Life in Addis Ababa

As I write tonight, I am surrounded by darkness. With that darkness also comes welcomed quiet. Today I want to tell you more about how we are living here. Trust me, there will be plenty to post about Moosh as soon as we pass court.

We are staying with a family here in Addis Ababa. Mom and Dad are Hareg and Yonatan. He is a pastor and they run a school right around the corner from the transition home we go to everyday - Destiny Academy. They have two girls nambed Ruth and Abigail who are 6 and 8. All four of them are great English speakers. This house has six bedrooms. Right now, there are eleven occupants. Yuhani is here in Addis receiving chemo treatments and his brother Haile is with him. They are so sweet and love playing cards when we get a chance (they know "Rummy"!). Daniel used to teach English and is staying here "to find a wife" as some of the others say. Yonatan's mother or "grandma" to the girls and us, works so hard, but is not well. Fasika helps around the house and even does our laundry. She is a gem.

There are pros and cons to every option of place we could stay. Here is why this is a great fit. We love coming home to a family. We have arranged to have breakfast and dinner here each day. The food has been amazing and more than we ever dreamed. We are eating so well. We love that it is in our budget, but even the money we will pay for food and electricity will go to a family and not just the Hilton or something. We love learning the culture. They have taught us so much about Ethiopia that we never could have learned on our own. We love the location as it is 20 minutes at the most to get to Moosh. We love the safety of it. Someone is always home. We love that we have our own room. It is more than enough space for us to come and just sleep.

Some things are hard. The shower, while it is hot, the walls are covered with flies. The power goes out about once every three days. Next door, is a club that plays music loud until at least midnight if not later. The good news is that on nights like tonight, there is silence - except for a braying donkey.
Each day we take public transit to get to Moosh. Imagine a van that seats 11 passengers - in America. Not here. We have been in ones that have 20 people in them, no kids. Kids sit on laps. When they pass, a man leans out the window and yells the name of where he is going. In the morning, we listen for "Gira" and on the way home we listen for "Lafto". It costs us about $.50 for both of us roundtrip each day. Seriously. The minibus is white and blue and we are loving it, most of the time. No personal space, but if you want that, you can hire a car taxi for 10 times the price.

Each day we go to the transition house to see Moosh in the morning around 8 or 9. We leave for lunch and get online if we can. Then we go back around 1 or 2 and stay until 5:30. We love the staff at the home and feel we can trust them so much. At lunch, we usually each Italian food. Funny, huh? Lasagna and spaghetti are favorites.

The culture had been amazing and we are so glad we are here. Some things are hard, but overall, it is so worth every minute.

Court is this Thursday. If we pass, we will post photos of our family of three!

Peace,
Bet