Chamah! Chamah! Chamah! Elsa and Ashagre’s Friends Are in Need of Shoes!

The next few weeks should be pretty fun. On top of the building holiday excitement, our friends and colleagues have been planning “kid showers” for us in celebration and anticipation of Ashagre and Elsa’s upcoming homecoming. We are really looking forward to sharing our excitement about our growing family with so many wonderful people (and passing the time in good spirits as we wait for our next trip to Ethiopia).

As first time parents we can definitely use a little help getting geared up for the kids’ arrival; however, after visiting each of the kid’s orphanages the needs of the kids that still wait for families is always near the surface of our consciousness. For that reason, we have decided to organize a supply drive, specifically shoes, for the kids living at Layla House – the orphanage that Ashagre currently lives at and the one that Elsa will be transferred to soon.

I figured I would spread the word about our shoe drive beyond the boundaries of our kid showers in case any of you that have started reading this blog might be interested in helping out.

I contacted AAI’s (our agency) Director of Development, Susan, and she informed me that currently the greatest need at Layla is for chamahs, or shoes, for the older kids – sizes child’s 12 up to an 8 in womens or 9 in mens. The shoes can be new or gently used and should be sturdy – sneakers and crocs are very popular and practical.

I particularly like the idea of collecting shoes because they remind me of Ashagre. He had these bright green croc-like sandals while we were in Ethiopia visiting him. They seemed to be a size or two too big and were constantly falling off of him. I learned the word chamah from Ashagre. I can’t even tell you how many times I was carrying him somewhere (he loved to be carried, especially by his momma) and he would start screaming chamah! chamah! chamah! I pretty quickly figured out that he was upset because one of his shoes had fallen off and we were leaving it behind. It didn’t help that he liked to let his legs hang straight down when he was being carried so I could knock his chamahs off with my legs as I walked. Finally, on the last day of the trip I told him we were going to try something different and wrapped his legs around my waist so I could carry him more on my hip without loosing his chamahs. It was an arrangement that worked out better for everyone involved.

If you would like to contribute a pair of shoes to our drive, please make sure they are in our possession by the beginning of January, let’s say January 5th, so we can pack them up and take them with us to Ethiopia when we go to pick up our kids. Don’t worry Emirates has pretty generous luggage allowances and Brent and I pack very light – we should have plenty of room for chamahs. If you need our address to send some shoes, feel free to email me at dakotacorey at hotmail dot com (in the traditional email address format, but spelled out on this blog to avoid spam).

If shoes aren’t your thing but you would still like to help out, consider donating to AAI’s Holiday Project. Each year our agency fundraises to provide a holiday celebration for the children in their care, as well as to support their humanitarian projects, including educational sponsorships, feeding projects, and work with special needs and HIV + children. If you contribute $30 or more AAI will send a special acknowledgement card to a recipient of your choice. You could give double – to the kids in Layla’s care and to someone close to your heart that already has everything they need this holiday season. AND...Elsa and Ashagre will both benefit from contributions to the holiday fund since they will be spending the holidays at Layla House.  You can donate to the Holiday Fund and learn more about it by following this link to AAI’s blog. 

Thanks in advance to all of you that choose to help us support the kids at Layla House.  I can promise you they will be thankful for your efforts.

Further South Through Sidama, November 16

So the first two days of our trip south were really just sight-seeing in the purest tourist sense.  It reminded me quite a bit of our seven month trip around Southeast Asia five years ago, although we seemed to make more genuine connections with Ethiopians over those two days than we did most of our trip through Southeast Asia - again an example of Ethiopian openess and hospitality.

While we definitely managed to see some sights on our third day south as well, this day was probably my favorite day of our entire trip other than those spent with our kids because we were traveling through the region of Ethiopia that Ashagre was born in.  It was beautiful!  Lush green hillsides contrasted with red dirt planted with enset, or false banana, which is used to make a local bread, and, in the shade of the enset, coffee.  We did a lot of driving this third day south, and while I sat quietly in the backseat, my mind was jumping with delight - this gorgeous stretch of countryside was the birthplace of our son.  Little did we know how close we would get to his first home.

