This morning, we got ready, ate breakfast, and then headed through the city to the AGCI office. We met with Mathewos, Haile, and Welde to discuss some business, then headed downstairs to have jebena buna at Mimi's (Wass's wife) shop.
Other AGCI adoptive parents will recognize this painting:
Mimi's coffee shop is known to be the best around. In fact, the professional soccer team in Addis goes there after every game.
Buna with tenadam, an herb:
We then shopped for a bit at a leather store downstairs before heading to the first level to see Seble, baby Rachab, and Tom. It was so good to see them!
Rachab loved Jalen, and kept wrinkling up her little nose when she smiled at him. :)
We walked to Kaldi's for lunch, where we enjoyed sambusa, fries, ice cream, juice, and orange and pineapple Fanta.
After lunch, we went back to the office, where we met the driver of the van we had rented for the day since Wass wasn't back from Gambella yet. He drove us back to Ordinary Hero to pick up our donation totes for Kibebe Tsehay orphanage, where we spent the afternoon. The orphanage director met us and gave us a brief history of the place before giving us a tour. There were so many babies! We saw a "special needs" room, a "failure to thrive" room, and lots of toddlers who were starved for attention. They all wanted held, and most were wearing soiled bottoms. It was so sad to see so many children who had no families. We decided that we wanted to bring them all home with us. Because it is a government orphanage, we weren't allowed to take photos.
We gave the donations we had brought to the staff members, who were thrilled with the items. Then, we headed back through town. It was raining really hard, and the crowded streets became rushing rivers. The traffic was insane! An ambulance, with sirens blaring, sat beside us for about 15 minutes because it could not get through.
We stopped at Safeway, where Chris, Shana, and Rachael got out to pick up a few things. The twins and I continued on to the AGCI office building, where the boys spied a barber shop several floors below. They begged to get their hair cut, so I obliged them. Jalen ended up with ringworm from the deal, but the boys loved their fresh, $2 haircuts and cool fades! I had to laugh when I noticed that the boy's hair capes were advertising Golvin Kloin jeans. :)
Chris and the girls soon met up with us again, and we purchased more leather from the shop downstairs. I bought a very cool new purse! Did you know that Ethiopia is famous for its leather? And if you purchase it in-country, it's a fraction of the price that you'd pay in the U.S.
Back at the guest house, we ate dinner and then visited with a family of 7 from Massachusetts who had brought their adopted children back to meet birth family, too. They had just arrived from Gambella.
Wass called tonight and apologized that he wasn't back yet. His original intent was to be back by 3:00 this afternoon, but he ran into a road closure and had to drive 120 miles or so out of the way on terrible roads. :( He had SO wanted to be back in time to buy fireworks for the twins in order to celebrate the 4th of July with them. What a sweet guy. :)
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