After traveling approximately 24 hours, we arrived in Addis Ababa late Saturday night. We checked into our hotel, which was beautiful, and attempted to sleep for a few hours. Besides the goats, cows, barking dogs, music playing, rock hard beds, and airplanes flying overhead, we kept noticing that you could actually hear the mosquitoes flying past your head. So needless to say that we slept very little that night. The next morning, we woke up and realized that our window was open and found dozens of mosquitoes in our room. Not to worry though, we were taking our malaria medicine and you don't have to worry about getting malaria in Addis due to the altitude. I immediately noticed the altitude as Addis Ababa, the capital city is 7546 ft high and I felt dizzy almost the entire time we were there.
That morning, we went down for breakfast at the hotel. We were not sure what to expect. The wonderful ladies at the hotel had prepared bread, fruit, fruit smoothie and other various things. We ate some toast, and then one of the women brought us out french toast. So we ate the french toast and then she brought us some syrup.....Oh well, was good anyway.
At approximately 6:30 a.m. we loaded up in a van with 2 other couples and headed out of the city to Durame, where Bejigo is currently living in an orphanage. The drive down there took us approximately 6 hours on a mostly paved but very rough road. Since we arrived in Addis late as night, I was not able to see much of the city as we drove to the hotel. Now this morning, I got a taste of what life in Ethiopia is really like. I saw so much poverty, more people than I have ever seen just walking. Most people appeared to be walking looking for water for themselves or for their animals in the countryside carrying containers for water. There were goats, donkeys and cows in the roads which the cars would slow down for, politely honk their horn, and then drive around.
I saw small children approximately 4 years old herding animals. Children half dressed or with no clothes would be sitting out in a field apparently by themselves. Men walk hand in hand as a sign of friendship. Many people alongside of the road had their hands held out, which I thought they were trying to hitchhike, but apparently they were asking for help, food, money, etc. Along the road we saw lots of Muslim mosques and churches. There were different areas which would be mostly Muslim or Christian.
The countryside was absolutely stunning and not at all what I was expecting. I thought that the land would be flat and dry, but on the way to Durame, it was mountainous and the farther south that we got, the more lush and green the land. Many of the houses were the traditional houses made with mud and wood and with thatched roofs. I found these houses to be fascinating and beautiful. I was told that 8-9 people may live in one of these houses with all of their animals and no separation between them. If a man were rich, he would have a separate house for his animals. We also saw men riding on horses and these men would be considered rich.
Other houses were made with sticks or had tin roofs and were very small in size. When we would arrive in a small town, people would lay out their items to sell on a sheet or blanket including clothes, shoes, and food. As we drove, I found myself selfishly thinking how awful it would be to live like this, working so hard, living without running water or electricity, spending all day searching for water. But the people of Ethiopia were so beautiful and kind and filled with joy. They work together and there is such a sense of community among the people. Two things that we rarely see in America.....people filled with joy despite how blessed they really are and a sense of community. I think that there is so much that we can learn from them.
Along the road we stopped at a beautiful hotel to stretch our legs and get a drink. Good thing that I brought my toilet paper with me as there was none available at most places. We hopped back in the van and continued south. At one point, we heard a "part" fall off of the car but did we stop.....No. The driver just kept on driving. If you know my husband Greg, his face was priceless thinking I can't believe that I part fell off and we did not stop! The farther we drove, the van got louder and louder sounding like something was hitting it with a baseball bat. We all began to wonder if we were actually going to make it to the orphanage to see our kids. We then turned onto a gravel road and the drive got worse, not to mention the driver drives super fast and there are no lanes. At one point, the driver got out of the van, got something out of the glove box to tie something dragging under the car up and then we proceeded down the road. He had also stopped several times to add brake fluid to the van...not a good sign. As we went around a mountain, we neared Durame, and our driver decided to stop for lunch. At this point we were all anxious to meet our children.
We enjoyed a Pepsi, which was good, but sweeter that ours here and a lunch of spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce. After lunch, Greg tried to pass out some dum-dum suckers to the children on the streets who just overwhelmed Greg, snatched the suckers and took off as Greg yelled "Share with your friends."
We finally arrived at the orphanage. We got out of the van and entered the gates. It was sort of like a compound with various buildings. We were led through a beautiful garden like area to the entry way, where we were instructed to take off our shoes and put on some sandals. We entered the room and sat down in chairs. One woman was preparing a coffee ceremony for us and other nannies were present in the room. There were two small boys sitting on the floor together and we wondered if one of them was Bejigo. I finally realized that IT WAS HIM sitting there!!!!! I cried realizing that it was actually him and this moment that we had waited for for so long had finally come. Oh how he had grown from the pictures that we had. He sat with his weight shifted forward like he was just learning to sit up. One of the nannies picked up the other boy and handed him to another couple. Then the nanny picked up Bejigo and handed him to me!!! He was so sweet and precious. I could have held him there forever. He was dressed in his traditional clothes. His hair had grown from his last picture. He was so clean and smelled so good. His hair and skin were so soft. He allowed us to hold him but was always looking around for his nannies. He grabbed my fingers and my hair. I could not see any teeth but definitely think that he was teething as he was slobbering on everything and had a runny nose. They would talk to him and say his name and he would just smile. So precious!!! He had a bad sounding cough, which w found out that he had just been in the hospital with pneumonia. He loved Greg and just smiled at him and began cooing. He laughed when Greg tickled his chubby little thighs and belly. After taking lots of pictures and cuddling for awhile, we went to another building were his room was. He slept in a small room with a big window. He had a small wood bed that was attached to two other beds with sweet baby girls in them. There was a mosquito net above his bed. There was also a mattress on the floor that we used to sit down and feed him his bottle. At first, one caregiver acted like she did not want to hand him over to me but Bejigo's head nanny told her to let me feed him which I was so happy about! His main nanny, Sister Signat was so sweet. You could just tell how very much she loved him and squeezed him tight.
I was so happy to know that he was so loved and taken care of. We then met with the pediatrician and reviews his medical history. I was told that can roll, drinks milk from a bottle and juice from a cup or spoon,and sleeps and eats good. Our visit was very short, about 1 hour and then we were told that it was time to go. I gave the nannies a blanket that I had made for him with his name on it which the nannies loved and a photo book that had pictures of us in it. We gave him lots of hugs and kisses and told him that we loved him and that would be back soon to get him.
We got back in the van and headed back to Addis. We arrived back in Addis at about 9:00 at night and immediately fell asleep.
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