Actually, sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes, like forever ago.
But, I'll try to recap things perfectly:
So, we're headed out shopping. We had our lunch at Kaldi's right?
Okay. We all piled in the small taxi car and Anna led the way (by telling the driver where to go). Our first stop: a nice shop, located in a nicer area. Anna said that the prices were more than the other places, but they were fixed. No haggling.
The shop was filled with many beautiful things. All kinds of scarfs, blankets, pillows, clothing, wood things...I mean, great looking stuff!
I bought a pretty green scarf (though to be completely honest, I wish I hadn't paid that price because where we went next, we could get things WAY WAY cheaper) for 170 birr...about $15. Mom got a scarf there too I think, but no one else got anything. A bit pricey.
We went next to Churchill St. Now HERE is where you get the bargains...and haggle.
Thank goodness Anna knows Amharic (for the most part) and could try and haggle for us. She did tell us they didn't budge as much for her as they would for an Ethiopian, but she was able to help us out a bit. Without her help though, things were still dirt cheap.
Lets see if I can remember all the things I purchased on Churchill St:
1 colorful scarf (60 birr)
1 Ethiopian hat (60 birr)
2 traditional Ethiopian outfits - for Cale & Megs (70 birr each)
1 traditional Ethiopian shirt - for Tim (70 birr)
2 hand woven/crafted animal toys for Megersa (25 birr each)
1 necklace (40 birr)
1 purse with small matching scarf (80 birr)
1 hand drum toy - for Cale (20 birr)
1 beaded bracelet (10 birr)
Gosh, I THINK that's it! We brought in some good loot! It was a little crazy with everyone trying to get us to purchase things. We'd buy something, and then they'd guessture for us to go into the back where they had other things. It was hard to say "no" but we had to! What was ALSO hard was trying to conceal the big wad of birr we had... It was also hard to avoid the beggars.
I mean, I know there are beggars everywhere, but it still pains me to see them.
We walked up and down the streets and went in countless amount of 'shops' - but we weren't done yet!
I felt tired and ready to see Megersa again, but when would we get this experience again?? Probably never (or until we adopt again).
Anna took us to where she works. She works with women who are HIV positive...and instead of them leading destitute lives...they make and sell jewelry. It's WAY cheap, and REALLY beautiful. I think their speciality is making jewelry with coffee beans as the accessory because I saw tons of bracelets and necklaces (even earrings) with coffee beans as the beads. A cool idea, but not exactly my taste. I was TOTALLY digging the beaded necklaces and earings. I bought 2 necklaces there for 70 birr each and then 2 pairs of earrings (30 birr each).
Her shop was REALLY neat. With each item purchased, they would attach a "card" with the person who made it and how old they were...a little bit about their story. It was such an awesome thing to see. The Lord is really blessing this ministry!
After her jewelry shop, we were done shopping. It seemed as though we were out of money (though I did have quite a bit left), and Amanda and I were itching to get our hands back on our kids!
When we came back to Layla (treasures in hand) I walked into the baby room, and the nannies informed me that Megersa was sleeping. I picked him up anyway.
I figured I didn't care, and would just hold him while he slept.
But he woke up. I went out into the little "lobby" area, and started to get a bottle ready...but one of the nannies came out with a bowl/spoon/bib in hand and said "Megersa? Snack!" He looked at the nanny and grinned. I could tell he recognizes most of them and is oh, so generous with his smiles!
She handed me the stuff and walked back into the room.
When I looked into the bowl I saw what looked like crackers - graham crackers (or a variation of it) crushed up in water. I thought...wait? Is this the "cerelac" they are talking about? Cookies?
I couldn't imagine that he was eating cookies as his other form of nourishment...and that he was eating from a thin metal adult spoon. But he did.
Not a lot. He didn't seem to really want it.
Mom went in to the baby room and asked if there was anyone who needed feeding.
They handed her Minalush and a bowl, spoon and bib.
Minalush did NOT want to eat for my MIL....or maybe just in general. She's a skinny little thing too...and she just took one bite, but wouldn't swallow it.
Mom waited for awhile and tried to coax her into taking another bite, but she didn't. When one of the nannies came out, Mom tried to explain to her that she didn't seem hungry; but the nannies motioned for her to keep shoveling it in. They said something to Minalush in Amharic and it got a smile out of her - then they took the spoon, and gave her more while her mouth was open. Maybe she just recognized the nanny...because I'm not sure if she ate more for mom.
Megersa ate probably half of it, and then I decided to give him a bottle. He was fine after that.
It was nearing dinner time, and we decided that we'd walk back to the Ritmo with Amanda and Tsehaye. We were told by the group of volunteers at Layla (who were staying at Ritmo) that they had extra lasangna made and we were welcome to join them.
So, I strapped Megs in the carrier, and we went to the guest house.
It's really nice there. Very homey. The walk there is 1/2 on pavement, and 1/2 gravel (which is a bit tricky when you've got bags, you're wearing flip flops, and you're carrying a baby on your chest). We got to see Amanda's room, and I looked around the compound a bit. It's enclosed by gate and guarded 24/7, which is very nice.
Why didn't we opt to stay there? Well, several reasons:
I wanted to be able to sleep. It's a sweet place there, but it is kinda loud with all of the people and excitement there. Amanda said she can hear the "call to prayer" at 5am. There are rolling power outages there which wouldn't allow me to use my fan at night.
The bonus would have been to have Megersa with me...but then we wouldn't have been able to go out at night.
Secondly, I wanted a SHOWER! 3 days in a row they didn't have hot water - or much running water at all. They were collecting some cold water to be able to flush down poop...but even then, the bathrooms were getting pretty dang nasty with all the pee. Oh, and you're not allowed to flush the toilet paper there. I think it's kinda icky, though I understand that people dont really use toilet paper in 3rd world countries, so the plumbing system can't handle it.
It WAS great to visit though.
The lasangna was okay. The food there is of course, not what we are used to, but it was nice to have "home cook" style dinner. We stayed and chatted with the high school volunteers (Susan PD brought a group of teenagers who were volunteering for a week) and the other adoptive family that was there.
When it was time to leave, we packed everyone back up, and went back to the Ritmo.
Amanda intended to let Tsehaye stay at the Ritmo, but T didn't want to stay. That was a HUGE step in the right direction for them!! Yay!
We dropped of Megersa, then walked back to the King's Hotel.
Tim called that night and I was telling him what we bought and where we went...but he cut me off and said "I dont care about that, how is Megersa?" I guess I would have been mad, but I WAS totally rambling on!! :)
Wednesday night was PACKED with excitement, so it was very easy to swallow 2 tylenol pm, and a melatonin, and head to bed.
I slept great.
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