We woke at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of dogs barking and a rooster crowing. In the distance you could hear the planes at Bole Airport taking off. We dressed and went down for breakfast. Wendy came at 8 a.m. to pick us up. Today is Embassy day. Dove’s normal embassy appointment would be on Thursday, January 7, but due to Genet (Ethiopian Christmas) our embassy appointment was moved to Monday. We drove to Toukoul to pick up the children.
We picked up Oliver, who was wearing the same clothes as the day before but this time with a rancid odor. We loaded into the vehicle and headed to the U.S. Embassy. During the car ride it became clear that Oliver was dirtying his diaper. Jennifer lent us a burp cloth to place in my lap in case of any leaks.
Traffic was crowded and we met Sintayehu outside the Embassy. Sintayehu ushered us down and across the road and into the embassy. We noticed that Oliver was leaking and we asked Sintayehu if we had time to change Oliver. Once we cleared the security checkpoint we were able to change Oliver’s diaper. What a mess!
We waited at the Embassy to hear our family name called out. We were the second family in our group to be called and we walked upstairs to the embassy officials window. We were handed two original documents and asked a series of questions. With that, we were done in a matter of minutes. Once the third family finished their meeting, we were ushered back across the street and into Wendy’s waiting car where he drove us back to the guest house.
When we returned to the guest house we bathed Oliver. Oliver was not pleased but it was a needed step as he smelled and his clothing was soiled. After he was bathed and changed we fed Oliver and he took our bottle easily. We spent the remainder of the time playing.
At noon we left to return the babies to Toukoul and came back to the guest house for lunch. In the afternoon we went to the Hilton to exchange money and send emails. After the Hilton, Wendy took us to some souvenir shops to buy souvenirs and gifts. We purchased an Ethiopian outfit for Oliver and Chloe, two rasta scarves, a wooden cross painting, a tablecloth, an Ethiopian flag, maps of Ethiopia and a white head scarf to wear to church (its required for women to wear the white head scarves at church during Genet). During our shopping trip I started feeling the effects of the altitude and pollution in Addis Ababa. I didn’t feel well at all.
I perked up when Wendy told us we would then go to Toukoul to visit our babies in the afternoon for two hours. When we arrived at Toukoul and the nannies brought Oliver to us his clothes had been changed once again. We were allowed to look inside the Toukoul gift shop even though the lady who ran the shop was not present that day. We were told to place items we wanted to purchase on the desk and we could pay the next day. We were surprised to find many of the items we had just purchased at a cheaper price. We had wished we had shopped Toukoul first.
While the three women in the group looked inside the gift shop with our children, the men were outside kicking the soccer ball with some older children of Toukoul. The kids soccer balls were old and falling apart. Once little boy, playing outside the gates of Toukoul was kicking the bladder (inside of a soccer ball) and after every kick he would blow air into the bladder to reinflate it. We decided we would have Wendy take us to a sporting goods store to buy the children new soccer balls the next day.
At 6 p.m. it was time to return to the guest house and say goodbye to Oliver. I started taking my Cla*ritin and was happy I also brought my decongestant as I was developing a scratchy throat, runny nose and itchy eyes. After dinner, we sat in the reception/office of the guest house and looked through the Toukoul catalog of items for sale in the gift shop and talked. Jennifer and I stayed up later than the others talking.
