This is Seth's first experience with rice cereal. He was more interested in eating the spoon!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Rice Cereal
This is Seth's first experience with rice cereal. He was more interested in eating the spoon!
Life with baby #4
When I had Gillian I thought for sure she would be a hard baby because Dalton had been so easy. Well, she was just as happy and delightful as Dalton was. Then when I had Asher I thought surely this will be my hard baby because the other two were so easy, and again he was just as pleasant and easy going as the first two. Well, with Seth I thought definitely this has to be my hard baby. Statistically if you have 4 infants, one of them is bound to be grumpy. Yet again, I have been blessed with such a happy child. Seth is so anxious to smile and loves attention, luckily there are 5 of us eager and willing to give him all the attention he can handle.
Sunday 6/29/08
Home sweet home! I have never been so happy to be home and to see my other kids in my life! We traveled for a total of 35 hours. We survived, but it was touch and go there a few times.
Day #10, Saturday 6/28/08
We were scheduled to go swimming this day, but we decided not to go and went shopping at a place called Haileselassie Alemayehu thanks to a tip from my neighbor. It wasn't on our itinerary, but Sami didn't mind taking us. (Well, he said he didn't mind.) The prices there are fixed, so you don't have to worry about haggling. The prices were as good if not better than we had seen in other shopping areas.
We pretty much just spent the afternoon hanging out and anticipating our flight. We were mostly all packed up because we took all of our stuff over to Teri and Attila's room so that we could just split the cost of one room for that day. Check out is at noon and we didn't go to the airport until six. The hotel gave us a ride to the airport and we were off.
We pretty much just spent the afternoon hanging out and anticipating our flight. We were mostly all packed up because we took all of our stuff over to Teri and Attila's room so that we could just split the cost of one room for that day. Check out is at noon and we didn't go to the airport until six. The hotel gave us a ride to the airport and we were off.
Day #9, Friday 6/27/08
Friday we got a babysitter and went to the Merkato. The Merkato is the largest open air market in Africa (not Ethiopia, Africa). I was expecting it to look like a really big swap meet, but it isn't. It is multiple city blocks of aisles and aisles of vendors in their stalls that are crammed packed with stuff. There is everything imaginable for sale from scarves to saddles to rebar. You don't go to the Merkato to shop however. This is not a place to buy souvenirs. Sami arranged for some guards to follow us, or lead us rather, around and we walked quickly through a few aisles and then we drove around some of the rest of it.
After the Merkato we went the St. George church. Saint George is the patron saint of Ethiopia. We had a really good guide who demonstrated the different kinds of chanting that they do.
Day #8, Thurday 6/26/08
On Thursday we went to Trinity Church and then to the University Museum. We ate lunch at the hotel and then went to the embassy. The embassy is a lot like the DMV. You wait until they call your name and then you go up raise your right hand and swear that you are telling the truth and they ask you some questions. That's it. The next day Alemu brought us the babies' visas and our super secret envelopes.
That night we got a babysitter so we could go to the Crown Hotel and have a traditional dinner and watch traditional singing and dancing. The food was buffet, so there was plenty to eat. The traditional dancing was amazing. They preformed dances and song from different regions of Ethiopia and it was facinating. I really didn't want to leave the baby, being as we just got him and all, but it would have been too loud and too late to take him. We only got a sitter two times, once for this and when we went to the merkato and I am glad we did because neither of these places would be good to take children to. The babysitter was great by the way. She watched both babies and she was extremely competent.
Day #7, Wednesday 6/25/08
On this day we went shopping. Sami took us to a place to buy traditional clothes and then to a place to buy sovieners. We just hung out in the afternoon and enjoyed the baby. In the evening Alemu came and helped us fill out our paperwork. The paperwork had to be turned in to the embassy in the morning so he took it with him and turned it in.
Day #6, Tuesday 6/24/08
Gotcha Day!!! Such a surreal day! The first step we took on this journey of adoption was filing our I-600a (not everyone starts with this step, but this is where we started). USCIS received our I-600a on 7/23/07 and 11 months and 1 day later we are in Ethiopia collecting our son. There were a few steps in between, some frustrations and hold ups, but it was all so worth it! I am in such awe that we have this amazing little boy and he is ours forever!
This is video of the kids in the orphanage singing goodbye to "Nati" and "Gelmecha"
Before we went to the orphanage to get the babies we went to the National Museum and to the Lion Zoo.
Day #5, Monday 6/23/08
We walked on the beach a little and had breakfast before heading back to Addis. The first 3 days in Ethiopia I put on a brave face, but I have to say this is the day everything really started to get to me. There is extreme poverty in Ethiopia and especially in the country. They are having a drought right now that is making everything so much worse. Most of this day was spent traveling back to Addis. We stopped for drinks one time and stopped for lunch when we were almost back. We also went to the supermarket on the way back and got formula for the babies and donations for the orphanage. We walked over to ShangriLa for dinner after we got back to the hotel.
