One Week ago we left for Africa

I got to thinking we have been gone from home for a week. But only 4 and 1/2 days in Africa.

It was a short ride to the hotel for lunch. We invited the driver and Abraham, our driver declined, fasting, but Abraham joined us. The 3 of us had the same thing we had last night. We sat on a balcony area and were there by ourselves so it was nice to be able to talk. They brought us salad again. Of course we didn't eat it. While we were eating the manager came to tell us that we would have to change rooms. They had over booked. Why I couldn't just move into G and B's room I haven't figured out. I slept on a roll away anyway. There was no electricity for a while so no elevator but only for 20 minutes or so. I think I said this already but while we were at the park, Bill tried to pay the guy for helping us with the birds, 15 birr, about $1.25, but it wasn't enough, so Bill made an enemy. Not his last. When we got back to the van we were kind of surrounded by people who wanted money or to sell us something. It was really hard, you can't understand what they are saying and we were told not to give them things. Here's the Caleb story again, at least I think I told it before, I can't remember what I wrote and what I have told people. At lunch we told Abraham about Caleb's seeds. While watching a movie, Caleb, 6 years old, told his mom that we needed to take seeds to Africa so people would have food to eat, later he came back and said we should take 2 packages so they wouldn't fight over it. We didn't know who to give it to. Gretchen had several zip lock bags of seed packages with Caleb's picture and his name and age written on the back. Abraham was very touched and said that they had a garden and they could use the seeds. He held the bags to his heart and kissed them. He said that they would pray for Caleb.

The next event Mahi our guide would rather not have us talk about but it is a part of my journal. We were on our way to the hospital to see Elliott's finding place and suddenly out of now where, actually out of a drive way came a motorcycle. Our driver swerved to miss him and laid on the horn. Gretchen and I saw it all happen, there was no time to react. HE HIT US. We ran right over the motorcycle and the guy flew about 30 feet off to the side of the road. All I could think of was Oh My God, he's dead. But he got right up. It all happened in a matter of a few seconds but when you are there it seems like it was forever. We couldn't move the van because of where the bike was. Our driver of course was upset and on his cell phone immediately. I think there was a lot of cussing but we wouldn't know because we didn't understand. Mahi said if we were in Addis they would just pay the guy off but someone called the police. Everyone was trying to comfort the motorcycle driver, who seemed to have scrapes. It was his fault but they were all blaming Abeselom. He and Abraham were out of the van. The van was surrounded by people. Here in the US police try to avoid crowds at an accident, not in Africa I think there were 75 or more there.

The van had two bucket seats in the front, and three bench seats. B, G and I were in the first bench seat. Elliott and Emily were in the second and Mahi and Terri were in the third. The first and second were smaller so you could walk back to the third. When the accident happened Mahi threw herself on the floor grabbing Elliott in the process, keeping her from hitting the floor. Remember there are no carseats. The motorcycle didn't look too bad but everyone was pointing fingers at Abeselom.

Mahi made us close the windows because of all the people, they might take things out of the van. She moved up to one of the bucket seats and I told her how to turn the key to roll up the front windows. We had to wait for an accident reconstrutionist. (not sure if that is a word)

Speed us cooking mushrooms, the first of the season, nothing to do with Africa but thought you'd like to know lt;


It was hot and very hard to watch the people outside, coming to beg for money, food and water.

Our driver had to go to the police station. Another van and driver came for us. We were assured that it would all be cleared up. We were all afraid for Abeseolm. Maybe he'd be arrested. We really liked him even if we couldn't understand what he said, he laughed with us and showed us pictures of his family and shared Christian music with us.

The hospital was just around the corner. It was a large campus a University Hospital. Beggars were following us around inside and outside the hospital. We were not able to take pictures here. Someone chased them away.

We met Elliott's nurse who took care of her . Elliott's mother had delivered the baby at the hospital, placed her on a bed in an empty room and walked away. I can't imagine the heart ache she felt, but knowing that it was the right thing to do.

The nurse named her Meron, which means Merry, yes that is the right spelling. The people at the orphanage called her Merry. Emily had lots of question, and she was able to take a picture of the bed that Elliott was in and the nurse. I stayed in the hall. There were two mothers who had recently had babies sitting on one bed with the babies in a crib near them. They were talking to each other. I think they all thought we were crazy because we were all crying at one time or another.

The smell here was horrendous. The rooms had up to 8 beds in them and there could be 20-30 other people in the room with the patients. I assume family members. There were puddles of urine on the floors under the beds the size of a card table. On the wall beside the nurses station was a poster with operations or procedures and how much each one cost.

On the way out we hid our cameras in my backpack. It made things easier.

