Melkam Gena (Merry Christmas)

Today is Christmas in Ethiopia! Because Ethiopia has its own ancient calendar, Gena (or Ganna) falls on January 7th instead of December 25th. You can go here for a list of other major Ethiopia holidays and when they occur.

I also highly recommend this video for a glimpse at the beauty! We were in Ethiopia during another religious holiday and it was so beautiful to see everyone walking around draped in white on their way to church.

Tonight we will celebrate by eating wat and thinking warm thoughts of family and friends in Ethiopia.

From our family to yours, Melkam Gena!

Ethiopia Day 8 - Embassy Appointment, a Sick Child and Some Pretty Impressive Shoulder Dancing

On day eight we had our long awaited embassy appointment, the last bit of red tape before being able to bring our boys home.

We set the alarm early in order to be there by 8 AM. Up until this day our morning rituals had been loooong and slooooow. This day was a glimpse at reality and how challenging it is to get two little boys ready under a deadline, even when you give yourselves two hours lead time!

Taye was pretty fussy that morning and at first I thought it was an emotional hangover from the day before. Then he indicated that his tummy hurt and shortly thereafter we all realized that it was much more than a case of the blues.

By the time we got to our embassy appointment the poor little guy had already thrown up three times (yes, most of it landed on me!). We were bumped to the front of the line and our embassy appointment went by in a blurr. For those anticipating this moment here are a few comments:

1. I was sooo glad I had a baby carrier with me.

2. Bring food, water, snacks and toys. Even being bumped to the front of the line we had a bit of a wait.

3. The interview itself was short and sweet. When they call your name you go upstairs, stand at a counter and speak to a person behind a window (think DMV), raise your right hand and swear you are telling the truth (which felt so "American" that I got a lump in my throat), then tell them what you know of your child(ren)'s story. They want to know things like where they are from, the circumstances that led to the adoption, who you have met. You sign a few documents and voile! Your child(ren) are Americans!

OK, in all seriousness it was not "voile". It took us two years to bring our boys home and we feel confident that our adoption is ligitimate thanks to the due-dilligence of many parties involved.

The whole embassy appointment thing is pretty unceremonious but in spite of being worried about Taye, and covered in vomit, the significance of it all was not lost on me.

We spent the rest of the day nursing our sick child. The vomiting continued so we brought him back to the care center to visit the Gladney doctor. I tried to minimize the emotional trauma of going back there by having the doctor meet us in a house that wasn't one the boys were familier with. The doctor diagnosed him with a double ear infection (??) and prescribed a liquid antibiotic.

When we got back to the guest house he fell asleep and slept soundly for the first time all day. With diagnosis, antibiotics and sleeping child in hand we started to breath a little easier and decided to attend the cultural dinner that evening. The restaurant was only 10 minutes from the guest house and Solomon, the amazing Solomon, offered to call and check in on him, so off we went.

For the next couple hours we relaxed a little, enjoyed the company of the other families in our group, and dined on delicious traditional Ethiopian food.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We were also entertained with traditional Ethiopian shoulder dancing. I loved watching these dancers. The video doesn't do justice to their talent!

Toward the end of the performance, one of the dancers came to our table and challenged us to this amazing, and difficult shoulder dancing. We had all heard how good Travis was and he did not disappoint...

It wasn't a surprise to see that Belay was good at it too!

Lisa and Travis did a great job! So did Eryn but I was still recovering from my own performance so I didn't get a picture of her, but no one could hold a candle to Mark! Watch this!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

He received a loud round of applause for that performance! Who knew??

We were relieved to learn that both boys had slept the entire time we were gone. Exhausted ourselves, we fell straight into bed. We now refer to that enjoyable evening as "the eye of the storm", but more on that tomorrow...

Mens Cross Country Skiing: Robel Teklemariam

Christmas in Ethiopia

As we prepare for Christmas I often think of what this time of year will be like once our children are home. We want to incorporate some of the Ethiopian customs into our family traditions and this time of year seems like a perfect occasion to do this.

Christmas in Ethiopia is called Ganna and because Ethiopia has its own ancient calendar, which has much in common with the Coptic Egyptian Calendar, Ganna falls on January 7th instead of December 25th. One of the things we plan to do on January 7th is cook some of the traditional Ethiopian foods including wat - essentially a spicy stew - and injera, which is a sourdough pancake of sorts that is used to scoop up the wat.

I heard that injera is quite difficult to get right and I have not tried my hand at it yet, but I did buy some teff flour at our local Whole Foods today - baby steps, baby steps! We also made a batch of berbere last night. For those who don't know, this is the traditional spice used to flavor most Ethiopian cooking. It is quite hot and spicy! At the moment we have our first dora wat on the stove and it smells great!

