Playing at home

Here is Miles, playing with toys on a happy day. He will try out the daycare for a few hours this afternoon, which is harder on Mom than him.

Cook, bring me my hossenfeffer!

Miles is eating like a champ. A typical breakfast includes a large bowl of infant rice cereal mixed with fruit or applesauce, an entire large banana, and a bowl of cheerios. Same amounts for lunch and dinner plus snacks. He is sleeping about 12-13hours per night with one or two naps during the day. He appears to have grown in the 2 weeks we've known him.

Ethiopian Twang

Joanne and I agree, the strangest, most surreal moment came on our last day in Addis.

We hired a cab to travel to the Hilton Hotel on the far side of town to get Miles a haircut, eat lunch, and otherwise see a different part of the city.

We were able to hire an English speaking driver who quickly dug through the pile of CD's in the glove box. Twangy Country music then blared out of the stereo, driver singing away. (Think Hee-Haw, Buck Owens/Roy Clark kind of thing).

The soundtrack was in total conflict with what was passing outside our windows, and Joanne and I couldn't help but laugh.

If he was going to pull out some American music, he could have done much worse.

Peter

Group Shot In Amsterdam

Four of the adopting families were on the same KLM flight from Addis Ababa to Amsterdam. We still looked fairly alert after the 8 hour flight.

From left are the Whinnas of North Carolina and their two adopted sisters, the Bristows of California and their infant girl, us, and the Janssens of Oregon with their infant girl.

There are three MD's and an EMT in that picture. A brainy group. I pulled the curve way down.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Departure

The three of us were bright eyed on departure day on the balcony of the Holt facility. Miles is in Ethiopian dress.

There was a fair amount of green, undeveloped ground to the South, over our shoulders. It was very steep, but we had seen similar areas in other parts of the city just a steep covered with tin shacks.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Traffic

A typical scene out of the window of our van.

The blue vans are a sort of bus service, where a trip to a common destination is sold for 10- 30 cents depending on distance and demand. One gathers at a central traffic hub and waits for a bus to pull up, teenager shouting the destination, and you climb in the one that you need. Each appears to be run privately, and there is no formal schedule. Each van seats 12.

There are essentially no traffic signals or signage, either. Vehicles all enter an intersection slowly at the same time, and like two rivers crossing each other seem to flow through the opposing traffic. Sometimes you cross an intersection without stopping, sometimes you must pause for a moment and wait for things to clear and a gap to open. It is definitely a learned skill.

Liberal use on one's horn helps alert other drivers to your plan.

We were told that fender benders were common, but American style "Road Rage" almost non existent. We personally witnessed many opportunities for yelling matches or obscene gestures, but none occurred.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peterclone

Construction

This building is being built across the street from the Holt facility and our hotel. Work had slowed due to the rainy season (as had all construction related projects), but the techniques were interesting to watch. A few concrete shafts with rebar within them will form the skeleton of the structure, but the majority of the building is concrete block with a concrete skim covering all of the surfaces. Almost all of the labor is done by hand. It was routine to pass a modern diesel dump truck by the side of the road with a dozen men shoveling dirt into it. The 21st century meets the 19th.

The most impressive part of the construction project was the scaffolding- it's all wood, long skinny tree trunks lashed together. We passed a few scaffolding "stores" with thousands of trees of varying lengths stacked, waiting for their next project. Workers will climb the scaffolds, tools in hand, and work on the task of the day, ignoring the flex and wobble in the wood. OSHA would not approve.

Every block had at least one project like this is some stage of completion, often with the ground floor open for business while the floors above were being built.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Holt Center

Believe it or not, the sand colored building is the Holt transitional center. It was once a private home, but it works well for its new purpose.

Every structure of any value or importance has a high wall, metal gate, and probably a guard. Holt has all three.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Playtime

One benefit of growing up in the transitional center- you know how to entertain yourself while other children are attended to. A big room of toys doesn't hurt.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Playtime

We spent time each day at the transition center playing with Miles, allowing him to grow comfortable with us, and learning his routine. As all of the children in his age group play as a pack, we spent time playing with each of them. Tough work.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Pictures!

