Day 5, 6 & 7 - Uganda and the Journey to Awassa

Ethiopia Trip – Days 5, 6 & 7

First, I would like to warn you that this blog entry is going to be LONG. Not only have we been without the internet for approximately 3 days, but so very much has happened in those days that we have a lot of ground to cover. To help make this easy, I am going to try to separate by days, if not further by things we did. So, grab some popcorn, a mug of cocoa (or another favorite drink) and a comfy seat and sit back and enjoy.

Uganda to Addis Ababa – 13 January

We had intended to spend our last morning in Uganda doing some exploring and shopping in the city of Kampala, but were waylaid by having to write a letter. Before the internet went down at the hotel (just after we had posted the previous blog), we got an email letting us know that we were going to meet Sela’s birth family the very next day. Yup, nothing like letting us know at the last minute! Our bad for not having written the letter to the birth family sooner, but we didn’t, so that is what we did for a little bit in the morning. We had a little bit of time after we wrote the letter and we were in luck as far as shopping – there was a shopping mall just a 15 minute walk from the hotel!

Yes, a shopping mall. Honest to goodness. It had 4 floors and a food court and the Ugandan version of a Wal-Mart! Brian found some good Manchester United paraphernalia (football/soccer club in England for those not in the “know”), and we found a great shop for a few souvenirs from Uganda. It was a fun way to spend our last few hours.

The flight from Uganda to Addis was without much interest, EXCEPT for the gentleman I sat next to. This man is a Ugandan policeman serving time as a peacekeeper in Darfur. Just that was enough to humble me. He has been a policeman for 23 years and has a wife and children in Uganda – the youngest of the children is going to enter university next year. Talking to this man was extremely interesting. He said that things are getting better, but there is still so much yet to be done. The job that the policemen do is to protect the women so they can gather firewood and water without getting raped by other factions. However, they are also working to help the women to form councils of their own and to bring these women information and knowledge from the rest of the world – to teach them that women in the rest of the world are not required to live the way these women do. Apparently, the husbands do nothing in Darfur but wait for the women to take care of them. I shared with this man the analogy of men and women being two wings of a bird – that the wings have to work together and be equal or the bird cannot fly. He smiled! The other part of this man’s job that gave me so much respect for he and his fellows is that they only get to go home once every 3 months – and then they have to pay for their own way home. What a sacrifice. He did say with the UN coming in that they will have flights to Uganda that they can utilize, BUT the coming of the UN could also mean they have to stay even longer in the area. As it is, this particular gentleman is scheduled to remain in Darfur until October. I don’t know his name, but those peacekeepers deserve our respect and prayers.

Upon arriving at the airport in Addis, we met another interesting person. Again, I am horrible at remembering names, but this young lady (in her early 20s) is as fair as I am and very petite. She is from Santa Fe and traveling in Africa, just to travel in Africa. She had spent some time in Uganda and met a nice woman who is going to put her up her in Addis for a while. The girl is spending 6 weeks here – by herself and with no real plan. That really amazes me. Both that a single young woman has the chutzpah to travel alone in a foreign land, but that she is doing it without a plan. Wow.

We made it to our hotel around 10 and were pleased to receive a phone call from the guy who is the right-hand man at the orphanage. Seems, a driver was going to pick us up at the dreary hour of 6:30! Ugh. We spent some time packing for the two day trip we would embark on the very next day. No rest for the wicked or the weary!!

Addis to Awassa – 14 January

The driver was VERY prompt in picking us up. A very nice young man named Solomon. He took us directly to the orphanage to meet our daughter for the very first time.

For those of you who aren’t parents, there is just no describing the feeling of seeing your child for the first time. I wish I could share it with you. Just know it is wonderful.

We took a few pictures with the Polaroid camera they have – a few pictures for the nannies to keep, but a few to put in our picture book we put together for the birth family. Sela is in a room with about 7 other 6-12 month-olds. They are all amazing. We got to play with a few of them while we sat with Sela. Way too cool.

