Day three in Ethiopia (Sunday May 17. 2009)

On Sunday the Care Center is closed so we did not get to see Lucas Digafu. It was very hard to know he was next door and not be able to see him. After a brief power outage in the morning we were about to get ready for Church. One of our travel group members had heard that we could request to go to a traditional Ethiopian church service instead of the more "western" and English version Holt had planned for us. It was great, but later we found out that our children get bussed every Sunday to the church we were originally scheduled to attend. We may not have seen them anyway, but I would have liked to have seen the church Lucas attended. The thing about Ethiopian people is that they never want to offend anyone for any reason. If we ask for a traditional service, they do everything in their power to give us what we want. The church we attended was Dawit's church and he called the pastor and had a translator set up for us and had front row seats saved for us. When we arrived they were singing and it was wonderful. People were singing along with the performers and making a high pitched fluttering noise with their tongues. There was a band, about 10 people in choir robes, and a lead singer. TV cameras were recording it and I'm pretty sure they caught Benji sleeping. His translator didn't work and he wasn't getting any of the message anyway, but I sure hope it looked like he was praying. Every time I thought he was about to snore I would put my hand on his leg and he would wake up. The service was very energetic. I thought it was cool (and yet another sign) that the pastor talked about the Walk to Emmaus passage in Luke (Lucas). The message of the sermon was to keep your eyes on God and then all else will fall into place and be fine. Once your eyes are open to God you seek to know Him more.

From church we drove about an hour to a beautiful resort (Kuriftu resort in Debrezeit). After a great meal I had a full body massage (and I mean FULL body massage). Benji played pool and ping-pong with Stefan and then we just walked around together and relaxed. It was beautiful there and I continued to be amazed at the extremes of this country. You can see extreme poverty one minute and then, just beyond a gate, extreme wealth. There seemed to be very little "Middle" class when it came to housing.

The ride home was crazy. An hour and a half of near misses and diesel fumes. No one would believe me if I told them how bad the traffic is in Ethiopia (because I tend to whine about traffic everywhere) but it really is unlike anything I've ever seen. We got to see a home that is the kind of home Lucas Digafu lived in with his father. Boy is he going to be in for a surprise when he sees his new home. Tesfahun got us back to the hotel alive and in one piece, thank God! We showered and got ready and then walked to the Addis Ababa Golf Club. Walking through Addis is so heart breaking. It is so dirty and there is so much poverty. Again, you see starving people begging on the street everywhere and then on the other side of a wall there is a beautiful resort or golf course, I mean unbelievably beautiful. There was a wedding going on outside the golf club and I wanted so badly to crash it and just see what an Ethiopian wedding was like. I could see rose petals on the aisle. Roses here are so cheap. I bet he petals were scattered an inch think on the aisle.

We ate PIZZA at the golf club and it was wonderful. After the golf club we walked to a store to get formula and then walked back to the Union in the dark. Two children who were begging followed us most of the way back. The girl was 11 and her brother was 8 (Avery's age). My heart was breaking. If you asked them "How are you?" they would reply "Hungry". We were told by other travelers that if you give out money you become instantly surrounded by other beggers, which would have been very scary at night in Addis Ababa. We talked with them (they know English) and then Mark in our group gave them a little money and they returned to wherever they came from. I wished I could bring them all home with us.

We returned home and missed our kids very much. Even the one who was right next door.