When adopting families first arrive at the transition center, each child is brought out individually to meet their new family. We were fortunate that Miles is a clinger, and he took to Joanne immediately. He needed some time to warm up to the Large Pale Man standing next to Joanne.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter

Ten Cent Bread

I'll be adding some stories from he trip now that we aren't trying to squeeze them through a dial-up modem we were renting by the minute.

The first is about food and economics.

Two doors down from the hotel in Addis was a bread stand. An 8 x 8 foot box, it was like every other bread store we saw in the city, and it sold only one kind of bread: a white baguette, about 10 inches long, the kind of thing your grocer would sell you for $2, or as a loss leader at $1.

Except in Addis is sells for the equivalent of 10 cents.

Probably nothing illustrates the Ethiopian economy better than that loaf of 10 cent bread. The ingredients are cheap, but everything else in the US economy that makes that bread expensive is cheap in Ethiopia, too. The rent on the small stand has to be nothing, as the daily gross in the stand will be $10-20 (100-200 loaves maximum) per day. It is probably baked locally, so there is little cost in transportation per loaf. But labor is the biggest difference in cost- unskilled labor is everywhere, so it is amazingly cheap.

We heard anecdotal stories of Ethiopians working as drivers for 70 cents per day, and that was considered a good paying job, one that would pay the bills, so to speak. But half of a day's salary would quickly be used up buying groceries one meal at a time from road side vendors. While a worker might keep a roof over their head and their belly full, gaining wealth would be difficult, if possible at all.

So while 10 cent bread is impressive in that all of the various steps in the process are making their penny per loaf, if Ethiopians had any significant money in their pockets, that loaf would bring more than a dime.

I won't be complaining about the state of my 401k for a while.

Peter

Miles Swims

Well, it was more of a splash in the Kiddie Pool. Julia and Carl at least got their hair wet.

Hard to believe we got everyone to smile at the same time.

Peter

Home

Our total trip home took 33 hours, door to door, thanks to an added two hours in Detroit due to mechanical and staffing issues with Northwest. There is a huge difference between how Northwest and KLM operate, which makes me wish KLM served Des Moines.

Despite the delay, we had quite the greeting in Des Moines: Steve and Chris, Jean, Julia and Carl, as well as the Lannings. I think we were entertaining for passersby with all of the pictures that were being taken. Jean had dinner waiting for us at the house, and familiar food was a pleasant change.

Overall, our trip home was long but tiring. I don't sleep well on planes in the best circumstance, and attending to Miles made it that much harder. Considering all that was going on around him, Miles did sleep well on the planes. By the end of the day he had to wonder if we did anything other than fly in airplanes and loiter in airports. He sampled every part of our meals, and is a fan of ice cream. I think he'll fit into American life.

So far Miles likes his siblings, but you can tell he's trying to process a lot of new material all at once. It will be interesting watching their relationships evolve.

Since Miles has an Ethiopian passport, we had to pass through immigration twice- once for us, once for him, where he received a green card. We will formalize his American adoption (we've already adopted him in Ethiopia) and his citizenship in the next six months or so.

I will fill in the details of the trip over the next few weeks. One of our disappointments from the trip was camera failure, so we are depending on the generosity of others in providing photos. We'll upload as they appear.

Off to bed for all of us.

Peter

Away Day

Today we stall at the hotel as we don't leave for the hotel until 6 PM for a 10:45 flight. Miles slept with us last night, got close to 12 hours, and was less of a bed hog.
 
Miles is eating everything we set in front of him, has already mastered the sippy cup, and seems to think this is all a good idea. Like the other adopted children we have been around, he is very adept at entertaining himself with mundane objects like a pen or a pillow, and he can stand  and look out of our hotel window for long stretches watching the pedestrians and traffic pass by.
 
