Travel day #3 Addis Ababa July 1, 2013
The team landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after an eleven-hour flight.
After interviewing the team members it didn’t seem like anyone really slept on
the flight, which isn’t a good thing being that we landed at 6:30am.
Personally, I tried. I really did, but every time I shut my eyes I would fall
into this light “rest”. I could hear everything around me, but I wasn’t
sleeping. It was frustrating at the time, but I had no idea how much of an
impact it would have later. One of my issues was anxiety about landing in the
Addis Airport. I had been told so much about what not to say, how not to bring
attention to the group, etc., that it was a bit nerve wracking. Nicholas and I
are big fans of A&E’s Locked Up Abroad, and it wasn’t something I care to
ever experience.
We got off the plane to a wet and cool Addis, and after finding each
other, we found the Visa line…the really really long visa line. Apparently
Addis is popular this time of year? We shuffled through Visas and Customs with
no problems whatsoever and attempted to find all 60+ bags of luggage. We were
mostly successful, only one bag of donations and a guitar was left behind in
DC. Then on to the xray machines. This is why I was so anxious. I had been
prepped about not saying “donations” and to just nonchalantly breeze through
assuring the Ethiopian officials that we were bringing in gifts, and personal
items for friends….with 50, 50lbs bags of donations….(did I mention Locked Up
Abroad?). There have already been times on this trip where I thought I would burst
from stress and then God was like “I told you I would take care of you, didn’t
I?” and He does. There was not an official standing at the xray machines, NOT
ONE! We each loaded our bags onto the belt and each unloaded our bags on the
belt, it was like they didn’t even see us. Wow. When will I learn that God’s
got it anyway?
We emerged from security to find Bissy! And Gecho! And Kelly! So so nice
to see familiar faces! To all who don’t know, Bissy is a longtime friend of
Ordinary Hero’s. He was our very first translator on our very first trip to
Addis and has been a faithful friend every since. Last year Bissy was given the
opportunity to come to America and travel to churches and other gatherings to
share his powerful testimony! He’s touched lives all over the world. A modern
day disciple. Gecho has been a driver for OH for a long time too, and also had
the opportunity to come to America last year. And Kelly Putty, founder and
Executive Director of Ordinary Hero. Kelly also has an awesome story and the vision
of Ordinary Hero is all hers….she’s a world changer.
We left the airport to head out to the vans and over to the guest house.
Believe it or not, it is just now hitting me that we are not in America any
longer. Addis is beautiful. It’s very green, mountains surrounding with flowers
growing every where. Lilies are one of my favorite flowers and there are bushed
full of lilies. So pretty. There are people everywhere. Living on the side of
the road in lean-to tents, growing a crop of some sort, selling produce or
homemade wares. Driving in not for the faint of heart. There seems to be a
general side of the road in which one drives, but there are few other rules.
According to Kelly, there are relatively few accidents though. There is no
insurance, so if you get in an accident you are 100% liable. There is incentive
to not crash into your neighbor.
We arrived at the Providence Guest House, which Ordinary Hero now
officially runs! This is big for Ordinary Hero! The house is amazing. Top to
bottom marble, large rooms, comfy beds, bathrooms galore, huge meeting area,
and the sweetest staff. We hope the other adoptive families and mission groups
discover this Life Center and love it as much as we do. We were quickly
assigned rooms and left to explore the house and have a breakfast snack of
oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, and coffee. If you haven’t tried Ethiopian coffee, do.
We met for a quick team meeting to introduce ourselves, and then headed
out to IAG – International Adoption Guides transition home. A transition home
is where children go after they have been placed. IAG has tons of children at
this home that are still waiting for families. The house consists of an outside
concrete play yard, a downstairs common area, and two upper floors with rooms
for the older kids and rooms full of babies. I walked into the top floor baby room
where there were 12-15 cribs with two babies each. Some were sleeping and some
where not, but it was silent besides the nannies hustling and bustling. I have
never experienced anything like it! I was purely delighted to see one baby girl
in particular that I had seen on the blog from last weeks trip. I sat in our
office and joked to Nick that I could eat that baby girl. ;) I was so excited
to see her and she was even sweeter in the flesh. While many of the babies were
subdued and chill, she was full of personality, had a mouth full of teeth and
just grinned non-stop. They usually don’t know exactly how old the babies are,
but I feel like after raising two, I’m a pretty good guesser and I would guess
she was between 9 months and one year old. She could crawl and would take steps
if you held her hands, but wasn’t walking yet. After hearing the nanny “call”
her, I thought her name was “Sept”, but I really have no idea. I had to
distract her with a toy so I could slip away, which seriously breaks my heart. Chances
are this baby has been placed already. Babies don’t stay long in Ethiopia. It
makes sense. Parents want the most time possible with their kids. Time to love,
make memories, teach and mold. The easiest way to to this is with a baby.
However, there are tons of older children that have been waiting and waiting
and waiting with no parents, memories, teaching and molding. Sometimes it makes
me so mad. How unfair is that anyway? They go to bed at night without a person
in the world.
We left IAG to go back to the Life Center. Every single one of us in the
van fell asleep quickly and sleep-walked into the house. Some went straight up
to bed and slept the night away, some took a nap and joined us for an early
dinner, and some (like myself) decided the power nap would do and would help me
sleep through the night later. I took and shower and then headed to the
basement to start sorting out a few of those 50lb donation bags. We all had our
ways of collecting donations. Personally our Sunday school class – Sanctified –
graciously donated tons and tons of blessing bags, personal care items,
clothes, toys, baby bottles, crayons, paper, etc. THANK YOU!!! I collected
things over a couple of weeks, but when I got everything out, I was overwhelmed
with the amount of things given. THANK YOU!!!
Zombies @ IAG
After that I was flat out ready for bed…it was 8:00pm. J
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