Day 3 - Lake Ziway

I decided that while we were here in Ethiopia we ought to go do a little sight seeing. I didn't have much time to decide and we ended up traveling to Lake Ziway. It is the largest lake in Ethiopia’s Central Rift Valley and is home to thriving bird populations and hippos. We took a tour by Bird Island and saw lots of different birds and then headed to an island. We got out and walked up to a monastery that was said to possibly have kept the ark of the covenant at some point (it's debatable). We didn't get to go inside, it was closed since the priest had to go to the mainland?? I was bummed. They boys weren't all that interested anyway :) we headed back to the boat and off to find some hippos - we got lucky!
 Overall it was a nice day - LONG drive but good. On the trip we passed through some smaller towns and even smaller villages, it was nice to see the country side and the people who lives there. Some were tilling the ground with help and others by hand. We saw many donkeys hauling jerry cans and horse taxis - hey were working very hard!

  We saw many thatch roof/mud hut homes in the country side....

 Gig'em

 This was the monastery....unfortunately we didn't go inside.

 our boat

Hippos! They were pretty shy but we were happy they showed their faces.

LONG drive....they did great.

Day 1 and 2

Monday we picked up Berihu, such a long awaited day! It was pretty uneventful, we hung out at the orphanage for an hour or so then went back to the hotel. Berihu started to go to our “old” room it was cute…we showed him the new room. We ate lunch at American burger – Berihu ate a whole hamburger and fries and I found out he likes lettuce, tomato and onion. Braden and I split pizza…real traditional, I know J We played cards(skipBo), played soccer, threw football and decided to dine in at the hotel with our friends who are also here.  We finished the night showering and watching Toy Story in bed. Braden and I slept the whole night which was nice, no issues. Berihu woke up at 5:30! I saw him moving the shades to look outside (but it was still dark) and so I told him to try and go back to sleep. I woke up an hour later, sun was rising and he was still looking out the window so I gave him some of the kid magazines I brought. We had a slow morning which was nice. We went to the park for a little while and then had our embassy apt. All paperwork is finished on our end and we will go back Thursday to get his visa and immigration packet. This is a packet that we will give to immigration when we arrive in the US, it is sealed and not to be opened except by US Immigration officers. We did this with Reese too. These records will go to the government (some where J ) and then we will receive his certificate of citizenship, social security card etc in the mail later. After embassy we headed back to the park for a little bit, played dodge ball, soccer, basketball and bowling with water bottles (we got creative). Tomorrow we hope to go out of the city for a little site seeing…should be fun.

 reading magazines while we sleep :)

 went to the spice shop to get some berbere to bring home.

walking back to the hotel from the park

We're back!

We arrived in the UK on Saturday morning and my cousin Daniel picked us up for the day. We had a great time visiting with family and it was fun for the kids to play. We went to the park for a few hours and had a picnic and then met more family back at home. Funny enough my Dad and Christina were there, they arrived the day before us, so we saw them as well. Suzanne cooked us a nice spaghetti dinner and spared us from the dinner on the plane :) We slept most of the way to Addis, which was nice. It was nice to catch up with one of our friends here but the day was hard as we didn't have much to do and were trying our best not to sleep the whole day! Tomorrow we get Berihu!

Oh and it seems I have forgotten my camera cable...bummer. I might start using my little camera so I can transfer photos to the computer.