And then we were off. We traveled with Thom, a dad from New York. His wife and 3 ½ year old daughter stayed home and are waiting anxiously for the return of Dad and their new baby sister. Thom’s a pretty cool guy. The same driver that picked us up was the one to drive is to Awassa. The drive to Awassa itself wasn’t too bad – about 4 hours.

This is a good enough time as any to share with you one of the funnier parts of driving in Africa, at least both in Uganda and Ethiopia. There is a plethora of farm animals on the road. Literally. There are goats munching grass on the sides, cows, donkeys, a few camels and dogs. But they don’t stay on the sides of the road. And at times, they will be in the middle of the road just staring at the vehicle like “What? You want me to move?!” We got some good giggles out of it. It isn’t that farm animals are funny; it is just that we are SO conditioned to see all animals either in fenced areas or tied up. Some of the animals were simply wandering – no attendant in sight.

On the way to Awassa, we did catch sight of a few baboons, too. Right next to the road, crossing the road, completely unconcerned about cars and people.

Once we got to Awassa we thought our trip was nearly completed. We were in for a rude shock. We went to meet Thom’s birth family first. The road was less than perfectly paved or groomed. Still not terrible, though. The family met us at a place that is “no less than 15 kilometers” from their home. The social worker we picked up in Awassa told us that the family had walked to meet Thom. The house we met in was a “nice” house – concrete and relatively clean. With maybe three things on the walls – small things, one wooden table, a few wooden benches and chairs. There were shelves in one area, but they were completely bare. The birth family was there, but we also had many spectators, too. Some of them were additional family, but not all of them. Outside the house was a small crowd of children who seemed enthralled with us – the light skin and, I think, my crazy hair. They just smiled and stared. It was kind of embarrassing to be the center of so much attention.

When this meeting concluded, we were told we were headed back to Awassa to meet Sela’s birth family. We THOUGHT this meant we were going to be back in the city itself. We were mistaken. We turned off the paved road a bit before we reached the city. And traveled for about 30 minutes on a VERY rough dirt road. We didn’t see another motorized vehicle the entire time. We got to one point and the social worker had to ask where to go. The gentleman that he asked agreed to ride his bike to show us how to continue. We then turned off the dirt road onto a trail, for lack of a better word. I don’t know that I have ever been so jostled in a vehicle before. We went like that for about 10-15 minutes before we reached the path to the home. Then we had to get out and walk the rest of the way.

You can maybe imagine that Brian and I were just a bit nervous of this meeting. We didn’t know what to write in the letter, we didn’t know which pictures to give them, we had no idea how they would react to us. Would they be upset and regret their decision? The walk was good for helping me to calm a bit. We passed Sela’s mom’s grave. The social worker said that the people like to bury the family near where they lived. It was SO peaceful on the walk. There were no city sounds, no motorized sounds. Just the breeze and birds. Good meditative atmosphere.

Brian here – I just wanted to also say a few words about our walk. For those of you who have been to Haifa, specifically to The Shrine of Baha’u’llah in Bahji and the walk down the path, this was the closest I have felt to that. This is not to say the path we walked was straight, or holy, or well kept, but I was just as full of trepidation as I was in Bahji. I did not know what I was walking into and I spent much of the trip in quiet thought.

Lori back – The clearing we stopped in was really beautiful. So peaceful, neatly kept, mountains on one side, clear blue skies above. The family brought out a bench and seats into a shaded area so we could all sit. Two uncles and three siblings were there and one man, who we believe to be a friend of the family who is able to read and speak English. The social worker looked at our letter and lamented it was too long. Leave it to us to be too verbose!! The friend was given the task of actually translating it at a later time. We then showed them our picture book. They really liked the picture we took of Brian, Brendan and myself on the day Brendan came home. They also thought the two baby pictures of Brian and I were pretty funny and they seemed impressed by the picture of Brendan, Brian, his mom and grandmother. 4 generations in one picture. They also were impressed with my Dad and thought he looked strong. Then we got the chance to ask some questions.