Our shopping trip was successful, and a stop at a grocery store was interesting. Most of the packaged goods are of South African origin, and either Ethiopian cooks still prefer to cook from scratch, or frozen and finished food products are too expensive to buy- no Hot Pockets or Lean Cuisine.
 
Today's brownout was from 7:30- 8 AM, which is not a big deal as our TV is doen to one channel. We have had up to three choices- BBC News, Al Jazeera News and something called MBC, which airs all of the worst of American TV a few days after the fact, along with some US news shows. Somehow "60 Minutes" and "Face the Nation" don't balance out "Moment Of Truth?" and "Days of Our Lives" in my book. I've been impressed with Al Jazeera News from both a technical and editorial standpoint, and they compete well with the BBC. AJ and the BBC are clearly speaking to a more literate and worldly audience than CNN, Fox, or any of the other US networks. Their stories are more than 90 seconds long, they have no celebrity "news", and I haven't seen a single car chase or bear caught in a tree. That's refreshing, but I am missing my baseball highlights.
 
I will miss Ethiopian food, and will have to expand our recipe base.
 
We have a 6+ hour layover in Amsterdam Friday, so that will be our next update. Be well.
 
Peter

Ferenghi Shopping

Today had two big events: The children came to the hotel and the boys went shopping.
 
Miles and Joanne spent the afternoon eating, playing and napping in the room while the Dads went on an adventure to the Markado (not sure of the spelling)- Africa's largest open air market. Approximately a kilometer square it is street upon street of 10 x 10 booths selling all types of cheap consumer goods: cloth to flooring, spices to hand tools, baskets to live chickens. The locals warned us of pickpockets and petty thefts, but once away from the taxi area we were not bothered, mostly examined as the Martians we appear to be. As we entered the market a voice cried out "Hello Ferenghi!", local dialect for foreigner, and also a Star Trek reference. I purchased some spices and woven goods, we sat out a thunderstorm in a vendor's booth, and directed our non-English speaking taxi driver back to our hotel. It was an interesting side trip, but not as exotic as I had expected.
 
Miles and Joanne have both bedded down for the night, and we will see how Miles sleeps. We go to the Embassy in the morning to push the final paperwork and begin the Visa process, which will take most of the morning.
 
More as it develops.
 
Peter

Meeting Miles

We have arrived in Addis Ababa, slept, eaten, met Miles, and are about to sleep again.
The introduction of each child to their adoptive parents is touching, as each is brought out, oldest to youngest, one at a time. One couple is adopting sisters in the 3-5 year old range, and they both had hugs and kisses for everyone in the room.
Miles is a cuddler, took a brief nap on Joanne, allowed me to feed him a bowl of cream-of-something soup, and seems willing to roll with whatever we have planned. He immediately warmed up to Joanne, but needed some time to size me up. We will spend part of each day with him (except Sunday), and we also get to play with the other children in the center as they often play as a pack.
We had a nice dinner at a local restaraunt with the other three adopting couples and our two drivers. Total cost of dinner for 10: $23. There are some upsides to the long trip.
Addis is an intersting city, and we will have more to report after we go to the large outdoor market next week. I will neveer claim to having "seen Ethiopia" after this stay: that would be like claiming to having visited the US and not leaving Brooklyn.
No pictures while we're away- the modem is too slow. We will update with photos after we return.
Peter

Amsterdam (1/2 way)

Hi all,
It is 2am your time, and we are in Amsterdam waiting for our flight to Africa. No travel problems yet, in fact, our seats weren't together coming here but Northwest found some together for us, which was nice. The next flight should have 2 other Holt families; I'm pretty sure we will be able to find them.

One funny observation about the Amsterdam airport; every minute or so someone is chastised over the loud speaker for not being at their gate . . . "John Smith, you are delaying your flight, your luggage will be off-loaded". We will try not to be announced here.

Joanne