Ethiopia - Day 3

We headed to the Care Center first thing today. We turned in all of the necessary paperwork for submission to Embassy…now we just need to pass court tomorrow morning. We also took all of our donations for the Care Center. Now we’ll have a few less suitcases on the way home!! Today was a very calm morning. All of the older kids were at school, so we were really able to spend focused time with our kiddos. We were able to stay until it was time for them to eat lunch. Thankfully Little A didn’t seem as tired today. N spent a lot of time looking at the pictures on Craig’s Ipad. Jordan loved showing him how to take ‘silly face’ pictures. He figured out how to work that thing very quickly! We played more soccer & basketball today. Braxton loved getting to spend more time loving on Little A.
After lunch, we spent the day enjoying the city of Addis Ababa. We visited Mt. Entoto (and almost died from lack of oxygen!). We were able to purchase scarves from the “Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers”. The Fuel Wood Carriers are unbelievably strong women – the loads they carry on their backs are astounding. The women who make the scarves are part of a project to give these women an opportunity to earn a living without the excruciating labor of hauling the huge loads down the mountain. We bought a lot of coffee at Tomoca, and would have purchased more, but they ran out! I guess we’ll have to go back later this week for more. Craig and Braxton were thrilled! Then we went shopping. This proved to be rather stressful with all of the beggars and street children trying to sell things. Our guide reminded us many times not to give money to the beggars and to buy only from the proper vendors. It was heartbreaking to hear the women carrying babies saying, “please sister, baby hungry”. By the time we were done shopping, we were surrounded by street children and others begging us to buy things, and they continued tapping on the windows after we were in the van. We were all a little overwhelmed after that experience!