Monday in Ethiopia!

Jen again! I just got another email from Aaron. Here is what he has to say...

Monday in Addis

Another day in Ethiopia. Today we started out our morning with a breakfast of oatmeal and muffins – very good by the way – and then proceeded to pick up Matea for the morning. We had a fun time playing with her, etc. She’s a very content, peaceful girl which is great. The only trouble we had was trying to get her to drink from a bottle – she’s used to drinking from a small cup or eating cereal with a spoon. She seems to be very interested in everything that’s going on around her – constantly looking around, checking out sounds, moving things, etc.

After lunch we brought Matea back to the care center for the last time – we get her for good tomorrow morning. We then went on a couple of tours of some facilities that are extensions of the adoption agency we’re here with – a medical center and a school. Both are open to the surrounding community and offer excellent services at a very reasonable cost compared to other public and private services.

The first stop was at the medical center (for women and children). It’s amazing how different things are outside of the US. Everything was very bare, very simple and technically very behind what we’re used to. One small thing I noticed was that the delivery rooms were on the second floor and there was no elevator in the building. I don’t imagine that stair climbing is something most women want to do just prior to delivery, but it is what it is. We asked the doctor who was giving us the tour how many people they saw in a day and she said around 100. Then we asked how many doctors were on staff – only 5! I’m not in the medical profession, but 20 per day on average seems like a lot to me. One sticker I saw a few places throughout the clinic read “The Ethiopian Millenium: the beginning of the manifestation of the glory of God” (Ethiopia runs on a different calendar than the West, so this past Sept. was their year 2000).

Next stop was at the school. We were very impressed! This past year was its inaugural year, so they’re still getting things situated, constructed, etc. The first thing we saw was a 7,000 seat outdoor stadium/auditorium. The seats were all covered with a covered stage at one end and an uncovered center court. It will be used for community events, concerts, plays, etc. as well as for daily school activities (basketball, etc). All classes are taught in English with only one class taught in the main language here in Addis (Amharic). This past year the school had 58 students (K-4) and next year they plan to have 350 (K-7). Most of the classrooms that I saw were used for single subjects. One of the classrooms was dedicated just to Bible study. Also, there was a Chapel room. I’m assuming these are both due mostly to Ethiopia’s strong Christian orthodox background, but didn’t get a chance to ask. The school will make a huge impact on the lives of the children that attend, their families and the country.

The last thing on the schedule for the day was a trip to the National Museum of Ethiopian History. We drove for a long time to get there only to find that it was closed! I was pretty bummed about that. At the very least it was fun to see so much of the city by bus. Driving here is a bit ridiculous. The volume of traffic isn’t that high (although it gets a bit heavy in spots) but the foot traffic is unbelievable. There are people everywhere in the streets and animals all over – mostly goats, donkeys, cows and dogs. We were in the middle of the city today and there in the middle of a ton of traffic stands a cow. Just standing there – hundreds of cars driving by. There are also virtually no traffic signs or traffic lights. In the entire time we’ve been here I think I’ve seen 5 traffic lights (all today) and 4 or 5 stop signs. People just go where they want when they want – intersections are just a slow log jam of cross traffic –cars, buses, trucks - all just going at random. The most amazing thing is that I have yet to see any kind of accident – not even a small fender bender.

Hopefully this hasn’t been to boring! I’ve been typing this while waiting for the internet to connect (30 minutes or so now – zzzzzzzzzz….). Tomorrow’s kind of the last “big event” while we’re here – we go to the US embassy to finalize everything to leave on Thursday. Theoretically it will go smoothly, but it’s still a bit stressful to think about it. I’m going to post just the text of this and will TRY to get at least one picture up if the internet cooperates. Thanks to all of you reading this who have been praying for us! It’s been a great trip so far and we really appreciate all of you.