I am so glad we got to see Alaba. For you Arizonans, the difference between Addis and Alaba is like the difference between Phoenix and Snowflake. Here are some photos from the country side. These pictures don't give the quality of thier dirt credit. Ethiopia has very rich soil with a broad variety of vegitation. (When there is water!) We saw cactus, palm trees, and evergreen trees together all of the time.
I am so glad we got to see Alaba. For you Arizonans, the difference between Addis and Alaba is like the difference between Phoenix and Snowflake. Here are some photos from the country side. These pictures don't give the quality of thier dirt credit. Ethiopia has very rich soil with a broad variety of vegitation. (When there is water!) We saw cactus, palm trees, and evergreen trees together all of the time.
Day #4, Sunday 6/22/08
We had breakfast at the hotel, which was probably my favorite breakfast the entire time I was there. I had french toast, which they deep fry in Ethiopia, and some pink syrup that I think was grenadine.
After breakfast we went to Lake Awassa where we saw the aforementioned hippos and other wildlife.
After breakfast we went to Lake Awassa where we saw the aforementioned hippos and other wildlife.
Eagle at Lake Awassa
The coffee farm was very cool. There is a hotel and the rooms are in traditional style houses. We didn't stay there, but I think families will in the future. Coffee is very important in Ethiopia, it is their number one export.
Coffee plant
Room at the coffee farm
Lemur at the coffee farm
After the coffee farm we went to a park that has a bunch of monkeys living there. They ate right our of our hands.
Attila held out a cracker to this monkey with one hand and the monkey swiped the whole bag out of his other hand. So funny.That night we went to a restaurant that had good pizza. There was also somewhat of a show as a butcher cut up goat meat with great gusto and then a guy fried it in hot oil also with great enthusiasm. It was actually pretty good, very salty.
Day #3, Saturday 6/21/08
Here is some video on the way to Alaba that highlight the fact the roads are not only for cars in Ethiopia. We don't have an image stabilizer on our camera, so if you tend to get motion sickness, you may want to skip this.
The trip was not like anything I have ever experienced before. The road to Alaba was constantly being crossed by cows, goats, donkeys, and people. Driving in Ethiopia is perilous, we only saw 2 working traffic lights in Addis the entire time we were there. For the life of me I could not figure out how they determine whose turn it is to go. Alemu told us Ethiopia is #1 in the world for traffic accidents and this seems completely plausible.
That night we slept at a hotel with a super fancy shower, unfortunately the only came in two temperatures, cold and not cold (which was maybe 10 degrees off of cold).
Day #2, Friday 6/20/08
This was the day we met our sweet baby. He was so smiley and happy. I was so glad to see him in real life and see that he was OK. He was bundled up in 2 jackets, they really like to keep babies warm. I'm not going to write too much about the orphanage because I don't think anyone I know is going there, but if you want to know more, email me. I didn't want to leave the baby, obviously, but I was glad that we were able to see him before we went to Alaba.
After we went to the orphanage, we went to the Hilton to confirm our flights and exchange money.
After we went to the orphanage, we went to the Hilton to confirm our flights and exchange money.
Day #1, Thursday 6/19
It was a long, long flight. (Not as long as the one on the way back, though!) All of our luggage got there OK, and we made it to our hotel. I remember feeling very disoriented on the way from the airport to the hotel. I couldn't understand what people were saying and I couldn't read the signs on the street. This was also our first experience with Ethiopian driving. Pedestrians are not exactly reguarded the same way that they are in the U.S.
Addis from the hotel
More pictures of Addis
Customs and Misc.
A few things I didn't know:
Ethiopians nod by sucking in their breath.
Holding your left hand under your right elbow when shaking hands is a sign of respect, do this when you shake hands with people like the orphanage director.
Ethiopians accept gifts with two hands as a sign of gratitude.
Ethiopians are litterbugs. There is trash everywhere. Guard your trash from a certain adoption coordinator (who shall remain nameless) or he will throw it out the window.
There are between 80 and 200 languages in Ethiopia. This was a very strange concept for me to grab ahold of. Its would be as if every time you went to another US state they spoke a different language. Most of the people we had interactions with spoke some English and Amharic.
I wish I had learned more Amharic before I went. It isn't that hard and the Ethiopians appreciate it. They don't care if you say stuff wrong, they'll just correct you. Boyd learned to say "hello" and "thank you" and had fun using them.
Some places do not have toilets. Sometimes there is a hole in the ground and sometimes there is a toilet with no seat. Sometimes there is a toilet, but no water to flush it. There is almost never toilet paper. Bring tissues and hand sanitizer and try to avoid using the restroom when out and about if possible.
Begging - I brought candy to hand out to children, but I wish I had brought more granola bars and not candy. The begging is relentless. Even in the middle of nowhere in the country the children, who don't even speak Amharic, know two English words, hello and money. When you give out money, be discreet or you will be mobbed by children in seconds. I am torn about giving to the children who are begging, because some say that it actually keeps them out of school when they are being rewarded for their begging. Alemu told us that if we give out money it is better to give a little money to a lot of people than a large sum of money to one person. We usually gave 10 birr to the people who were begging.