The road south - in much better condition than the Lonely Planet
would lead you to believe.

Traditional home.  Note the large leaves of the enset trees in the background.

Lots of colorful towns and homes in Sidama.

Most Ethiopian homes in the country-side feature 2 buildings, a traditional round hut and a newer rectangular building.  Both are framed with poles and then packed with cobb (earth and straw or grasses). The rectangular housing is now favored over the round housing because of ease of maintenance, especially the roof.  Ethiopia may look quite different in the future as the round houses slowly become replaced by the rectangles.

Local well with families, mostly women and children, waiting
to fill up their jerry cans with water.

Poles for sale used to frame buildings before the mud is added.

Grave stones for sale.

Baskets for sale.

Our first destination of the day was the town of Dila.  We headed to Dila because it housed the Gedeo Tourism Office where we intended to hire a mandatory local guide to take us to two of the region's stelea sites, Tututi and Tutu Fella.  There are stelea sites throughout Ethiopia, and these two were supposed to be some of the best in the southern half of the country.  Stelea are large carved stone statues used to mark graves.  They originate from pre-Christian times and are thought to have also been used ceremoniously to ask the gods to meet a community's needs - fertility, good crops, etc.  The stelea were transported many miles by human power alone to get them to their selected sites.  

Apparently the tourism office was closed when we arrived because it was a Muslim holiday, but Dila wasn't a large town, and within minutes, the Program Director, Yosef arrived, opened the office, collected our money, and hopped in our car to show us the sites.  Our first stop was Tututi, a gorgeous hillside covered with many phallic stelea.

Our guide, Yosef.

Carving found on the stelea above.

This site is being further developed to promote tourism, and the hut on the left
was recently finished and will eventually house information on the local people.
It may also be used to sleep tourists if they so choose.

Those of you that know Brent can probably imagine the
comments he was making as he was taking this picture.

Coffee growing wild on the site.  Ready for harvest.

The drive to Tututi passed through several traditional villages and Brent was able to get a couple of good pictures on the way out.

Our next stop was the Tutu Fella stelea site.  This site features more anthropomorpic stelea.  It is also pretty far down a pretty rough road, so it was slow going to get there.  I could tell Ayele was nervous.  He had never been to the stelea fields before, and I think he would have preferred not to take his car down this road.  It didn't help that it was a holiday and all the local children weren't in school so we had a pack of fans following us on foot the entire time.  Our entire trip there featured the soundtrack, "You, you, you, farangi!"  Kids would hear their friends yelling and they would all come running and calling.  Some of the kids would run along side our car for miles, usually barefoot, uphill, in the sun, and barely break a sweat.  While most of them were likely 6 - 10 years old, on the way out there was a little girl running for quite a while that couldn't have been more than 3.  We could see how Ethiopia has produced many world-class runners.  Some kids took a different approach, much to Ayele's dismay.

We finally made it to Tutu Fella without getting a flat tire, running over any children, or loosing any major pieces of Ayele's car (although I am pretty sure that we did scrape up the undercarriage a bit, especially when there were "hitchhikers" on the back of the car).  The stelea were much more intricately carved than those at Tututi, but we had the most fun with the local village children.  The girls were very excited to braid my hair and found it pretty funny that my hair wouldn't hold a braid like theirs.  We didn't get very good pictures of their hair, but some of the girls had gorgeous, intricate braids that they were very proud of.

After visiting Tutu Fella, we returned to Dila and dropped Yosef off.  Next we headed to Yirga Alem to get some lunch at the ecolodge that I mentioned was full in an earlier post.  We didn't get any pictures of the lodge, but it was a very peaceful spot and the lunch was probably one of the best we had over our entire trip.  Besides perfectly prepared traditional Ethiopian dishes, we were given a huge fresh green salad with tomatoes and carrots and marinated avocados on the side.  Fresh veggies are a little hard to come by in your day-to-day restaurant dining in Ethiopia so we were ecstatic to eat such fresh produce.  On the way to Yirga Alem, Brent snapped a couple of more pictures, including one of the local car wash.

