Eithopia Update: Trip 1 Day 1 - Dubai and Addis Ababa

Isn't jet lag great??  We're at a small guest house and everyone is sleeping.  I tried to be super quiet, but I accidentally woke the lady up that works here.  While she was up I asked her how to get onto the computer.  I hope I'm not keeping anyone else up!

I'll give you a quick rundown of what we've been up to since leaving Houston on Friday evening.  We arrived in Dubai and stayed in a beautiful 5 star hotel called Raffles.  Gregg decided to treat us  to that since he knew our accommodations here in ET would be so sparse. :)  Thanks, Gregg!!  We went to the Dubai fountain water show and to Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world (here's a Google Map of these buildings in Dubai).  On the 124th floor, Christian thought it would be funny to stick his hand out the open space they have on the observation deck.  I guess he's over his fear of heights, but I was almost having a heart attack!  When we were in the Dubai mall I was trying to get to the bathroom and accidentally walked into the women's prayer room (which is marked an awful lot like a bathroom, in my defense).  There were places to wash your feet, then a separate room for prayer.  A nice lady helped me find the bathroom, which was across the way.  I'm sure she chalked it up to the dumb blonde tourist. :)

We woke at 5am to warm milk with sugar. Yum!  There was a giant bathtub and a shower with a 1 foot diameter water spigot coming from the ceiling.  Fantastic way to rejuvenate after a long and very cramped flight.  We had a mango drink and some sandwiches for breakfast at the airport.  While on the flight I met a man whose family is adopting a sibling set of 4 (12, 10, 8, and 4 years old).  They had been infertile for years, then, after accepting the referral, found out they were pregnant.  His wife is at home now with their 3 month old baby.  Wow!!!  We had about a 3 1/2 hour flight to Addis Ababa, then rested at our guest house for about an hour before going out.


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The owner of the guest house comped us an extra room because she had one vacancy and didn't want Christian to have to sleep on the floor.  How's that for great customer service?  There are four families in the guest house--2 with babies and 2 for court.  I met one family that just took placement of their baby girl.  I was standing outside with them when their daughter's caregiver was leaving and the baby was bawling!  Almost broke my heart for her! She is adorable, though.  Several of the folks here have met baby Justice.  When one lady was asking who was ours, I told her Mamush (his name here), and she said, "oh, the one with really long eyelashes?  He's so beautiful!"  Our driver said one of the other drivers in there thought he was a girl, so the caretaker had to vouch for him to prove he is a boy.  They all said that he is so cute--I can't wait to meet him this morning.  The son of the lady I was talking to was Justice's crib mate--next crib over, so she's got some pictures of them together.  She took placement on Saturday.


Our driver took us to the National Museum of Ethiopia, the home of the fossil of Lucy (you should google this, kids--extremely interesting), and arranged for a very knowledgeable, intelligent guide to show us around.  Michael would've loved talking with him and I figured that if he and Christian were both asking questions we might very well have never left!  He talked all about evolution and creation, religious and Biblical history, and history, folklore, and myths of Ethiopia.  Christian told the guide it was the best museum he's ever been to.  After the museum we had dinner at a nice "American food" establishment.  Gregg and I shared a pepperoni and red bell pepper pizza and Christian had a bacon cheeseburger (these never seem to get old for him).  Italy occupied Ethiopia for a long time, so there's still a strong Italian presence.  Our pizza was an authentic wood fired pizza and was excellent!  The cook allowed us to take a picture of him by the wood stove, and even posed--I think he was having as much fun with it as we were! 

I guess I'd better be headed back to my room now.

PS --wish me luck with my battle with the biggest horsefly I've ever seen.  He and I have been doing a dance with my magazine in hand in my room since I arrived.  A few little critters, but nothing gross yet! :)