Day 6 in Ethiopia (Wednesday)

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning. After our usual breakfast of tea, milk, bread and pastries we got to work on the morning’s chore: laundry. At one point everyone but me – including Emma and Isaiah – were in the bathroom scrubbing clothes. It was quite the sight. Since it was such a warm morning we decided it would be best for me to take the kids down to the pool so Brian could finish up the clothes.

Biniam, Emma and I went to the pool and enjoyed the warm water and even got a little color through our sunscreen (well, Emma and I did). Biniam’s protests even finally worked on me, and I got in up to my neck and swam. Turns out having Mom sitting in a comfy lounge chair watching her kiddos swim isn’t exactly what a 12 year old thinks is cool.

Brian joined us for lunch at the poolside restaurant and then we headed out for our embassy appointment. Instead of Gail picking us up, Dawit drove us to the embassy, so he waited outside until we finished. Strangely there were only AAI families at the embassy at that time, so things went really fast and we were back out to Dawit less than 30 minutes later. Also amazingly, it turns out we qualified for an IR-3 visa which means as soon as Biniam enters the US he will be a citizen. So cool! We didn’t expect that at all since we thought we needed more documentation than what we had.

To celebrate, we went back to Blue Tops for dessert – and this time even convinced Dawit to come in with us! After a brief stop at a market to pick up some shiro and berbere we headed back to the hotel so the little kids and I could nap. Brian and Biniam had to get to Metro Pizza to place an order of 20 pizzas for AHOPE. I had decided earlier that the little kids and I just weren’t up for another outing, so we thought it would be best if just Brian and Biniam went to AHOPE so they could focus on the kids.

Back in our room while the kids napped I stood at the window watching the most impressive storm we’ve had so far. Quite a bit of thunder and lightning and heavy rains. I felt bad for the guys since they were out, but I knew they were probably still at the pizza place and prayed that the rain would lighten up quickly.

The guys came back hungry and not too wet, and said that they had a great time and the kids were great. I guess there were at least five pizzas left over so I’m not too sure why the guys came back hungry, but never less we ordered room service once again – pizza of all things for Biniam (with sauce).

The evening was busy with getting the guys packed for their trip to Bahir Dar and making sure everything was in order. Biniam was abuzz with excitement and could hardly contain himself. I seriously couldn’t wait for him to go to bed just to get him to quit bouncing all over the place. We went to bed with the guys packed and the wake up call set for 5:15.