We left the hospital and headed to Yohanna's finding place. It was only a block or two from the hospital. The van stopped in at the end of a street. We left Emily and Elliott there, Abraham said it would be better not to take the baby out. The road into the market wasn't really wide enough for the van, it was foot traffic only, or donkey/wagons. We walked into the market. There was drying grain on blankets laying beside the road. There were potato bags hanging in one stall for sale. People gathered around us, just beyond where we stopped there was more grain on the ground. To the right was a building for cooking, you could see the smoke rising out of a make shift chimney. On the left be the potato sack shop was a dwelling where people lived.
I'd say we walked into the market about a half a block, by our standards, and we stopped. Abraham told us this was the place. Gretchen asked at least twice what he meant. And twice more he told us that this is the place, the finding place, the place where that wonderful  police woman happened upon our beautiful Yohanna. Not along the edge of the road, or beside a building or even near a trash dump or a back door. Right in the middle of the road where people and donkey carts were racing by. Here was where Yahanna's biological mother decided to place her in that dirty towel, hoping that someone would come along and do something. Something she couldn't do. Take care of her. We had may hypothesise before we came to Africa and they are listed above but we never expected that it would be a piece of dirt. Gretchen thinks she had the baby at the hospital and left. I personally believe that she was on the way to the hospital and didn't make it. Possibly she left her after waiting to see if she could take care of her, perhaps she was in the same hospital later that Elliott was found at, perhaps this was her last effort before she herself gave up to die. When they took Yohanna to the orphanage they estimated her at 4 days old. 4 days with a mother who was most likely very very sick and unable to feed her. How she survived is a miracle but the true miracle is that that police woman was smart enough and fast enough to save our angels life. We were never able to meet this wonderful woman because she had recently moved to another town and had a baby. She was pregnant when she found Yohanna, thank you Lord for her motherly instincts. Thank you Lord that her mom made the choice to leave her there. Thank you Lord for the orphanage and the transitional house. Thank you Lord for the Plumpy Nut and the nannys. Thank you Lord for Yohanna.

We didn't stay very long there but before we left Abraham took off running after one of the boys who had been making comments near us. We later all remarked that we thought he had stolen something and we all looked at our cameras and fanny packs. Abraham was none to nice when he talked to that young man. Abraham said he was joking, not nice. I wish we knew what he said. Maybe I'll ask Abraham on facebook sometime.

We somberly and slowly went back to the van. I tried to take in everything for future reverence. I knew that B and G were in shock.

We asked to go to a shop to buy something for the girls from their home town. The store had all kinds of things, jewelry and carved items. I spent 465 birr which was about $36 for 7 things. A zebra, elephant, 2 giraffes with their heads intertwined, a vase, and 3 bowls, one which the airlines broke. G and B bought several things also. Here there were no price tags and Mahi had to barter. She is very good at it and got very verbal with the salesman. If fact we each got something free, if you can call it that. I'm sure we really paid for it.

Then we went across the street to a clothing store. Gretchen bought an outfit for 350 birr, less than $30. Mahi wasn't please with the prices at one time and told us to all walk out of the store. The store keeper called us back and made a better deal. Mahi looked over each piece to make sure that there were no holes and that it was in good shape. Emily and Terri spent about $100 or 1300 birr.

We went back to the hotel and got our key. I had Elliott in my arms feeding her so I carried her up to their room. Terri and Emily had a round bed with a mosquito net hanging from the ceiling. They had lots of trouble with their rooms , leaks and mosquito's. I'm glad we were where we were. We rested for a while in our rooms, G and B had a round bed too. And the floor manager came in to plug in everything and turn on the TV and stereo in the headboard. There was a message chair, kind of scary, I tried it out and it grabbed your legs and squeezed and didn't let go for quite a while, wasn't sure I would get out of it. Maybe that is how I would die, messaged to death. If you don't remember Speed kept saying that I was going to die in Africa. There is a whirlpool bath but no hot water. Free beer and wine in the room. G and B took the wine with us, B packed it in our luggage and it broke in flight somewhere between Addis and Peoria.

It was raining again, the hotel had a tin roof. There was a balcony next to the roll away bed but the knobs were broken so we couldn't get the door open. Bill took lots of pictures out the windows. A parade went by someone had won something. Lots of shouting in excitement. Terri and Emily were right beside us room wise but we had to walk around a triangle walkway to get to them, it was like they were on the other side of the hotel. There was no direct way to get to their room. Along the inside balcony edge were two buckets with mops in them, one soapy water, one clear water. The mops were mops heads on sticks, real sticks with no bark just sitting in the water, waiting. Bill is flipping through the channels, Gretchen is video tapping the room.