Ethiopians nod by sucking in their breath.
Holding your left hand under your right elbow when shaking hands is a sign of respect, do this when you shake hands with people like the orphanage director.
Ethiopians accept gifts with two hands as a sign of gratitude.
Ethiopians are litterbugs. There is trash everywhere. Guard your trash from a certain adoption coordinator (who shall remain nameless) or he will throw it out the window.
There are between 80 and 200 languages in Ethiopia. This was a very strange concept for me to grab ahold of. Its would be as if every time you went to another US state they spoke a different language. Most of the people we had interactions with spoke some English and Amharic.
I wish I had learned more Amharic before I went. It isn't that hard and the Ethiopians appreciate it. They don't care if you say stuff wrong, they'll just correct you. Boyd learned to say "hello" and "thank you" and had fun using them.
Some places do not have toilets. Sometimes there is a hole in the ground and sometimes there is a toilet with no seat. Sometimes there is a toilet, but no water to flush it. There is almost never toilet paper. Bring tissues and hand sanitizer and try to avoid using the restroom when out and about if possible.
Begging - I brought candy to hand out to children, but I wish I had brought more granola bars and not candy. The begging is relentless. Even in the middle of nowhere in the country the children, who don't even speak Amharic, know two English words, hello and money. When you give out money, be discreet or you will be mobbed by children in seconds. I am torn about giving to the children who are begging, because some say that it actually keeps them out of school when they are being rewarded for their begging. Alemu told us that if we give out money it is better to give a little money to a lot of people than a large sum of money to one person. We usually gave 10 birr to the people who were begging.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Water and Electricity
There is a shortage of both water and electricity in Ethiopia and we did our best to conserve both. This photo shows water tanks that are on the tops of the buildings. They haul water in on a truck and put it into these water containers with buckets.
The electricity went out daily from about noon until 9:30 p.m. There is some sort of schedule to this, but I could never exactly figure it out. We always had power in the morning though, which was great, because I do not have wash and wear hair. In the evening they would turn the generator on so we would have lights. The generator does not power the elevator, however. We were on the 5th floor, so we got a bit of exercise. The only times we didn't have any kind of power at all was in the afternoon.
Clothing
This is going to sound a little strange but Ethiopians, on the whole, dress better than we do. Women typically wear skirts and nice shirts and men wear slacks and button down shirts or polos. Everyone was also wearing coats, which seemed strange to us. The weather was very nice. At home we would have been wearing shorts and T-shirts, but the Ethiopians thought it was cold. Some young men wear jeans, but stylish ones. Several men I saw had many layers on, like a T-shirt, then a button down shirt, then a sweater vest, and then a sport coat.
Dressing us
We wore khakis and button down shirts or polos. We didn't bring any jeans, khakis are lighter to pack and we fit in better. I wore T-shirts a couple of times, but I felt uncomfortable when I did. I wore running shoes most days. Not the most fashion savvy thing, I know, but practical. We didn't do a ton a walking, but we did stand for a while at museums and churches and stuff. It was also muddy in some places, like the merkato. I brought my brown running shoes, so they didn't stand out too much. I did bring some nicer black shoes mostly just to wear to the embassy, but I think I ended up just wearing my running shoes there. (They can't see your feet from the window.) I only wore my black shoes 2 days I think. I wanted to bring 2 pair of shoes because we went in rainy season and I was worried about one getting muddy and not drying out in time to wear the next day. As it turned out it only rained once during the day while we were there and we were at the hotel. We did each bring a sweater and I wore mine a couple of times at night.
Dressing the baby
I never saw an infant on the street with anything more than its hands and face exposed. Sometimes you could hardly tell someone was holding a baby because it looked like a big pile of blankets. Ethiopians really bundle babies. I had a hard time finding enough long sleeved outfits that didn't look like sleepers (as it is the middle so summer) so I put long sleeved onesies under short sleeved outfits with pants. I also bought a couple of outfits that had coats. I either put a hat on the baby's head or the hood from his coat. I put socks and shoes on him, but just socks would have been fine.
Dressing us
We wore khakis and button down shirts or polos. We didn't bring any jeans, khakis are lighter to pack and we fit in better. I wore T-shirts a couple of times, but I felt uncomfortable when I did. I wore running shoes most days. Not the most fashion savvy thing, I know, but practical. We didn't do a ton a walking, but we did stand for a while at museums and churches and stuff. It was also muddy in some places, like the merkato. I brought my brown running shoes, so they didn't stand out too much. I did bring some nicer black shoes mostly just to wear to the embassy, but I think I ended up just wearing my running shoes there. (They can't see your feet from the window.) I only wore my black shoes 2 days I think. I wanted to bring 2 pair of shoes because we went in rainy season and I was worried about one getting muddy and not drying out in time to wear the next day. As it turned out it only rained once during the day while we were there and we were at the hotel. We did each bring a sweater and I wore mine a couple of times at night.