It seems Selamawit was a fat baby and was named “peaceful” because at the time of her birth the family and the home and the area were at peace. Her father was younger than the two uncles we met, but looked much like the younger of those two (he is in the red shirt in the picture). The mother was from far away, but we weren’t told what that meant. She was a housewife, and from what the social worker said and the way the family talked about her, she seemed very much loved by the family and the neighbors. The social worker actually came to collect Sela very shortly after her mother died and everyone was still “sharing their sorrows.” He said the neighbors tried to convince the uncle not to let the baby go, but he knew something of the adoption process. Meaning, he knew he was giving her over to people who could give her what he could not. Having someone place THAT kind of trust in you, even if they didn’t know it would specifically Brian and I, is about the most humble I have ever felt.

We took some pictures of the surrounding area, the house (Sela was actually born there – and it is a cement house, not the mud or grass style), and the family. It was hard to leave. We also took a picture of the mother’s grave on our walk back to the car. I did pretty good to not cry very much. Thom described it very well when he said you are in a state of some shock after a meeting like that.

We then took the grueling drive back to Awassa and went to our hotel. It is on beautiful grounds – covered with trees and flowering bushes. It is really close to Lake Awassa, but we couldn’t see or get to it because of a government fence. We ate dinner, and tried to stay awake long enough that it was late enough to go to bed. We weren’t really keen on the accommodations, but the bed was actually more comfortable that we thought it would be and we slept better than we expected. The shower the next morning was only luke-warm, and only for a very short time!

Awassa to Addis – 15 January

While we were waiting for our driver to come collect us, the three of us walked around the grounds of the hotel. There were Colobus monkeys hanging out in the trees right above the rooms we stayed in. They had created quite a cacophony fairly early in the morning as they played and chased one another right outside of our bedroom windows. We got some great shots of these guys.

Our driver picked us up and asked if we made it to the lake. When we said no, he took us to a local fish market. People went out to fish and brought them to the shores to be purchased right away. Talk about fresh! There was a slight fishy aroma, but it isn’t nearly as pungent as I had expected. There are some very persistent sales boys here, too! They carry around cut up fish bits that they offer to throw to these birds so they will get close enough you can take some great pictures. And they followed us the entire time we were there! We walked up to a vantage point where we took pictures of this Rift Valley lake. Then we walked to an area where other industrious young men use bread to entice monkeys out of trees. Brian and I both fed the monkeys – they take the bread right out of your hand. I normally don’t advocate feeding wildlife and maybe it isn’t the most sanitary or safe thing to do, but I just couldn’t resist this time. It was really neat! The monkeys are still wild enough to be shy and take some coaxing, but used to people enough they just come right up to get that bread. After this we headed out again.


I want to make another aside at this point. I am an animal lover. Brian is too. It has been VERY hard for me to deal with the condition of some of these animals. I have had to concentrate at “not seeing” some things. I took a few pictures, but could only handle so many. Yes, it is distressing to see people in such dire straights, but animals have always seemed more helpless. At the same time, if you only have enough means to care for either your family or your animal, family will and should win out every time. It is the reality of the situation. This whole subject – the conditions in which we saw people and animals – could cause me to talk for days, so let me stop myself here and now.

A little ways outside of Awassa we stopped at a national park. This national park surrounds two lakes in this region. Both are salt water and part of the Rift Valley. One of them has been calculated to have more water than any other in Ethiopia. We saw flamingoes, gazelles, the shadows of some very fast warthogs, and ostriches. We also took some amazing pictures of the landscape. It is amazing to me that people have lived here and survived here for thousands of years. I wouldn’t last two days. These people have my deep respect.

After that side trip, we headed back to Addis. The three of us passengers all ended up sleeping. Once back in Addis, we got to spend some more time with Sela before she took a nap and we headed back to the hotel. We were just exhausted emotionally and physically. Needless to say we slept pretty well!

Today we are going to the US Embassy. Our driver should be calling soon. It will be another busy day, so look back here for the next entry!