Our Trip to Ethiopia, Day 7

 Wednesday, March 15, 2023

This morning, Shana, Daniel, Malia, and I went to Friendship Square for awhile. We walked around the beautiful park and had lunch at the restaurant there. 

The names of all the tribes in Ethiopia are inscribed on rocks in the park. This is Jalen and Jordan's tribe:

After lunch, we took Daniel and Shana back to the guest house since they had a business meeting for Araya. Then Malia and I continued on to the Tim Tebow Foundation and All God's Children International's House of Hope. It was good to see old friends and spend time with the girls who live there. They sang songs for us, and then Malia played games outside with them while I visited with the staff and enjoyed a coffee ceremony. Some of the special mothers who work at the House of Hope used to work at Jalen and Jordan's orphanage, and they loved seeing recent pictures of the boys. 

Afterward, we stopped at AGCI's office building, where we met more old friends and were introduced to some new employees. There were also some special visitors waiting there for us: one of our sponsored children, Tamirat, and his mother. Wass, Metasebia, Tamirat, his mom, Malia, and I all drove to a nearby park where we could spend some time together. We gave Tamirat a Prayer Buddies t-shirt and a soccer ball, and then Wass, Malia, Meti, and Tamirat played soccer together.

We stopped at Tomoca coffee on our way back to the guest house so I could restock my freezer at home and get some for friends.

Darci, Daniel, and Shana were still having their meeting at a nearby hotel, so Tensaye called a Ride (Ethiopia's version of Uber) for us to go meet them. We arrived at the Monarch hotel and actually had wi-fi! I immediately called home to update Chris. Then we took the elevator to the 13th floor, where we had dinner outside in a rooftop restaurant overlooking the city. 

It was raining by the time we finished, so we bundled up in our rain jackets and walked back to the guest house in the dark.