Blog Entry
Posted by Kristen Alldrin on December 19, 2009 to Adoption blog
(click any image to enlarge) Three Common Sights Donkeys, walled home "compounds" and tin roofs are common sights in Addis Ababa. Our Hotel's Water Supply, Laundry Room A tank supplies water for the guest house. Underneath are two basins where maids wash clothes for guests. Where else would you find razor wire around your compound and someone herding their donkeys on the dirt road right outside the gate of your hotel? We watched the maids doing our laundry in big sinks in the yard. It was funny to walk by a while later and see our clothes hanging on their line. My favorite part was that it was all neatly folded in a basket in our room within a few hours. That never happens at home! Saturday must be the day when families catch up on their laundry. They wash it by hand in a plastic bucket and everything gets hung out on a line. There was laundry everywhere today, strewn across every yard. I am so thankful for my washer and dryer! We had great day today meeting some of the other families in our travel group. We visited the Ethiopian National Museum (the entire bottom floor is dedicated to "Lucy" and all the evolutionary excitement she stirs up). They showed us a model of the "earliest child", which looked suspiciously like a common monkey to us. We prayed for the museum tour guide when we got back in the van. He was obviously searching for truth and the men in our group tried to give him some in a very loving way. After the museum, we drove up to the top of Entoto Mountain, which is where the former home of someone really important whose name we can't remember. There is an old church up at the top and many, many people were kissing the ground and the gates (I'm not sure why, but I know it wasn't clean). The driving is insane. I had to stop watching the road because I just knew we were going to kill someone. I didn't want to see it and have the scene in my head for the rest of my life. I was so afraid a child would dart out from behind a car. There were so many people on the streets and the drivers go way too fast. There are no apparent rules, or at least none are enforced in any perceivable way. We are looking forward to meeting the kids on Monday! Back to: Adoption blog Things are a little different here in Ethiopia
Wash Day
Saturday must be wash day, as today we saw many women washing clothes in plastic basins then hanging them up on clotheslines to dry.
Feeling Safe
The Guest House is gated and walled, with a creaky metal front gate manned by one or two unarmed security guards. Yes--that's razor wire.