Dressing the baby
I never saw an infant on the street with anything more than its hands and face exposed. Sometimes you could hardly tell someone was holding a baby because it looked like a big pile of blankets. Ethiopians really bundle babies. I had a hard time finding enough long sleeved outfits that didn't look like sleepers (as it is the middle so summer) so I put long sleeved onesies under short sleeved outfits with pants. I also bought a couple of outfits that had coats. I either put a hat on the baby's head or the hood from his coat. I put socks and shoes on him, but just socks would have been fine.
Plane flights
The plane flights were really, really long. What else can I say? On the way there about the time we got to Rome I was ready to get off. On the way back I was ready to get off about 2 hours into it. I did feel better after a little nap and walking around a bit, but it was rough. My neighbor had some episodes of a sitcom I hadn't seen in Ipod format and Boyd put those on my Ipod for me to watch. I also saved up some of my favorite podcasts to listen to and both of those were helpful. There were movies on the plane and I had put a couple of movies I hadn't seen on my Ipod, but I wasn't really in the mood for a movie.
The most irritating circumstance of my entire trip was the plane flight back. I have never in my life written a complaint letter, but I may make an exception for Ethiopian Air. When we purchased our plane tickets we requested a bassinet. When we went to the Hilton the day after we arrived in Ethiopia we requested a bassinet. When we arrived at the counter early (2nd people in line) on the day of our departure we requested a bassinet. The man at the counter told us they were all taken, but we could have the seat in between us for the baby. I was a little put out, but not too much because our baby is little and he can lie down pretty comfortably in the seat in the middle. Well, when we got on the plane, it turns out that it was actually full and they sold the seat in between us. Then while I was strolling up to the front of the plane after take off I saw that nobody was using the bassinets. Teri and I were the only people on the plane with babies at all. I nearly lost my mind. We held the baby for 17 hours straight. I could have dealt with this much better if someone had been using them, if someone had purchased or confirmed ticket ahead of us, but that they weren't using them at all was nearly unbearable. I guess I could have complained to the flight attendant, but at the time I really didn't feel like this would do me any good. My seats were in the back of the plane and nobody in their right mind would have wanted to switch with me and the airline couldn't make them, they had paid for their $1,000 seat.
The most irritating circumstance of my entire trip was the plane flight back. I have never in my life written a complaint letter, but I may make an exception for Ethiopian Air. When we purchased our plane tickets we requested a bassinet. When we went to the Hilton the day after we arrived in Ethiopia we requested a bassinet. When we arrived at the counter early (2nd people in line) on the day of our departure we requested a bassinet. The man at the counter told us they were all taken, but we could have the seat in between us for the baby. I was a little put out, but not too much because our baby is little and he can lie down pretty comfortably in the seat in the middle. Well, when we got on the plane, it turns out that it was actually full and they sold the seat in between us. Then while I was strolling up to the front of the plane after take off I saw that nobody was using the bassinets. Teri and I were the only people on the plane with babies at all. I nearly lost my mind. We held the baby for 17 hours straight. I could have dealt with this much better if someone had been using them, if someone had purchased or confirmed ticket ahead of us, but that they weren't using them at all was nearly unbearable. I guess I could have complained to the flight attendant, but at the time I really didn't feel like this would do me any good. My seats were in the back of the plane and nobody in their right mind would have wanted to switch with me and the airline couldn't make them, they had paid for their $1,000 seat.
Airports
When you get to Ethiopia, hurry and get in the visa line. After the visa line, go to the bank if it is open and exchange money. All money is exchanged at the same rate no matter where you go, so you might as well do it here. Speaking of money, bring 2004 bills and newer. You have to have 2004 and newer for the embassy for sure. You might be able to get away with older in other places, but I wouldn't risk it. If it is closed, you can exchange some money to get by until you go to the Hilton. Then go through customs. Stand in the line on the left. The line on the right is for people traveling through Ethiopia on their way somewhere else (I believe this is called a transfer visa), the line on the left is for people who are staying in the country. (It is a much shorter line.) Then go to baggage claim and through security. Yes, you go through security to leave the airport.
In Dulles, go to the line on the right, the one for American citizens. This counter is both customs and immigration. When it is your turn, you will give them your super secret envelope that you got from the embassy that you are not allowed to open. They will stamp some stuff inside and give it back to you. Then go to baggage claim and get your bags. After that you will have to go off to the right and hand your envelope to the worker there. Then you have a seat and wait for them to call your name. I don't know exactly what they do, but at some point they call your name, give you the baby's passport back, and say you can go.
In Dulles, go to the line on the right, the one for American citizens. This counter is both customs and immigration. When it is your turn, you will give them your super secret envelope that you got from the embassy that you are not allowed to open. They will stamp some stuff inside and give it back to you. Then go to baggage claim and get your bags. After that you will have to go off to the right and hand your envelope to the worker there. Then you have a seat and wait for them to call your name. I don't know exactly what they do, but at some point they call your name, give you the baby's passport back, and say you can go.
