Ethiopia Day 6 - Beza and Shopping

Beza  Shopping  Tuesday  November 22, 2011

Beky showed up at 9:00 am to pick us up for our second visit with Beza.

We had another great breakfast of french toast, coffee and juice.  I couldn't eat.  Still not feeling 100% from Montezuma's revenge.

We got to Beza about 10 am.  She was not excited to see us.  They had her hair looking so pretty in braids and she was in a cute pink dress.  The other children rushed us when we got to the room.  She went to a corner on the play mat - as far away from us that she could get.

I took her photo book to give to her since we are allowed once the adoption is final.  She was possessive of it for a few minutes.  Several of the other children tried to grab it away but she held tight.  Then she handed it back to me.

We met her special mother, Blein.  She tried to get Beza to go to me.  Beza would just cry and pull away.  I knew the caretakers told her we were momma and daddy.  She wanted no parts of us.  I wanted to cry - not for myself - but for her.  She was so scared.

One of the other caretakers told Beza's special mother to leave the room.  She then picked up Beza and headed for the door motioning me to follow her outside.  She handed Beza to me and went back inside.

There we were, holding onto each other, she was crying and I could feel the tears coming.  What a crazy mix of emotions.  Here I was finally holding onto this little love and she is so scared.  I tried so hard to comfort her.  She held onto me but would not look at me.  I just kept saying over and over "mommy loves Beza" and asked Jesus to please help this baby's heart to receive me as her mommy.  She cried gently for about 3 minutes.  I walked the small yard they have in front of the foster care house.  Someone ran a banana out to me to give to her.  She held the banana I peeled half way for her but would not eat it.  Frank and Koen came out in the yard to join me.

When Koen walked up to the windows where all the kids could see him, Beza finally started to smile.  She saw her friend Mamush and kept saying his name over and over smiling.  From inside one of the caretakers told Beza to eat her banana and then she did.  I put her down on the grass and Koen did some jumping jacks and got her to laugh at him.

We enjoyed about 30 minutes outside with her.  She was very curious when she heard the birds chirping or a car pull up outside the gate.

When I picked her back up to take her inside she started to cry again.  Probably afraid I was taking her away.  When we walked into the room Beky was dancing with the children while Blein was playing drum sounds on the dresser top.  Beza wasn't so sure what to make of this so she was content to stay in my arms.

Our time was up and once I put her down she made a bee-line for the farthest corner away from me.  Her special mother was asking her to give me a kiss and she would turn her head and wimper.  But she did hug and kiss Koen - so very cute.

We walked out and I was feeling kind of bad.  I realize the transition for her when we come back for embassy is going to be so hard.

We almost got to the gate when Blein came out holding Beza.  She was saying "ciao" and waving goodbye to which Beza also did.  Beza even happily kissed me on the cheek.  She kissed Daddy too.  She was so happy to see us go.

We then drove to the Post Office markets.  Little stores/roadside market stands with hand made goods from coffee pots and crosses to baskets, bags, rugs and shirts.  We bought a National Ethiopian soccer jersey, an injera basket, a play coffee set for Beza, a noisemaker for Koen, a coffee server for us, a hat for Frank, and a few handmade baskets. 

It was not fun bargaining.  And we were told to bargain because they charge 10 times more for foreigners.  We looked like the only foreigners at the market today.

As soon as we got out of the car the beggars started following us.  A little boy kept calling me "momma" and then saying "hungry, please".  I was told not to give him anything.  Not sure about giving out food, but it is illegal to give money - you could get fined.

Another little boy followed us the whole time we shopped trying to sell us toothbrushes.  The toothbrush is actually a piece of root.  Not sure what kind of root.  Beky bought one and showed us how it's used.  You chew on it with your molars then scrape your teeth with the flat piece; spitting the pieces out as it breaks apart.  Beky bought his for 1 birr.

We bought a toothbrush but he charged us 5 birr :)  When we handed him the 5 he was so very happy.  He just looked at the 5 with the biggest smile.  I asked if I could get a picture with him (Beky translated) and he was more than happy to oblige.  As we got in the car and drove away he was still smiling and yelled thank you in Amharic and kept waving to us.  Made me happy.  Sorry to see that such a young boy of maybe 10 years was not in school but out peddling toothbrush root for a living.

We then drove to Tomoca Coffee Shop.  Best place for coffee in Addis.  Sells coffee from all regions in Ethiopia.  We were rushed by people trying to sell us maps and jewelry, and beggars.  An elderly man opened my car door expecting a tip.  We kept saying no thank you as we made our way into the coffee shop.

We bought 10 bags of coffee to take back home and we had our first Ethiopian macchiatos.  It was really the best macchiato I ever had.  We drank them at a standing bar.  I could see the peddlers and beggars waiting for us to come back out.

It was almost like we were famous and they were the paparazzi - it was a little intimidating how close and pushy they were.  The same man that opened my car door closed it and I slipped him one birr while feeling so bad as the woman with a baby strapped to her back was waiting for money too.  We drove off.

We got back to BJoes around 3 pm and caught up with the other families.  Two of them cleared Embassy today and are now excitedly awaiting their travels home on Friday.

Oh - we stopped and ate lunch at Island Breeze.  It was pretty good.  I ordered the veggie quesadillas, Frank had a grilled chicken sandwich, Beky had a double decker burger and we shared guacamole and chips.  Koen ate a chicken finger :)

We had all of my vege quesadillas for dinner.  Still afraid to eat much.

Marta, one of the wonderful BJoe ladies, gave Mollie and me a cooking lesson.  I was prepared and bought tomato, onion and oil the other day at the market.  And Mollie had the bag of Shiro.  We were going to make Shiro Wet.

So we watched Marta make Shiro Wet :)  and we took notes and pictures of every step.  We had a lot of fun and Marta is a very sweet girl.

Becca and Kirk came back from dinner and joined us in the kitchen to chat.  They bought honey wine today to share at Thanksgiving.  We all tried a glass while the shiro wet simmered.  Everyone that came into the guesthouse kept commenting on how wonderful it smelled :)

The honey wine tasted like a thick honey wine cooler, sort of.  It's hard to describe but I liked it, sort of.  Becca and Kirk had to by 2l water bottles and dump the water so they had something to put the wine in to bring home.

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Silk Factory Sabahar and Leprosy Hospital in the morning.  At 3 pm we all have a Gladney tour of Trinity Church with Belay.

It's 11:40 pm and I'm not so tired - need to get to sleep.



Side Notes

St. Michaels Day - saw many wearing Ethiopian traditional dress for church.  Women bought grass for coffee ceremony.

a taxi

one of the only traffic signals I saw - wasn't working :)

the Sheraton - looked like a guarded palace