I forgot to tell you when we got back to the hotel there was Abeselom the driver. We all hugged him or shook his hand, he is warming up to us. I'm curious what he does when we eat, is there a lounge for drivers. Where does he sleep, Mahi has a room at the hotel. Abeselom just shows up when we need him.

We came down about 6 to go to another hotel for supper. We mentioned that there was no hot water so Mahi went to the desk and someone took Bill up to show him how to turn on the water heater. Terri took a minute to check facebook.

On the way to supper Mahi and Bill talked about his work and being in the Reserves. She asked " You don't get to kill people?"

Abraham showed me how to spell her name in Amheric, sorry I can't show you. But instead of 7 letters it is 3 symbols, one for each syllable.

When we ordered drinks we have to say cold coke or cold mirinda. One restaurant had Healthy Breasts, chicken, and Lomb Chops, lots of misspellings that we think are funny, but they don't understand the humor.

The hospital we visited was the finest in this region, imagine that.

There was a Bethany group of workers at the restaurant we ate at for supper. They had been to the orphanage and visited with Abraham. We met a gentleman, Greg, now I'm not sure I would call him that, from Virginia who works with health aide, distributing supplies. He comes twice a year for a few weeks. He talked to us and then Abraham came down to visit too. Then this man started to make fun of Abraham.

Some of the things Greg fished out of Abraham were interested though. Abraham has over 100 cousins, his grandfather has 4 wives. He brought over a friend to do a shoulder dance, and wanted Mahi to do one. She just laughed and brushed him off. He was drunk.

I had chicken kabob, Gretchen had the house special kabob with lots of meats, and Bill had chicken schnitzel. They offered us fruit but we didn't eat it, the water again. Abraham brought over Greg to meet the other Bethany people. They were very upset and told Abraham they didn't like him and that Abraham was the master and should tell him to leave. He finally did.

E, T, and I talked to Mahi she had lots of questions about the US and we invited her to come and visit us. She said the one thing she would like to try was turkey.

Ok, I have typed for an hour and a half and have finished Saturday. My shoulders are killing me. What a day.

Sat. Feb 13th the beginning

Just as a side note I ordered my shoes for Seth's wedding today. Hopefully they will fit and go with the dress.

Called for a wake up for 7am, it didn't come through till 7:30, I was up and showered and listening to CNN. Olympic Sledding Crew Member died in practice. The guy who invented the Frisbee died at the age of 90. We went to breakfast at the hotel buffet. We had thick french toast and potatoes, mango juice or pineapple juice. The rest of the dishes were local and I choose not to try them. Our guide got a beautiful little cup of milk and coffee- Latte? We headed out to the fish market and Hippo Boat Ride. We each had to pay 20 birr to get into the gate. There were UGLY birds there to who men threw fish too so they would fly around and we could take pictures. Of course the men wanted money for their services. We didn't get to go to the Fish Market because Mahi said "It smells". I think it would have been interesting to see, but oh well. We walked on through the trees and along a path, there were lots of monkeys around begging. A little girl followed us with a dog. The dog was hers or so she said and she had another one at home. B or G asked if they had other pets, she said a pig, our guide said she thought that was impossible. She wanted money of course, I gave her suckers. Our guides chased her away 2 or 3 times. Men tried to sell us Hippo Tooth Scoops. We walked on to the shore where the boats were tied. Abraham negotiated and negotiated and negotiated until he felt we got a fair price for the boat ride. We all had to have life jackets, even though the water wasn't much more than waist deep in most places. We passed a new hotel going up on the waters edge. There were 10 of us on the boat including the captain and cabin boy, 2 guides, the 3 of us, Terri, Emily and Elliott. Almost as soon as we left the dock, if that is what you can call it. G noticed that there was a leak in the boat. We didn't know that the lake was fairly shallow at the time. She made a motion to B and we all laughed. Emily said that she had heard it was very common. The cabin boy came up and stuffed something in the hole. Like the boy in the dyke. At times the Captain rowed and other times there was a motor. There continued to be leeks. Now the boy was bailing with a flat sided container. Lake Hawasa is a very large lake, full of reeds along the edges, this is what the Hippos eat. There were men fishing in reed boats, like Thor Heyerdahl, only small. The water wasn't very deep in places so we ran aground and the Captain had to get out and push. We saw many Hippos, snorting, and swimming under the water, then mouths open wide. We weren't any closer than 50 yards. I was totally soaked going out because we were hitting the waves that were coming in. Another leek under G's seat. The cabin boy propped up one of the seat cushions to help me from getting any wetter. It really was to late already, lucky it was my whole pants or I might have had some "splainin" to do. I think the water could have been up to our ankles if that young man hadn't kept bailing. In fact at one time both the boy and the Captain were bailing. We headed back in to shore. They let part of us out at a very rocky piece of ground. Native youngsters were jumping in and splashing and having a great time, reminded me of Lake Story. We had to be very careful, one at a time alternating sides of the boat. They then moved the boat to a flat part of the beach to let the rest of the group out. Terri said,"Now I really feel like an Ethiopian Princess.There were white tailed black monkeys in the trees, they were very big and Gretchen had one on her shoulder as a profile picture for a while. They had large basket type nests in the trees. Men brought buckets of nuts for us to give to them. Bill tried to pay for some but the guy didn't think it was enough and wouldn't accept. Ok, sorry for you. Elliott did so well on the water, she flirted with Abraham. At the beach I saw a gerbil, I guess there are lots here. We tried to describe squirrels to them, it's hard to tell someone about a squirrel unless they can see one.

