Back to 'Passion Burger'.
You have to make sure to order 'beef' burgers, or else they default to bringing you goat meat. But we opted for just pizza this time. We went some of the other adoption families. It's so much fun to have these random people from across the globe intersect in time for just a few days. We got to know magazine editors, a casting director for CBS, an air force mom, several Spanish families, a Jamaican American woman, nurse practitioner, etc. It was amazing to process our trip together as a group.
For the afternoon, we headed out to a local market. It was small, but had everything we would want to buy. This cross is a traditional design in Ethiopia. The Orthodox church is a driving force in Ethiopian culture and can be seen in many of the more traditional clothing.
We got our boys some drums like these. They love them. The drums are covered in some type of animal skin and were seen all over the market place.
There is an obvious tourist on the left hand side of this picture :). Ethiopians are fairly small people. The market loved to see us Americans coming. We came with a van load of foreigners, all eager to buy things for their kids. Because of our family size, I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back as a family. So we stocked up on stuff for Makaria to remember her country. The things are beautfiul and most of them hand-made.
Then it was to Zebra Grill for dinner. The place is owned by an adopted child who grew up, came back to Ethiopia and started his own business. We had a Mexican burger and it was wonderful. They grilled meat right there at the entrance and kabobed them. Can I say "kabobed" them?? Anyway, the food was great.
I ran across this boy who lived near the Bole Cathedral. We first met when he followed me and begged me for food. They've been trained to tug onto your leg and say "Mommy, hungry. Please, Mommy. Hungry". It's killer. We gave out food mostly, but there never seemed to be enough. This little guy was 1 of a 3 member group that walked with us as we passed the church. After I was out of food, I took out my digital camera. If you've ever been to Africa, you know that that little machine is a huge hit. So I snapped away, showing each one to them afterwards. They loved it and so did I.
We're getting ready for bed. Of the 11 days there, we only had electicity for about 5 of them. There were scheduled electricity outage days and then random outages too. Many of the times, we ate in dark and if the lights were on, they were being powered by generators. But luckily, it was cool most nights. Here's Makaria all ready for bed. I think this was post her first bath with us time.
That does it for day 3. More tomorrow (or the next day :) ).
