Day 2 in Ethiopia (Saturday)

After going to sleep at 11:00 and foolishly thinking we wouldn’t need any sleeping aids, Brian and I were both awake at about 2:30 or 3:00, and never went back to sleep. Lesson learned: Ambien is our friend.

Emma was up at about 4:00 for potty and a fruit-snack party with Brian in the bathroom. I was almost back to sleep when they emerged from the bathroom and woke me up, never to get close to sleep again. At around 5:00 Emma crawled into our bed, and at 5:30 I was rushing her to the bathroom with a tummy ache, where she then puked up her fruit snack on the floor. Thankfully it was the marble floor and not the carpet. By this time Brian was up with a fussing Isaiah, trying to calm him. All the while poor Biniam was on the floor trying to sleep through it all.

At 6:00 we were all up and reluctantly ready to start our day. We decided to order a simple breakfast from room service: basket of toast and muffin, one serving of corn flakes and milk, one glass of orange juice. Unbelievably this set us back 300 birr – about $30. I guess that’s the price we pay for staying in possibly the nicest hotel in Africa. I have learned my lesson for tomorrow, and ordered our one-time complimentary fruit basket, complementary breakfast tea and milk, pastry basket and yogurt. This will set us back only about 10 birr and will hopefully be enough for us all to share.

At 9:00 Dawit picked us up and took us to Layla with our donations and letters for the kids that were sent with us from other families in the US. We brought along Isaiah’s stroller since we thought it might be easier to not have to carry him the whole time. Unfortunately we didn’t consider the novelty of a stroller to all the kids at Layla, and Isaiah was swarmed like a rock star. There were literally 10-15 kids at all times surrounding him and fighting to take him for a spin around the court yard. Finally all this became overwhelming for Isaiah, so we had to take him out and hide the stroller.

Meanwhile Biniam was off being quite the celebrity himself, handing out pictures of all the kids I had taken last time we were there (in January). Some of the pictures were of kids who were already in America, but their remaining friends enjoyed receiving the pictures. Biniam also helped us hand out all the letters, which was so fun but also overwhelming. The kids swarm around with looks of hope and anticipation on their faces, hoping they will have a letter in the bunch.

We mostly stayed on the Layla side, but as soon as word traveled over to Wanna that “baby Eftalem” was there, Isaiah was once again surrounded by all his crazed fans.

Dawit picked us up for lunch and we went to “our spot” at Adams Pavilion. After lunch Dawit took us to a great little store where we could find shoes for Biniam. This store is mandated or run by the government, so the prices were fixed. We found a great pair of athletic shoes, plus a soccer shirt, all for 160 birr. That almost made up for the breakfast disaster!

After shopping we all needed naps (except for Biniam) so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. Three hours later Emma, Isaiah and I could NOT wake up, despite Brian and Biniam’s best efforts. Finally the boys took a walk around the hotel while we woke up, and then came back to get ready to head over to Layla.

Today is some sort of holiday that I don’t really understand, but involves singing and the collection of sticks and then a bon fire as the finale. Brian, Biniam and Emma headed over to Layla for the bon fire, but unfortunately got there right at the end. A little over an hour later, we are all back in our room just hanging out and getting ready for bed. As I write this Biniam is literally falling asleep in his clothes on the floor, so we are trying to get his bed put together.