Tips
Not as in advice, as in gratuities. Take some single dollar bills with you on the plane because you need to tip about 5 or 6 people just to get from the airport to your hotel room and the bank may be closed when you get there. When you go to the bank to exchange money get lots of ten burr bills which is about $1 US. There is an endless need for tens. You will tip and tip and then tip some more. Tens are also useful for shopping. I find it hard to bargain when you are asking for change. Speaking of change, it is very hard to come by. You can get change at a restaurant or at a supermarket, but the vendors where you buy souvenirs will not have change. They will run around to their neighbors to get it for you, but they will be put out and you will have to wait. Tens are also good for the people begging on the street. (More about this in another post.)
Knowing how much to tip each person is not always clear (at least to me). I will tell you what we did, but I am not sure we always did the right thing. I should also mention at first glance some of these tips may seem optional, but they are not. They do not let you carry your own bags or open your own door.
People carrying bags - 10 birr each
Museum guide - 50 to 100 birr
Door man - 50 to 100 birr (on last day, there were 2 or 3 doormen)
Driver - 200 birr (last day)
Server - 20 birr (two families)
Room service - 10 birr
Some of these amounts may not seem equitable. Like tipping the museum guide $10 for an hour and the driver who drove us around all week $20. The difference is (to me anyway,) the driver is getting paid to drive us around, so it is really a "tip," where the museum guide in an "independent contractor," so to speak, and is not paid by the museum. Tips are his salary.
Knowing how much to tip each person is not always clear (at least to me). I will tell you what we did, but I am not sure we always did the right thing. I should also mention at first glance some of these tips may seem optional, but they are not. They do not let you carry your own bags or open your own door.
People carrying bags - 10 birr each
Museum guide - 50 to 100 birr
Door man - 50 to 100 birr (on last day, there were 2 or 3 doormen)
Driver - 200 birr (last day)
Server - 20 birr (two families)
Room service - 10 birr
Some of these amounts may not seem equitable. Like tipping the museum guide $10 for an hour and the driver who drove us around all week $20. The difference is (to me anyway,) the driver is getting paid to drive us around, so it is really a "tip," where the museum guide in an "independent contractor," so to speak, and is not paid by the museum. Tips are his salary.
Food
Me and MirindaFirst off, I brought way too much food. There is plenty of food in Ethiopia (for tourists, anyway) and we were never hungry. There were days where I felt like we were eating every ten minutes. I brought one granola bar for each of us each for each day and one baggie of trail mix for each us for each day. I also brought crackers and small peanut butter cups and some of those tuna fish and cracker packs. The hole trip I think we each ate 3 granola bars and maybe 2 baggies of trail mix. We never ate our peanut butter and crackers and one day for lunch we ate our tuna fish stuff, which was by choice.
I remember Oprah saying once she had just been to Africa and eaten a lot of bread and potatoes. What I didn't realize when she said that is that when you eliminate all the food that can potentially make you sick, what you are left with is bread and potatoes. I have a very sensitive stomach and I was terrified of getting sick, so I was very careful. I ate bread, potatoes, rice, and sometimes spaghetti with tomato sauce. I ate french fries for several meals. The french fries at the hotel were very good. (If you get them via room service, remember to ask them to bring you salt and ketchup.) At the hotel there was also a dish called chicken stir fry that had a tiny bit of chicken, rice, spaghetti noodles, and cooked vegetables. It is good and I ate that a couple times. For the most part, all the food we ate tasted good, usually lacking in salt, but you can add that. Another thing I didn't realize is that if all you eat for days on end in bread and potatoes, you start to feel yucky. I am not a huge meat eater, but by the last day, I broke down and ate steak with mushroom sauce at ShangriLa. This is the only time in the entire trip that I ate something so risky. It was very good and I didn't get sick! I ate no dairy, very little meat, almost no fruit and a few cooked vegetables here and there. They do have these small bananas and I probably had 3 or 4 of them while we were there. If they were available at breakfast, I ate them. I didn't eat butter or any sauces. (I did eat tomato sauce on spaghetti, but I am sure this came out of a can, and ketchup out of a bottle.) I would bring some jerky, for a source of protein and some vitamins if you are as paranoid as I am. I have to say, Boyd was not nearly as careful as I was and he did not get sick, however, he "has a cast iron stomach," so he says.
There isn't any comfort food in Ethiopia. There is not a single McDonald's in the entire country. There is also no dessert. For dessert at restaurants there is fruit or cream caramel. Cream caramel is...uh...not yummy, let's say. The closest thing I can compare it to is flan, but without the sugar. I brought a big bag of M&Ms and am glad I did. I bought a Twix for each of us at the supermarket and they were $1.60 each. Bring some treats!
You can get bottled water nearly everywhere and it is cheap. We mostly got ours from the bar at the hotel.
