About our trip

I think that visiting Addis Abbaba was a good experience, and I guess I'm too comfortable with my privileged life here because most of the time I was more interested in how long until I could "get back home" than in what I could do to help . I hope that some of what I saw sticks with me when I'm about to make my next spending decision and maybe there is a way that I can help.

I guess the problem is that it's so overwhelming. People can talk about it, but unless you experience it, it's not really comprehensible. No words could have expressed any of what I experienced - both in the sheer scale of poverty in Addis, and in the process of picking up children you have never met before and being told that they are your kids.

We arrived Sunday night, and picked up the kids on Monday. We went to the embassy on Tuesday (very long wait) and then out to dinner with the other families in Addis and the CWA staff. On Wednesday, we waited for our kids visas and then on Thursday and Friday we went out shopping with one of my co-worker's brothers, and met a couple other members of their family. Saturday was spent at the care center, and Sunday we went to a local (English speaking) church and then flew out.

Unfortunately, I spent most of the trip feeling a bit sick (I have a weak stomach in the best of conditions, and eating unfamiliar food in unfamiliar circumstances isn't my "cup of tea".) I hope the kids can be gracious once they see me "in my element" and realize that I'm not always like that :) Two of the kids have pretty bad coughs and I managed to get a pretty bad sore throat yesterday that hit me just as we were trying to board, and isn't much better. Lack of sleep is probably the main cause for it not getting better.

I'm sure the kids are jet-lagged. The plane ride back was almost entirely dark and there was a horrid head wind - 150 mph almost the entire way across the Atlantic until we hit the Gulf of Maine. I'm pretty dead here too, and think I'm going to take a nap.