Day two in Ethiopia (Saturday May 16, 2009)

Saturday was great!!! We spent two hours with Lucas Digafu. He came to us easily and even gave us both hugs and kisses. We discovered that he REALLY likes his daddy and at that point mommy was second fiddle. A man named Mesphin (sp?) was taking video and were glad to have been given a copy on our last day as our video camera did not work, ugh! We found out on this day that Holt got pictures of Lucas' birth father and I was very happy about that. I expected to see a very small man in the pictures as Lucas is so small, but when we saw the pictures on Thursday we saw that he was not real small. We noticed that many men in Ethiopia are "short" compared to men in the US, which surprised me, I always thought Ethiopians were very tall.

We got to ride to a "real" hotel, the Hilton. It was so different from where we were staying, but still not like home. There were armed guards at the gate and we were frisked at the door. Everything in Ethiopia was behind walls, some of which were topped with barbed wire or broken glass. Being the country girl that I am, It made me feel a bit uneasy. "Why the armed guards and barbed wire?????"

We had a great lunch at the Hilton and were also able to use the internet for about 30 minutes or so. It was great to hear from home.

Next, Dawit took us to the National Museum of Ethiopia. This is where the famous "Lucy" lives. The museum guide was very interesting and asked us a lot of questions. He really wanted to start the whole creation/evolution debate, but he picked the wrong crowd. I was a bit sick to my stomach so I waited outside for the others. I felt much better after Kristen shared some of her Pepto and we returned to the Union.
Our travel group was wonderful. Everyone was willing to share and help out wherever needed. Kristen and I shared a blow dryer and hair straightener. One time she ran up the stairs to bring it to me while it was still hot, as the power had just gone out. We were blessed to have such an awesome group. We became close with Jennifer and Mark because they also adopted an "older" child (two actually) and their daughter Tigist and Digafu really liked playing together. Megan and Stefan were our travel buddies on the trip home, more about that later...

After a short rest we were taken out to a traditional Ethiopian dinner by Dawit, Tamaret, Dr. Fikru and his wife. Other than meeting Digafu, this was the highlight of the trip for me. The Ethiopian dancers were amazing and I found myself thinking of Kara and Allison all night long. They would have loved it!!

We called our kids when we returned to the Union and caught Kara at home. It was the best 7 minute and 5 second conversation of my life. I missed them so very much.

The power was out all day Saturday from about 6 a.m. to 6ish p.m. I began to realize how hard it is for HOLT to communicate with their staff in Ethiopia.