Thursday, July 30, 2009

First Trip to the Aquarium

Last week we all ventured out to the aquarium for Haley's first trip and Hope's 59th trip. Hope has always loved the aquarium, but she had much more fun exploring with her grandparents than just plain old mom. She enjoyed reprising her role as "Julie" (cruise director from The Love Boat) as she guided Roberta all around. Her are some photos of the morning shot by Papa Ken.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Al Fin

We were scheduled to fly out on Friday of our week-long stay in Addis, but not until 7pm, so we had time to visit a coffee factory that morning. Ethiopians are quite proud of their coffee heritage, and apparently Starbucks gets much of its coffee from the eastern coffee-producing region of ET, Harar. We came away with several pounds of coffee and a nice aroma clinging to our clothes: a mixture of roasted beans and Haley's spit up.Add Image

This ends my slew of photos that I'll post from our trip. I did not have my camera out nearly as much as I had hoped because of Haley and I being so sick on the trip, but we still got enough photos to bring back all the memories of an exhausting and life-changing week.

Oops - we got separated from the tour group. So what do we do? Take pictures, naturally.
Waiting for mom and dad to buy their coffee.
Parenting is a kick in the pants!


Give her 18 more years and she'll be a good little coffee snob!
These women earned $1 per day in wages.

Sorting through the beans for quality control.
A few random shots from our first meeting day. Looking just a bit tired . . . my allergic reaction to antibiotics I was taking was starting to get worse here.

T was our guide for the first half of the trip. He was always patient and kind - incredibly helpful (even when I embarassed him by asking him to translate some poopy questions I had for the nanny!)
A meal at a restaurant specializing in traditional Ethiopian cuisine: injeera. I could do without the sour, spngy bread, but everything in the middle was soooo good. Spicy!



Robel was our guide for the rest of the trip: an incredibly intelligent man! He was an excellent guide with a heart for Ethiopia's orphans.
Shopping in Addis.
This boy is an orphan living on the streets - one of 23 taken in by Robel. Robel has taught the boys how to earn a meager living by shoe-shining or selling gum instead of begging. He also pays for all of those boys to go to school.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

More from ET


Yeesh - life got busy! But I'll try to post highlights of the rest of our trip over the next few days.
Our first family picture - outside our hotel in Addis Ababa.

Bath time was an event in our hotel! Little peanut fit nicely into the kitchen sink. She loved the water and still does.