do not mean much. We were clearly on Ethiopian time.

Our daily schedule was supposed to look like this. 2 hours in the morning at the care center on 3 of the days. 2 hours in the afternoon, following court on Wednesday. Thursday was supposed to be a free day to shop. Wednesday night an agency rep would take us to Habesha 2000 cultural restaurant for traditional food, music and a dancing display. Friday we were supposed to have lunch and a coffee ceremony at the care center, which Heather was NOT looking forward to. She doesn't even like coffee flavored ice cream, which is undisputably one of the best things ever created. About the only thing that went according to that plan was our court appointment.

It really went down like this. As it turned out our kids were at 2 different locations. Kidist was at the Sele Enat orphanage, and Liyon was at the care center. This meant that we were getting dropped off at Sele Enat, while others went to the care center. Then later we would travel to the care center. Most days the entire process was about 5 hours. On Tuesday, during lunch time, we happened to still be at Sele Enat. The director asked us if we had eaten, to which we said that we hadn't. So we were treated to injera (type of flat sourdough bread) and wat (stew.) Of course you know that you can't eat lunch in Ethiopia without coffee. So Heather didn't have much time to prepare herself for this unexpected awesomeness. Luckily for her they had a 50/50 milk/coffee mixture, as well as the straight stuff. She managed. As the week progressed, I started to become worried that we wouldn't have time to get any shopping done. Most of the big markets began shutting down around 6pm, and we were getting back to the guest house around 4 to 5. We ended up arranging to have our agency driver pick us up in the afternoon on Thursday, so that we could knock some of the shopping out in the morning, which was a good thing, because we probably wouldn't have been able to otherwise. We were able to stuff a shopping cart full of baby consumables with some of the donation money with which we were entrusted. We were able to go to Habesha 2000 on Wednesday night, although we were responsible for our own transportation. If you ever find yourself in Addis Ababa, this is a must see/go/eat spot. The show was incredible, I don't even see how some of the dancing was possible.

I'm not altogether thrilled to be back. It was such a harried, frenetic, emotional, exhausting week. But they live life at a slower pace than we do. It's almost more of a culture shock to come back to a world of now, now, now, after experiencing it.

"We meet a pair of Chinese guys as we're climbing one of our many hills, and later, a middle aged German man, who cycled 40,000 kilometers in the last two years (nearly twice as much as we have). When we ask if he keeps a journal, he smiles sheepishly and says, "No, I'm too lazy for that." Boy oh boy do people have differing ideas of what "lazy" means! "

As comfortable as they are, it's high time that I get off of them and post something. The Sacred Selections fund raiser this weekend was a rousing success. Many thanks to all who participated and contributed. While this process is by no means easy, the support definitely makes it far easier. We will leave for court on Friday the 22nd, and return on the 30th.

In my travels, the thing I like the most is sampling the local cuisine. In this case, we have already been introduced to it at Kereje and Desta restaurants, both off of Greenville in Dallas. They have 2 totally different atmospheres, and I think I prefer Kereje. You just can't go there if you have somewhere to be. They don't seem to be in tune with the speed in which American's are accustomed to being served. I'm excited about the coffee ceremony that we will be treated to, but Heather may as well be getting sucked into a black hole. She knows it's happening, but is powerless to stop it.

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