Please watch this amazing slide show by the BBC of Ganna traditions in Ethiopia.

Tidbit Thursday

Ok, admittedly not as catchy as "Wordless Wednesday", but I’m tired of writing about this wait (I bet some of you are tired of reading about it too!) so today I will be talking about something far more interesting – a group of inspiring people from the country that is giving us our children.

I am hungry to know more about Ethiopia, and sometimes I wish that there was less talk about the hardships and more talk about the good things that are going on. I want to be able to paint a realistic but positive picture of this beautiful country for our children some day. Recently I came across this tidbit on another blog, and although it does tie back to the many hardships, it also speaks of hope and empowerment and transformation.

Behold the Adugna Community Dance Company!

Pretty cool, huh? This dance company is from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and began with an initial dance theatre performance involving over 100 street children (No one knows how many thousands of street children roam Ethiopia’s capital city. Their numbers are so vast and their situations so varied that it is impossible to know how to begin to find them all). The intention of the performance was to give these children voice and presence, and to highlight both the plight of street children and their potential as agents of their own change.

Eighteen children from the initial performance were selected to undertake intensive five-year training in contemporary and traditional dance. These children have since emerged as performers, teachers and social outreach facilitators with accreditation from Middlesex University in England.

After graduating, the dancers decided to continue working together and formed the Adugna Community Dance Company. Their aim was to help transform other people's lives as their own have been transformed. Adugna now has a strong reputation in Ethiopia, and there is growing demand for their repertoire of workshops, training programs and performances.

This is a 27 minute video, which is admittedly more time than most of us have for blog stalking, but it's worth watching even if you can only catch the first few minutes.


Adugna from simon fildes on Vimeo.

Haregewoin Teferra

I just learned some very sad news. A woman named Haregewoin Teferra has died of natural causes at her home in Addis Ababa. Haregewoin was a woman whose courage, generosity and tireless dedication helped hundreds of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. I first learned of her through the book There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Green, which tells the story of her life and how she came to found the Atetegeb Worku Memorial Orphans Support Association. She has been foster mother to hundreds of children and today houses about 40 orphans, half of whom are HIV positive. Mrs. Haregewoin received no government help to care for these children.

Haregewoin’s life story is moving, heart wrenching, and deeply inspiring. I read “There Is No Me Without You” last summer when we were just starting our journey. I could not put it down, cried through most of it and wanted to read it again as soon as I was finished! I highly recommend it to anyone connected with Ethiopian adoption, anyone wondering “why Ethiopia” or just interested in learning more about the AIDS orphan epidemic in Africa.

God Bless you, Haregewoin. Your life was a life worth living and you will not be forgotten. May you rest in peace.

Christmas in Ethiopia

Today officially marks our completion of one month on the wait list! We hope that the remaining months fly by as quickly as this one did.

Wishing a happy New Year to everyone and hoping that you are surviving the transition back into a normal work week after that blissful two weeks of holidays. We had a wonderful time up north with family for a few days and then with friends back in CT on New Year’s Eve, and only wish it all could have lasted a little bit longer.

Because Ethiopia is still on the ancient Julian calendar, Christmas falls on January 7th, so that means our future children, if they are even born yet, celebrated Christmas just yesterday! Apparently Christmas is not the primary religious and secular festival that it has become in Western countries. It is also not an occasion for giving gifts and if children receive anything it is typically a small gift of clothing. Ethiopians call Christmas Gana and their tradition includes fasting the day before and then attending mass at 4 AM on Christmas morning. Churches are built in three concentric circles and the choir assembles in the outer circle, the congregation in the second circle with the priest serving communion in the center circle, which is considered the holiest space in the church. Upon entering the church each person is given a candle and the congregation walks around the church three times in a solemn procession, holding the flickering candles. The men and boys separate from the women and girls and the congregation stands for the entire mass, which can last three hours!

Other Gana traditions include the wearing of a traditional shamma, which is a thin, white cotton wrap with brightly colored stripes across the ends that is worn like a toga. Men and boys play a game that is also called ganna, which is somewhat like hockey, played with a curved stick and a round wooden ball. Foods enjoyed during the Christmas season include wat, which is a thick, spicy stew of meat, vegetables, and sometimes eggs. The wat is served from a beautifully decorated watertight basket onto a "plate" of injera, which is flat sourdough bread. Pieces of injera are used as edible spoons to scoop up the wat.

Happy Gana, Babies! We hope you are home to celebrate it with us next year!