By the time we left the lodge it was early evening and we were all pretty tired, so we started to head back to Awasa for the night.  On the drive down I had asked Ayele if he knew where Dale was.  From what I could tell from Ashagre's paperwork, Dale is the closest town to where he is from.  Just as dusk was setting in, Ayele pulled the car over on the side of the road and said, this is Dale.  It was hard to see much, as the light was becoming limited, but we were able to snap a few pictures, including a couple of the local high school.  We are hoping that we will learn more about both our kids' past when we return to Ethiopia, but it was pretty important to me that we were able to be able to get a glimpse of Dale.

Dale High School.

Entrance to the high school.

When Brent and I traveled in Southeast Asia we had the time of our lives.  In fact, some of the experiences we had on that trip laid the foundation for our eventual adoption from Ethiopia.  However, once we got home and reflected the trip a bit, we decided that if we ever had the opportunity to take a trip like that again, we would do it a bit differently.  We wanted to give back more than we were able to in Southeast Asia.  On that trip we ended up feeling kind of like voyeurs, paying a decent chunk of money to just see how others lived in different parts of the world - it felt pretty one-sided at times.  Our trip to Ethiopia, obviously, was a different sort of trip.  I went to Ethiopia to meet and learn more about my kids.  On this day, I felt like I was given a great gift of insight into Ashagre's life.  It was a very special day.  Other parts of the trip, for me, bordered on Southeast Asia again - there were times I definitely asked myself why I was doing what I was doing as I really didn't feel like I was gaining much insight related specifically to our kids.  It was a short trip though, and I think just the fact that we took a few weeks to venture out beyond Addis provided a perspective on Ethiopia that we wouldn't otherwise be able to get.  

South to Awasa, November 14 & 15

After spending nearly a week with Elsa and Ashagre, we set out to learn more about where they came from. It is very important for us to learn as much as we can about the kids, since we take our responsibility to help them understand their roots and connect with Ethiopian culture very seriously. Ashagre is from the Sidama region of Ethiopia, which is 4 to 5 hours south of Addis Ababa, so we hired a driver, Ayele, who had been recommended to us by another family with kids from the same area and headed south. We really didn’t have much of an agenda when we started out, and I think it threw Ayele off a bit at first. I think he is used to farangi with tight schedules and detailed itineraries. We made it clear that we were very flexible and that we just wanted to see Sidama. We also let him know that we loved Ethiopian food – I think it was after we proved this at a rest stop where all three of us feasted on beef and goat tibbs with LOTS of berbere and macchiatos to cap off the meal that Ayele believed us and relaxed a bit.

Ayele.

It took quite a while just to get out of the sprawl of Addis, especially since we decided to leave the King’s Hotel at 9 a.m. Soon enough though, the number of buildings thinned, the traffic lightened and the smell of diesel smoke became less pervasive.

Orthodox Church on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

What seemed like not too long after we had left Addis, Ayele told us that we had entered Oromia, another region of Ethiopia, home to the Oromo people. (Oromia is a large region north of Sidama – we would spend more time there later horse trekking outside of Bale National Park.) The landscape was arid with bleached-yellow teff fields (the grain grown to produce injera, the national bread of Ethiopia) as far as the eye could see. Mounds of harvested teff and Acacia trees dotted the landscape. Under the small amount of shade the trees provided almost always rested a herd of cattle, donkeys, goats, sheep, or people – and sometimes camels or ostriches.

Our first stop was at Lake Ziway, one of Ethiopia’s Rift Valley lakes, where we got out for a few minutes to take the pictures below. This was our first encounter with children from Ethiopia’s southern countryside. I don’t remember exactly, but I can almost guarantee they greeted us with, “You, you, you! Farangi!,” a greeting that we would become very familiar with as the trip went on. As we departed the lake, the kids asked us if we had a pen. We obliged and gave them our only scripto. Later we become accustomed to the incessant demands for a pen common among southern children. It isn’t so much that they need the pens, it’s that they can get them from farangi that drives the constant asking. I wonder if the first person to hand out pens to the kids knows what a craze they have started.

