already anxious to see our boys again tomorrow!