One great thing they do have is Mirinda. I had several everyday. It is like Orange Crush only better and it comes in a bottle. (I always tried to avoid drinking out of cups.) I have never drank so much soda in my life!
Packing
Making it fit
I got back from dropping off my kids to my mom about 5:00 on Tuesday, stopped by Target for some last minute items, and was home about 6:00. My plan was to pack our bags, do two loads of laundry, mop and vacuum and be in bed by 10:00. HA! I should say that I had been working on packing for a couple of weeks. I had been gathering the stuff we needed in a big pile in my guest room and it seemed like a pretty easy task to just put it in the suitcases. Well, it would have been if my pile wasn't much larger than the space I had. I also had been gathering donations, but didn't realize how long it was going to take to make everything fit and stay within the weight limit. Needless to say it took us until 2:30 am to make everything essential fit and eliminate stuff we didn't absolutely have to have, and my floors never did get done! I had to get up at 4:30 to make the plane, so it was a rough start. So, my advice is, if you are going to Ethiopia this year, start packing now! And I mean today! Not just gathering stuff, but making sure it fits!
I took four 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes, 2 carry-on suitcases, and two backpacks. I used 3 of the Rubbermaid totes for donations. We repacked and rearranged and reweighed these countless times to make everything fit. They were each exactly 50 lbs each, which is the limit. Thank you to everyone who was so generous in donating! I used the 4th tote and the 2 suitcases for all of our stuff and the stuff for the baby. Since I have heard many stories of luggage not showing up, I tried to pack the stuff we couldn't live without in the suitcases and stuff we could buy there if necessary in the tote (i.e. diapers, snacks). Our 4th tote weighed 48 lbs. I should say that carry-ons have a weight limit of 15 lbs and we exceeded that by probably more than double. They didn't check though, but we made sure that our suitcases didn't appear to be busting at the seams. I used my backpack diaper bag and just carried it on so I didn't need to pack a diaper bag in the suitcase. We checked the 4 totes and put the suitcases in the overhead compartment and we each had a backpack at our feet.
I got back from dropping off my kids to my mom about 5:00 on Tuesday, stopped by Target for some last minute items, and was home about 6:00. My plan was to pack our bags, do two loads of laundry, mop and vacuum and be in bed by 10:00. HA! I should say that I had been working on packing for a couple of weeks. I had been gathering the stuff we needed in a big pile in my guest room and it seemed like a pretty easy task to just put it in the suitcases. Well, it would have been if my pile wasn't much larger than the space I had. I also had been gathering donations, but didn't realize how long it was going to take to make everything fit and stay within the weight limit. Needless to say it took us until 2:30 am to make everything essential fit and eliminate stuff we didn't absolutely have to have, and my floors never did get done! I had to get up at 4:30 to make the plane, so it was a rough start. So, my advice is, if you are going to Ethiopia this year, start packing now! And I mean today! Not just gathering stuff, but making sure it fits!
I took four 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes, 2 carry-on suitcases, and two backpacks. I used 3 of the Rubbermaid totes for donations. We repacked and rearranged and reweighed these countless times to make everything fit. They were each exactly 50 lbs each, which is the limit. Thank you to everyone who was so generous in donating! I used the 4th tote and the 2 suitcases for all of our stuff and the stuff for the baby. Since I have heard many stories of luggage not showing up, I tried to pack the stuff we couldn't live without in the suitcases and stuff we could buy there if necessary in the tote (i.e. diapers, snacks). Our 4th tote weighed 48 lbs. I should say that carry-ons have a weight limit of 15 lbs and we exceeded that by probably more than double. They didn't check though, but we made sure that our suitcases didn't appear to be busting at the seams. I used my backpack diaper bag and just carried it on so I didn't need to pack a diaper bag in the suitcase. We checked the 4 totes and put the suitcases in the overhead compartment and we each had a backpack at our feet.
We left the three totes with donations in Ethiopia and checked one suitcase and the other tote that we used for soveniers on the way back.
Note: I printed 2 packing lists off the internet plus AAI's list and the list I use whenever we go out of town. I could have saved myself some time packing by consolidating these lists into one.
Note #2: In order to make everything fit, I had to pack extremely tightly. I put all of our get ready products, i.e. shampoo, hair gel, lotion, etc. into travel sized containers. I brought those baby cloths with the soap already in them for the baby. I love these and I always use them when I travel with my kids. (I only brought one per day, and I should have brought 3 per day, see below.) I bought a travel sized hair dryer off Amazon that works on 110 and 220 and I brought my small flat iron. There was no empty space in our bag. We packed the candy to hand out into the baby bottles and the inside of the hot pot, socks in our shoes, and rolled our clothes super tight.
