I thought I had read somewhere that Awassa is the second largest city in Ethiopia, but I cannot find it now so I am not sure if that is true. It is a small city, much smaller than Addis Ababa, and situated on the beautiful Lake Awassa. We loved Awassa as well as the Haile Resort where we stayed. The resort has only been open for about three months and the views of the lake were amazing.
Border patrol entering Awassa
Billboard/resting spot entering Awassa.
The cutest little blue taxis, seen all over Awassa.
Lobby at Haile Resort on Lake Awassa. Yes, that is the lake just outside the windows.
Views of the lake from our room.
Our first stop that day was the Initiative Ethiopia Orphanage. The staff were warm and welcoming, and the children were uncharacteristically well behaved and somber. I took several pictures of the older children, who were mostly about 16 months to three years old, but I will not post those pictures here. If your child was at this orphanage on May 22nd please email me and I will gladly send pictures if I have any of your child.
We were treated to our first coffee ceremony and popcorn, as is the custom in Ethiopia, and given a tour of the facility.
Playroom
Another view of the playroom
Laundry room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Infant room
The staff were proud of the mosquito nets in these rooms. Awassa is at a lower elevation than Addis and unlike Addis, the mosquitos do carry malaria.
They were also quite proud of the supplies in this store room.
After the tour and coffee ceremony we played with the children for a while and then departed for the village (kebele) that our boys are from. Gladney arranged for a social worker (above--I think our boys might look something like this when they are grown) to accompany us. We drove for about 40 minutes south to a small town where our driver started asking people for directions. There were no signs to this place and it was down a dirt road that would be impossible to traverse by car during the rainy season.
A farmer's market in the town where we stopped to ask for directions.
Mark and Solomon asking for directions at the store while several young men took notice of me. We did not see another "ferenji" (white foreigner) while in this part of the country and you could tell that it was something of a rarity by the amount of attention we received.
Several young men decided to come closer for a better look at me...
...until Mark and Solomon turned around and saw the van surrounded and decided that leaving me alone might not have been the best idea! It must be said that the people were extremely friendly and welcoming. No one begged for money or behaved in a threatening way and in fact it was quite the opposite. We received lots of smiles and waves and thumbs up and one young man said "God bless the white people. They are shiny and beautiful." I was indeed shiny that day thanks to the heat!
We finally found the road we were looking for. People were quite surprised to see our van and word traveled quickly, since it was faster to run this road then it was to drive it.
Soon children were running out to meet us.
A few times we got worried that our van would not make it and suggested we turn around, but Solomon knew that this was important to me and he was determined to get us there and get us there safely. Did I mention how much we love Solomon?!
We made it to the Kebele, which is essentially a police station made of mud and grass. I wish I had taken a picture of the building but it seemed like the entire village had turned out to greet us and I got a little distracted by all the smiling faces!
Unexpectedly we had the privlidge of meeting the boys' birth Grandmother. The rest of the family was in the village we had stopped in earlier so this was the only family member we met that day. I think the picture says more than I can about what this meeting was like.
This is a picture of a home, likely similar to the one our boys spent their first 18 months in.
A home of a wealthier family made of mud with a steel roof.
Beautiful scenery and false banana trees.
It was a pretty emotional day so we wrapped up the afternoon back in Awassa with a little R&R and some additional sight seeing.
A couple shots from our table as we enjoyed a local St. George beer and tried to process all we had seen that day. I did a little crying in my beer too.
We could have taken one of these boats an hour out onto the lake to see some hippos, but it was late in the afternoon and we were pretty drained. I hope we will do this some day with the boys on a return trip. Instead we admired a few furry land dwellers...
I know many of your children are from this area so please feel free to download my pictures (contact me if you want them emailed to you). If you use them on your own blog I just ask that you please give me a nod of credit.
Thanks!
