Day six - oh so entertaining

We could all just relax on this day since our Embassy appointment was behind us.  We just hung around in the morning and in the afternoon we had the option to go visit the care center in Addis where our kiddos were waiting for us until we could come get them.  I should say that our Little J, and in fact all the kiddos in our group, were originally in our agencies care center in Mekele, which is very north of Addis, bordering Eritrea which is next to the Red Sea.  Since all the adoptions are finalized in Addis, the kiddos are brought to the Addis care center about a month before the parents travel.  I should also mention that the two areas, Mekele and Addis, speak totally different languages.  While Little J and Mike and Paula's little guy were 4 months old and Michelle's little guy was 10 months old, I'm sure it still must have been confusing for them.  Matt's 2 year old, well of course it had to be VERY confusing for him, geesh, just learning to talk himself.  Tigest, who was the day person at the Guest House could speak both Tigrinya and Amharic so I know she was of a lot of help to Matt.

Tim stayed back with Little J and Matt stayed back with his little guy since he had visited the care center on his first trip the previous fall.  The rest of us all went, Michelle and I had care packages to deliver also!  This is "B", who parents are one of the great families we live right close by - can you believe it?  They left to bring her home one week after we returned with Little J.  We have gotten together with them on several occasions and want the girls to be great friends!

Above, February 2010

And, "B" just turned two in January and we went to her birthday party, how fun!

And this handsome little guy, this is Amanda's "E".  And I mean BEAUTIFUL!  Even won some cute contest which doesn't surprise me in the least!

This is the handsome lad today, Amanda says excuse the drooling, he gets six teeth at once!

This is the day the traffic really struck me.  Addis Abba is a city of 3.4 million people, and believe me the traffic reflects that.  We hadn't been out that many times, our drive from the airport to our accommodations, our touring around on Monday, the Embassy on Wednesday and now to the care center.  It was about 30 minutes away.  It struck me that in all of those drives, all different directions, I think I recall about 2, yes TWO stoplights!  I could totally just have, well you know, the middle aged pre-menopausal brain going on, but seriously, no stoplights.  Bumper to bumper traffic.  It is quite an accomplishment to learn to drive.  Haile, who was the young cook for us at the Guest House in the mornings was going to be learning soon and was nervous about it.  He was 19 and I DON'T BLAME HIM!  On the way to the care center, it was a three lane road both ways with a grass median in between but the one side (for quite some stretch) was totally torn up being re-done so all the traffic was on one side.  Hmmm, no barriers to "separate" the traffic, nope, about 1 1/2 lanes each way, sometimes 2 and 1, sometimes 1 and 2.  YEP, not.EVEN.kidding.  Our driver, 19.  He was fantastic.  Us, no seat belts, not a lot of comfort in this situation but we were going with the flow :-)  I figured out the system though, one beep meant watch out.....two beeps, hey really watch out.....and three beeps, not so good, REALLY REALLY watch out.  But you know what, while a driver really had to maneuver in expert fashion to get from a side street into the main traffic, I never witnessed any road rage.  They have their system and everyone abides by it, geesh, novel idea.....

Here is the torn up side of the road:

When we got back, our agency had arranged for us to have dinner at a restaurant that also had live entertainment, traditional Ethiopian singing/dancing.  I was really hemming and hawing about this, I didn't really want to leave Little J with the nannies that were available at the guest house even though they were fabulous, I just didn't want to do it.  I finally decided to go and we did leave Little J for the first and only time while there (she did just fine too).  Am I SO glad I did!  I was pretty sure I wouldn't be eating but that wasn't the reason I went, however they did have fish on the menu.  I'm not really a big fish person at all but hey, something I recognized.  Annette was about in the same boat as me so I didn't feel quite so bad and she order the fish too.  They came back out to make sure we knew there would be bones.  We said we understood and that would be fine.  YEP, you guessed it, here was our fish:

Here is our group, Michelle was not feeling well that night so unfortunately missed this.  Now, a year later, she can she what she missed (yes, I am so lame)!

And for the real entertainment of the night, Paula, Matt and eventually Mike all became a part of the night's dancing.  The first two videos are less than a minute and a half.  The third is longer, but believe me, TOTALLY worth watching the entire thing!  (sorry about the darkness of the videos, but not bad since there were the colored flashing lights for the dancing and I was just using my camera):

I'm not sure you can totally totally appreciate the talent and stamina these dancers have unless you attempt to dance with them, right guys?  :-)  I never even thought it was possible for your shoulders and head and body to be able to do these moves, mine certainly can't!

And really, this one is just the treat.  Matt has the entire place in a roar, and was applauded by the Ethiopian patrons who got as much of a hoot out of it as we did.  Mike gets pulled into the show near the end, and well let me just say Mike is TALL (go back to the picture of them arriving in the taxi on gotcha day and imagine him spilling out of the back seat!).  I think you will see that even though the male dancer is more on the small side, maybe 5'7-5'8?  I know I asked Mike at the time but have forgotten, how tall he is, but I am guessing 6'8.  Tim said 6'6 so we'll split the difference, TALL.  The Ethiopian dancer can't even jump as tall as Mike and he CAN jump!  You get the idea:

So, do you agree it was worth it to come back today?  Tomorrow, we begin the LONG journey home...