To bring and not to bring
First off, I forgot 3 three things. My belt, bags to put dirty diapers in, and extra batteries for my camera. I realized on the way to the airport that in my haste to get out the door I had forgotten to put on my belt, but we were too late to turn around and go back to get it. My pants fell down the entire time I was in Ethiopia. Not devastating, but irritating. This is why you should get more than two hours of sleep the night before you leave, or better yet, lay out your clothes for the next day before you go to sleep. How I forgot the diaper bags is unexplainable. I had 4 lists of stuff to pack and they were on probably 3 of them. I also have probably 200 of them, but they were downstairs and I was packing upstairs and I kept thinking I would grab them next time I went down, but somehow they never made it. These are essential. Not only for dirty diapers, but also for dirty clothes. Our baby had some pretty serious digestive issues and nearly every time he had a dirty diaper we had to change his clothes. He also threw up (not spit up, threw up) once or twice a day, also necessitating a change of clothes and I really could have used these to put all his dirty clothes in. I did bring some extra Ziplocs which I used for this, but I didn't have enough for the whole trip so luckily Teri gave me some. I brought rechargeable batteries for my camera, but I wanted some extra "real" batteries, just in case. I bought some in the airport, but I never needed them. I just recharged my batteries every night and they lasted fine.
Stuff I should have left at home:
Food - I brought way to much food. We gave most of it away on the last day.
Stuff I am glad I brought:
Tide sink packets - We had the hotel do laundry for us, but when there isn't any electricity, there isn't any laundry, one time it took almost 3 days to get our clothes back.
The Hot Pot
Hot pot - we used this to warm bottles, although I don't think the bottles are usually warm in the orphanage. (They boil the water, add the formula, and let them cool to room temperature.) Room temperature formula seems gross to me, so I heated the water just a little. We used Playtex bottles with the liners, so we just needed to clean the nipples and rings. The Playtex bottle didn't look anything like the bottles in the orphanage, but our baby didn't care. To clean the nipples and rings, we washed them with water and dish soap and then boiled them in the hot pot. We boiled water for 5 minutes and then added the nipples and rings and boiled for another two minutes. This thing heats water ridiculously fast and I am glad I brought it. I bought it at Walmart for like $15. (Robin and Andrea, you can borrow mine if you want.) Just a note, the Hot Pot didn't work on 220v so we bought a dual (high wattage/low wattage) converter at Walmart. ($20, I think) The converter came with multiple European to US adapters which we used. Nearly all of our cameras, battery chargers, etc. worked on 220 as well as 110. Bring several adapters so that you can plug in multiple things at the same time.
Flash Light
Alarm clock - you can get a wake up call, but it may not be on time and they walk up to your room and knock on the door, rather than call. It's also nice to know what time it is when you wake up in the middle of the night with the baby.
Tissue - for the toilets
Hand Sanitizer
Clorox wipes - used on lots of things - airplane tray tables, etc.
Toys for the baby - Seth loves toys, loves to chew on them, hold them, look at them, everything about them. I was glad I brought a few to keep him entertained.
Lonely Planet's Ethiopia and Eritrea book - very helpful. I also wish I had bought and brought Lonely Planet's Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook.
Note: I printed 2 packing lists off the internet plus AAI's list and the list I use whenever we go out of town. I could have saved myself some time packing by consolidating these lists into one.
Note #2: In order to make everything fit, I had to pack extremely tightly. I put all of our get ready products, i.e. shampoo, hair gel, lotion, etc. into travel sized containers. I brought those baby cloths with the soap already in them for the baby. I love these and I always use them when I travel with my kids. (I only brought one per day, and I should have brought 3 per day, see below.) I bought a travel sized hair dryer off Amazon that works on 110 and 220 and I brought my small flat iron. There was no empty space in our bag. We packed the candy to hand out into the baby bottles and the inside of the hot pot, socks in our shoes, and rolled our clothes super tight.
To bring and not to bring
First off, I forgot 3 three things. My belt, bags to put dirty diapers in, and extra batteries for my camera. I realized on the way to the airport that in my haste to get out the door I had forgotten to put on my belt, but we were too late to turn around and go back to get it. My pants fell down the entire time I was in Ethiopia. Not devastating, but irritating. This is why you should get more than two hours of sleep the night before you leave, or better yet, lay out your clothes for the next day before you go to sleep. How I forgot the diaper bags is unexplainable. I had 4 lists of stuff to pack and they were on probably 3 of them. I also have probably 200 of them, but they were downstairs and I was packing upstairs and I kept thinking I would grab them next time I went down, but somehow they never made it. These are essential. Not only for dirty diapers, but also for dirty clothes. Our baby had some pretty serious digestive issues and nearly every time he had a dirty diaper we had to change his clothes. He also threw up (not spit up, threw up) once or twice a day, also necessitating a change of clothes and I really could have used these to put all his dirty clothes in. I did bring some extra Ziplocs which I used for this, but I didn't have enough for the whole trip so luckily Teri gave me some. I brought rechargeable batteries for my camera, but I wanted some extra "real" batteries, just in case. I bought some in the airport, but I never needed them. I just recharged my batteries every night and they lasted fine.
Stuff I should have left at home:
Food - I brought way to much food. We gave most of it away on the last day.
