December 23, 2008

Hi Everyone!
We're here. It looks like the Blog is being blocked which Mike said is normal in Ethiopia for some reason. We stayed in Addis Ababa the first night. We went to a local restaurant after getting off the plane. (The drive to the airport was worse than the sixteen hour flight for some reason). Addis Ababa is a nice city...nicer than we expected. Behind the store fronts, though, it is mostly mud shelters, and makeshift housing.

We spent the night at the SIM (Serving in Missions) Missonary House which houses missionaries when they are in language school or other training and when missionaries come back to Addis for business/government reasons. The grounds are very nice and they serve a family style breakfast and lunch which was great. A perfect place to recover from the long flight and the lack of sleep from trying to adjust to the time change (and awaking to the "call to prayer" at 5 am which was VERY loud).

The city was under a lot of construction...apparently it takes a long, long time here for buildings to be completed which what they have available. What stuck me was that the city wasn't seedy at all. The people are very modest...they all are in long pants and dressing nice is important to them. Poverty is huge, AIDS is as well, but from what I am told, crime isn't as bad as what I would have expected.

We were waiting on the Land Cruisers to be fixed and got a late start yesterday afternoon to go to Langano where Mike and Amy and the kids live. Let me tell you, quite a ride! There are people, goats, donkeys, sheep, chickens and carts all along the roads. Goat heads and all sorts of unrecognizable things are sold along the road sides. We were constantly veering to avoid hitting people and animals. After dark was downright ridiculous...I can't tell you how many near misses we had with cars with no headlights, kids out in the middle of the road, animals running into the road. I wondered for the entire ride where all these people were going?! People are just walking and walking and walking along long lonely stretches of highway.

Amy is an amazing driver with very little fear (and ocassional shriek, but that's about it). After about 3 or so hours we turned off on to the "red road" which is all red pumice stone and then onto the "brown road" which were both really bumpy, four wheeling rides that I wish Amy had taken slower...through a "container bridge" which was so tight we had to take our bag off the top of the vehicle, and finally arrived to their home. The house is more than amazing by compariosn to all of the mud huts that we passed on the way. They recently got a generator that gives them a bit of light and some warm water, that with candles got us through the bedtime routine.

A woman who recently moved here to work as a nurse at the clinic stopped by last night to greet us, and to let Mike know that she had a a baboon get aggressive with her and her young son yesterday. She was shaken by it and wanted Mike and Amy to be aware and if Mike ever saw it while hunting, to be be awre of it. Apparently certain ones can be very dangerous and a child was killed by one several years ago here.

Today, we have been unpacking our boxes of supplies and putting away all of the groceries purchased in Addis Ababa. The kids have been outide climbing trees, throwing the football...with the girls running in to hold/feed Hannah, the Ethiopian orphan whom Mike and Amy are adopting. She is beautiful and the happiest baby I have ever seen, as she is passed around by all of the children on a rotating basis. The children (all 9 of them) are getting along beautifully. The Rodgers kids are amazing hosts hopping up to help my kids with anything and everything.

I guess today we will be going up to the House of Hope which is on the property and is for babies who's mother or father has dies. The babies stay there for 6 weeks for the single parent (or grandparent) to get themselves together and make plans.

We will also go into the local village to buy a goat for Christmas dinner. A quick story...Amy hit a sheep in the road a few days ago and negotiated to buy it for $20 (or pay $10 if the owner keep the carcess). We had lamb chops last night for dinner that was cooked by Genet, Amy and Mike's house keeper.

More another time...
Love, Susan, Tex and the kids