Eithopia Update: Trip 1 Day 5 - Last Visit With Justice / Kechene Gift Shop

We went for our last visit with Justice today. Christian started holding him and Justice was fine until his special care giver came outside where we were sitting. She moved quickly through the area, but he wailed for 20 minutes until he passed out asleep on my shoulder. He slept peacefully for quite awhile and I was in mommy heaven as he was holding onto my shirt while he slept. When I tried to see if Gregg or Christian could hold him he refused and held tightly to me—a good sign, I presume. I was able to feed him a snack and Christian gave him his bottle again while he sat on my lap. He never left my lap for the rest of the visit. I cried as I was telling him good-bye. One of the dads in our group had us all get in a circle and pray when we left the babies, which was such a blessing, especially to all of the weepy moms. That’s one of the more difficult things I’ve done—leaving my son for someone else to care for. In this moment I’m even more thankful for the wonderful woman who loves him so much.

Kechene gift shop is a place to buy souvenirs made by the girls who have aged out of that government orphanage. I made sure to give them plenty of business today after we left Justice.

After souvenir shopping we ate lunch with the group of families at an Italian place called Antica.

Today happens to be a special religious holiday in Ethiopia called St. Mary’s holiday (I’d like to Google this at home to learn more about it). Many, many people at St. Mary’s church and sitting outside of it. They were selling beautiful, bright colored umbrellas that are used for a religious purpose, though I don’t know what it is. A large segment of the population is fasting from any meat and dairy items, so vegetarian options abound!

The Celebration of St. Mary from Jonathan Hanson on Vimeo.

We were privileged to be taken on a tour of Holy Trinity Cathedral by Belay, the man who runs the Gladney program right now in Ethiopia. This was a special tour for so many reasons. Haile Seilase (sp?) and his wife are buried here and we were able to see their tombs, as well as some splendid stained glass that was done in Belgium (Belay said that’s the reason the coloring is wrong on the people in the picture—white people instead of dark people). We were able to see the special thrones that he and his wife would sit on when attending the church. Beside the thrones is a picture of Haile Seilase kneeling at the church and beside him stands a man in uniform—a guard. Belay told us that that man is his father, the Commander of the Imperial Guard. In a terrible massacre by the communist party when Belay was 10, his father was killed, execution style, along with the 60 top people in the government at that time. They could hear the gunshots from their home and knew that something bad was happening. The next morning they received news that his father was killed. Belay said he didn’t believe any government would be foolish enough to kill 60 of the top leaders, so he was in denial of his father’s death until the family was given the personal affects, which included his father’s Rolex watch, stained with blood. His mother was then arrested and put in prison and all of their property was confiscated. He was embarrassed to tell people at his school that his mother was in prison, so made up stories about them going on vacation together and such. When his mother was finally released from prison, she showed up at his school, emotionally embracing him. He said he was embarrassed because he had been telling his friends that she had been home the whole time, so he said, “Hi, mom, I just saw you yesterday, remember?” He and all of his siblings (five of them in all) went to the United States and got degrees in business from the University of Texas at Arlington. His mom sent his dad’s Rolex watch with him to school (Mom said it was worth $25,000) and told him to sell it if he ever got into a place where he needed it to finish his education. He took it to the pawn shop one day and the owner offered him $250. Thankfully he didn’t sell it and has it still to give to his son. He joked that his son will probably sell it! He said his first job in the US was a dishwasher at the Holiday Inn. He was probably the only dishwasher in the States wearing a Rolex watch!

We were able to see the place where his father was buried, next to the church, along with the other men who were killed that day. There was a picture of his father at the memorial site and it looked exactly like him!