SCHEDULE
Monday July 11, 2011 (Orientation Day)
9:30 a.m.
Wass will pick you up to come to HH to meet with Tsige and John for orientation and complete forms and collect visa fees. Tsige and John will answer any questions.
NB: When you will come for orientation please make sure to bring your Passport, I-600 form and Visa fee.
12:00 p.m.
You will be dropped back to your hotel for rest until dinner outing.
6:00 p.m.
Be picket up from your hotel head out for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. This is a great time for an Ethiopian food, dancing and singing to hear and See; this is not mandatory, if too tired and want to rest this is fine.
Today... we got up bright and early, headed down for the breakfast buffet, and got all THREE 50 lb suitcases ready to take to Hannah's Hope. These bags were FILLED FULL of LOVE from SO many AMAZING people who donated!!! ♥ THANKS YOU GUYS!!! ♥ We also grabbed the Watermelons and Onions that we had for them as well. Kraig and Molly took the Watermelons and Onions to the older kid side - They have a darling 4-year old son who was on the waiting child list.
(...The staff at HH cut up all the watermelon and all the kids enjoyed it that day!! SOOOOO COOL!) :)
(...The staff at HH cut up all the watermelon and all the kids enjoyed it that day!! SOOOOO COOL!) :)
Wass came at 9:30 (That's Wass 2nd pic below - wearing his S. Carolina T-shirt, gonna have to bring him some more SEATTLE one's) ha! ...loaded everything into the BIG BUS and we were off. As soon as we got to HH we handed off the Donations, ran in to check on little M real quick and then went into Almaz's office for the Orientation.
Almaz was SWEET - after hearing SO much about her it was nice to finally MEET her - she asked why we were MIA the first few days and then filled us all in on what to expect at court and for all the days to follow - with MOWA and the U.S. Embassy....
We didn't get to spend too much time with our little girl today... and she was sleeping for most of it - but just being able to hold her and look at her was AMAZZZZZZZZING! I LOVE HER SOOOO MUCH!
Once we got back to the Riviera - Tony, Carrie, Erik and I decided to go for a little walk up to a couple street vendors, across the street, down to the round-about and carefully trying to cross the road to get back to the Riviera (NOW that was scarrrrrrrrrry! :)) I think, pretty much, anything we did with Tony and Carrie had a little bit of adventure in it FOR SURE! ha ha! SO FUN! :)
Erik and Tony - chatting it up with Sissy for a sec... they told us in exactly one hour it was gonna rain - so the guys got their umbrellas and we set out for our little walk... :)
Tony and crossed the street to make friends with the local cows... just hanging out in the median! :)
I think Tony was a little nervous to get tooo close! ha ha! :)
"AAAAAW NICE COW!"
Pretty sure when we went back across the street we found the owner of the cows - since he asked for a little birr because we took pics with them! :)
We got to the end of the road - bought some more bananas - I think Erik and Tony paid 8 birr a kilo or something like that for them. We didn't take pics there - it felt like there were a LOT of people looking at us, probably wondering what these crazy white people (Forengi) were doing!? :)
....Well sure enough, it started to rain... in fact, it turned into a TOTAL downpour by the end of our little excursion! :)
Erik and Tony went to check out a natural spring coming out of the ground... Wondered if it could be a source of water for anyone living near by.
Erik went in to feel the temperature - to see if it was a 'HOT SPRING!' :) ha ha! :)
It was FUN to get out and walk a little bit, look around, and just take it ALL in! We got back to the Riviera and we were soaked and dirty! ...So, we went upstairs to get ready for dinner! :)
Wass came and got us at 6:00 and we headed out to Yod Abyssinia again. (this time in a different location)
(Totally went for the BIG hair look that night! ha ha ha! OH MY!) :)
We had SUCH A FUN group of Travel Buds to hang out with!!!
The FOOD was delicious! MMMM mmmmm!
and the ENTERTAINMENT was AWESOME! Wass got up on stage and shook his booty! He's a FANTASTIC dancer!!! IT WAS GRRRRRRRRRRREAT! Then they grabbed Shane from our group - and I'm telling ya, that guy had RHYTHM! TOO MUCH FUN!!!
A few people in our group had the traditional coffee to end the evening. SO interesting how they prepare it and serve it.... (I think I was about ready to shut my eyeballs... :) I was definitely tired - So, I passed on the scrumptious coffee, this time.)
We TOTALLY stuffed ourselves, enjoyed each others company, the food, the entertainment, and went and dropped Tsige off at home and we were back to the Riviera! We were exhausted! It was ANOTHER good day! ♥
Oh man..so jealous WASS was there with you...he skipped out on us, heehee! Thankfully I got to see him dance in our hotel room on our second trip! =) (And that's on video...so come over already so you can check it out!!) That coffee ceremony is soooo cool...although the coffee from that is WAY too strong for me. You probably would have survived just fine though =)
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