Last parting visual picture of what we saw before lunch. Along the side of the road in a filthy ditch was a dead donkey, a local dog was enjoying his lunch. This was in the middle of town just a few feet away from the gate of an enclosed compound, someones home or maybe a guest house.

More about Friday Feb. 12th

The donations were given out, and every time something came out of a suitcase the nannies cheered and clapped. Formula, diapers, meds ex. Tylenol, Oragel. When the donations were all opened, they asked Terri to pray over them. Then the manager prayed. It was almost time to go. The found the towel that Yohanna had been brought to the orphanage in and gave it to Gretchen and Bill. It stinks. I really expected a raggedy old towel, but it was large, one that you would wrap a baby in after the bath with the little hood in one corner. Emily got Elliott's clothing too.

This was the hardest part of the trip, the prayers really got to me and then walking back through the house and had to leave all those kids behind. I cried for about 10 minutes. It was soooooooo

sad to watch the gates close. Everyone was quite for most of the trip back to the hotel. We checked in. The rooms were very weird, triangle shaped. It was hard to get the door unlocked, the floor assistant even had trouble. A few minutes after getting into my room there was a knock on the door and in came an assistant to plug in the TV and turn on the lights. Later I went down to G and B's room. They said mine had the best view of the lake, well I couldn't see much. Their room was the tin roofed village. I think they were both very interesting to look out of . No screens and no air conditioning. Emily and Terri's room had a mosquito net hanging over the bed but there was none in our rooms.

We went down for supper, Gretchen had stuffed chicken, Bill, steak with mushroom sauce, cold Cokes and cold Mirinda (Orange soda). I ordered grilled lamb chops, I expected them to be grilled like pork chops but they were covered in some kind of sauce that wasn't listed. I tried one bite I never did finish chewing, I finally just swallowed. Mahi said that I didn't have to accept it so she sent it back. Then I ordered Chicken/ Mushroom soup, thinking it was safe but it was just as bad as the chops. So I ate bread. There was always bread on the table. We weren't able to eat anything fresh because it was probably washed with contaminated water. When we got home the first time we went out we went to a salad bar, nothing ever tasted so good. We asked for soup instead of salad but they wouldn't switch. I tried a tiny bite it was very spicy, I wouldn't have liked it anyway. We talked and laughed at the restaurant, the patrons thought we were weird.

We made plans for 8:00am and breakfast in the dinning room. Then to the fish market and the Hippo Boat Ride. Lunch and then to were Elliott and Yohanna were found. I hope tonight we all sleep better. I slept maybe 3 or 4 hours the last 2 nights. The beds are hard and king size. I decided to take my shower and write in my journal, there was a banana there in the room so I had it, I decided it was safe to eat, no rinsing. The shower was cold, each room had it's own water heater and they had to be turned on, of course no one told us that. There was a Nicholas Cage movie on in English with Amheric subtitles. Next to the toilet in the bathroom is a phone and a ba-day (sp), true connivance. Actually it was like a hose next to the toilet, I suppose that is what it was used for. Even if we can't seem to call out to home. Here at least we can get on facebook and post things. I think the people at the orphanage were WONDERFUL. They truly enjoyed the pictures Gretchen brought from other families who had been there months earlier and taken children home. Everyone was so nice. Many were shy but very respectful. The boys were told to stand when we entered a room.

Awasa is the second largest city in Ethiopia. It's a good thing we got out of DC on Monday. They got 6 more inches of snow on top of the 36 on the ground. The next flight to Addis was suppose to be Wednesday and it was cancelled. The next flight out of DC would have been tomorrow, Saturday the 13th. The USO would have gotten old if we had been there from Mon-Sat. I wonder how we will get back. They say that there was snow is 49 out of the 50 states this week.

The south is getting more snow and it is heading north.

Too tired to type more

Exhausted all the time

I don't know what it wrong with me but I am exhausted all the time. It hits about 2 in the afternoon and I am totally wiped. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I just had a blood work up and it was the best it has been in forever.