After Lake Ziway and lunch and some more time in the car, Ayele suggested that we check out Lake Langano, another Rift Valley lake. When we agreed he pulled off the highway onto a rutted, dusty road heading east. A few miles later we came to an impressive gate, especially in comparison to the small earthen homes we had passed on the way there – the entrance to the Sabana Lodge Resort. Since we had eaten earlier, we headed straight to the lake to stretch and relax by its coffee-and milk-colored waters. After sitting a while and asking Ayele several times if there were hippos in the lake, Brent decided to take a swim. Just like the young Ethiopians visiting the resort, he stripped down to his underwear and plunged in the slippery waters. He claimed it was quite refreshing.

After spending an hour or so at Lake Langano, we got back in the car and headed toward Awasa, the capital of Sidama. The further south we drove, the greener the landscape became. As we approached Awasa it started to rain, even though Ayele swore it wouldn’t (it was the dry season). The dark rain clouds made for great lighting, and Brent was able to get quite a few pictures from the window of our moving car.

We had originally wanted to stay at an Eco-Lodge south of Awasa in a smaller town, Yirga Alem, but it was full, so we decided to use Awasa as our home base for exploring Sidama. Prior to leaving Addis, another great driver, Ermias, that had taken us to visit Elsa a few times called his brother, Henok, who lived in Awasa to arrange accommodations for us. Ermias must have told Henok to take good care of us, because not only did he put a lot of thought into the hotel he booked for us, but he also met us for a great traditional Ethiopian dinner. Henok was a lecturer at Awasa University in bio-medical chemistry and, like his brother, offered much thoughtful insight into the Ethiopian psyche. Like all Ethiopians we spent any time with, his openness, hospitality, and warmth were unsurpassable.

The next day, by choice, we got a later start than we had been since we landed in Ethiopia. Ayele suggested we explore Awasa for the day. Awasa is wonderful. If I were to live in Ethiopia, I would definitely choose Awasa over Addis. It is a fairly large city with a large university, so there is plenty going on, but the air is fresh and the central area around the piazza is compact and easily walkable. Awasa sits on Lake Awasa, another Rift Valley lake, which is home to hippos. Before we hired a boat to check out the hippos, Ayele took us to the local fish market. After soaking in the sights and taking some pictures we sat down to sample the local catch, deep fried and drenched in lime juice. It was great!

Marabou Storks.

Fish fry.

Adding the lime juice.

After the fish market we hired a boat and driver to take us out on the lake to view the resident hippos. I think it was good we had Ayele with us, because it sounds like we paid 100 to 150 birr ($6-9) less that the other tourists we talked to that hired the same services. Seeing hippos in the wild was pretty impressive, especially when one opened its mouth really wide so we could see all its teeth. Just being out on the lake was really refreshing and calming after leaving the busy streets of Addis the day before.

After the boat ride we strolled around the park near where we hired the boat and took pictures of the not-so-bashful wildlife.

Colobus monkeys. 

Horn Bill.

After grabbing some lunch, we used the rest of the day to decompress from the previous week. Meeting the kids and visiting the orphanages was by far the best part of our entire trip, but it was also the most emotionally draining. We spent the later part of the afternoon and evening, watching bad American movies on TV, using the internet, and strolling around Awasa. We got caught in another rainstorm so we waited it out at hotel popular with Western and Ethiopian tourists alike that served layered fruit smoothies with mango, papaya, strawberry? and avocado juices. They were amazing! We had dinner at the same restaurant Henok had taken us to the night before, but we weren’t very good at deciphering the menu and ended up with fasting fir fir, which is a huge mound of torn injera soaked in berbere. I think we also ended up with doro wat, which is a chicken curry-like dish, also heavy on the berbere. At least we now knew what fir fir was and knew we probably didn’t want to ingest that much injera in one sitting (even though we really like injera).

Bajaj lining up in the rain to purchase fuel.  Apparently fuel shortages are common outside
of Addis.  Ayele got up at 5 in the morning to make sure we had gas for the rest of our trip.