Our Brown-Eyed Girl: Ethiopia Day 8

Beza - Thanksgiving

Thursday November 24, 2011

Very emotional visit. I knew it would be. Having such conflicting feelings today. I knew she would not want anything to do with me. Every visit was worse than the last. As soon as she saw me she started to cry.

One of the caretakers took Koen and Beza outside and Beza was very happy with that. When I showed up the fear and tears were evident on her face.

happy outside with Koen - taking him by the hand

the look on her face when I showed up

my sweet babies

I gave her her first lollipop. Took lots of pictures of that. At one point, 45 minutes into the visit, she seemed to warm up a little and was sort of holding my hand. And the caretaker actually slid away. But then Beky showed up and approached her and it was all over.

the caretakers are beautiful inside and out - love the children

not sure about this lollipop thing

my cute bug

Saying goodbye was absolutely awful. How many weeks or months until we see our little girl again? I've had a very hard day; crying every time someone asks how our visit was. I am a ball of emotions.

saying goodbye was not easy

(p.s. During out visits we did play with all of the children and gave them loving. I just can't share those photos - wish I could because the children are just adorable. There was one little girl probably under 2 years that wanted me to hold her the entire time. She was a little love. Kept thinking to myself "why doesn't Beza want this?" We were not supposed to bond with Beza this trip. I don't think it's possible to bond in an hour anyway.)

We were going to go to Entoto Mt but on the way Koen started crying about bad belly pain. We had to pull over at a coffee shop and find a bathroom. The toilet had no seat and it was filthy. I tried to hold him hovering over the potty - gross - trying to get the germ-x and toilet paper out of my back pack that is on my back while holding the hovering Koen the whole time listening to him insisting on sitting lower into the toilet. Dropped the toilet paper into a dirty puddle on the floor. It was a mess!

Frank and Beky were sipping macchiatos when I came upstairs from the bathroom disaster. I may or may not have shot daggers at them with my eyes :) We cancelled our trip to Entoto for today.

We then drove to Gladney Kechene Girls Shop and picked up a few things. Had a second episode of diarrhea there. They had a toilet seat :)

Beky stopped the sugar cane guy pushing cane in a wheelbarrow on the side of the road and we bought 3 pieces for 10 Birr. He sliced it open and then we chewed pieces and sucked out the sugar and spit out the bark. It was sweet - a good treat.

I cried on and off all afternoon :( My poor housemates - I think they were afraid to even look at me because if they did I would just start to cry.

Genet and the BJoe ladies made a wonderful Thanksgiving feast for all of us - chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, salad, rice and gravy.

the chickens soaked in vinegar

the potato smasher

the wonderful ladies of BJoes

It was a wonderful gathering and felt like family.

Genet brought her 2 children and Koen was in heaven having playmates. Zak asked if he could stay the night :) They played outside, on the iPad and DS, sliding in the halls - it was great.

Becca and Kirk bought 2 awesome cakes for dessert and honeywine. We brought flowers for the table.

I needed a happy, loving, thankful end to this day. It really was wonderful.

Mollie baked the brownies and we gave them names: chocolate crackers and chocolate brittle. We weren't sure what happened to the brownies. It wasn't until after dinner that someone figured out the brownies baked at 250 Celsius (which is 482 Fahrenheit). When Mollie told Genet the brownies needed to bake at 350 Genet replied that her oven only went to 250. It was pretty funny.