Stuff I am glad I brought:
Tide sink packets - We had the hotel do laundry for us, but when there isn't any electricity, there isn't any laundry, one time it took almost 3 days to get our clothes back.
The Hot PotHot pot - we used this to warm bottles, although I don't think the bottles are usually warm in the orphanage. (They boil the water, add the formula, and let them cool to room temperature.) Room temperature formula seems gross to me, so I heated the water just a little. We used Playtex bottles with the liners, so we just needed to clean the nipples and rings. The Playtex bottle didn't look anything like the bottles in the orphanage, but our baby didn't care. To clean the nipples and rings, we washed them with water and dish soap and then boiled them in the hot pot. We boiled water for 5 minutes and then added the nipples and rings and boiled for another two minutes. This thing heats water ridiculously fast and I am glad I brought it. I bought it at Walmart for like $15. (Robin and Andrea, you can borrow mine if you want.) Just a note, the Hot Pot didn't work on 220v so we bought a dual (high wattage/low wattage) converter at Walmart. ($20, I think) The converter came with multiple European to US adapters which we used. Nearly all of our cameras, battery chargers, etc. worked on 220 as well as 110. Bring several adapters so that you can plug in multiple things at the same time.
Flash Light
Alarm clock - you can get a wake up call, but it may not be on time and they walk up to your room and knock on the door, rather than call. It's also nice to know what time it is when you wake up in the middle of the night with the baby.
Tissue - for the toilets
Hand Sanitizer
Clorox wipes - used on lots of things - airplane tray tables, etc.
Toys for the baby - Seth loves toys, loves to chew on them, hold them, look at them, everything about them. I was glad I brought a few to keep him entertained.
Lonely Planet's Ethiopia and Eritrea book - very helpful. I also wish I had bought and brought Lonely Planet's Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Catch Up
I had really intended to do a better job posting both in Ethiopia and when we got home. That didn't go like I had planned, but I am going to try to catch up now. There are several posts of tips and then one post per day of what we did and where we went. I am not going to post my tips for meeting birth parents/families, but I definitely have some. So if you would like them, email me and I will email you back with my advice for that.
Sorry this has taken so long, I know a lot of you are anxious to hear about our trip. When we got home Seth got pretty sick and we are having to do breathing treatments for him. He also has two ear infections. We have spent a few days at the Dr., lab, and x-ray. Seth also has some digestive issues that we are still trying to figure out. He had some pretty serious diarrhea when we got him which we have mostly sorted out. He seems that he is lactose intolerant, but he also had bacterial infection (diagnosed from his stool sample) that causes diarrhea so it was a double whammy. He is still throwing up even though he has been on a lactose free formula and we aren't exactly sure why, but I'm sure we will figure it out soon. I also became very ill after coming home. I won't go into the gory details, but I was sicker than I can ever remember being in my life. I am still not sure what exactly I had, but my Dr. said to take the Cipro that I took with me to Ethiopia and I am much better now. I didn't pick up any strange illness in ET, FYI. I was tested for everything, I just had a high white blood cell count. I also got every immunization possible before we traveled and I took my Malarone everyday.
Note: In my tips, I say "the hotel" a lot, and I should say that we stayed at the Desalegn Hotel every night except for the two nights of our Alaba trip.
Disclaimer: Most of my tips have been mentioned before, either on other peoples' blogs or in travel meetings, etc., but some of them I repeated because I have friends with different agencies. I am sure this is not a comprehensive list of everything you need to know, these are just things I can think of right now that might be helpful to those of you who are traveling soon. Please email me if you have any questions that I didn't answer.
Sorry this has taken so long, I know a lot of you are anxious to hear about our trip. When we got home Seth got pretty sick and we are having to do breathing treatments for him. He also has two ear infections. We have spent a few days at the Dr., lab, and x-ray. Seth also has some digestive issues that we are still trying to figure out. He had some pretty serious diarrhea when we got him which we have mostly sorted out. He seems that he is lactose intolerant, but he also had bacterial infection (diagnosed from his stool sample) that causes diarrhea so it was a double whammy. He is still throwing up even though he has been on a lactose free formula and we aren't exactly sure why, but I'm sure we will figure it out soon. I also became very ill after coming home. I won't go into the gory details, but I was sicker than I can ever remember being in my life. I am still not sure what exactly I had, but my Dr. said to take the Cipro that I took with me to Ethiopia and I am much better now. I didn't pick up any strange illness in ET, FYI. I was tested for everything, I just had a high white blood cell count. I also got every immunization possible before we traveled and I took my Malarone everyday.
Note: In my tips, I say "the hotel" a lot, and I should say that we stayed at the Desalegn Hotel every night except for the two nights of our Alaba trip.
Disclaimer: Most of my tips have been mentioned before, either on other peoples' blogs or in travel meetings, etc., but some of them I repeated because I have friends with different agencies. I am sure this is not a comprehensive list of everything you need to know, these are just things I can think of right now that might be helpful to those of you who are traveling soon. Please email me if you have any questions that I didn't answer.
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