Last Day in Ethiopia

Today is our last day in Ethiopia. We fly out this afternoon. We stop in Dubai for a short layover and then fly on to JFK, arriving home early Saturday morning.

We went to Toukoul after we stopped at a grocery store to buy the children some chocolate. Matt was Father Christmas, handing out sweets to the children. Even the nannies and the cook came out for a treat. Wendy went into the office for us and told them that Oliver had what appeared to be an asthma attack in the night and that we wanted some medicine to take with us. They wrote us a prescription for Ventolin.

We signed the paperwork officially releasing Oliver from Toukoul's care and received a cute yellow backpack and a traditional Ethiopian outfit for Oliver. We also got a chest x-ray and some more detailed medical records on him.

We walked around the orphanage and then were taken to see Oliver's room. There were about 20 babies in the room and 3 nannies. We were told there are 8 other baby rooms just like the room Oliver was in.

The families at the gates of Toukoul.

Oliver's crib at Toukoul.

After the final visit to the orphanage we went back to the hotel, packed and had lunch and then set out to see the Mercato and the Entoto Mountains.

The Mercato was stall after stall of everything imaginable. We saw spices being sold, berbere, old light fixtures, shoes, clothing and wiring.

The Entoto Mountains were lovely. Since Christmas was the day before, very few cars were on the road and the pollution was not as bad. We could see Addis Ababa from the top of the mountain. We also saw the women carrying eucalyptus down the mountain for 15 birr a day.

After our tour, we returned to the hotel and grabbed our suitcases. We said goodbye to Jennifer and Brian, who would be staying on for one more night, and then Wendy drove us to the airport.

Saying goodbye to Addis---at the airport.