Life at Toukoul

Check out this beautiful footage of life at the Toukoul orphanage:
(Thanks for sharing these links, Tania!)

Part 1

Part 2

Ethiopia: Day 7/8, The Journey Home

Today I stayed back at the guest house with the babies during the afternoon, and Eric headed out to find some local music CDs to bring home with us, with some guidance from Solomon. I tell you, that guy is a jack of all trades. He has a great sense of humor too. Eric has nicknamed him MJ, due to his love of all things Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. His iPhone (of course he has one), even had a Michael Jackson song as the ringtone. Do You Remember the Time?

We had our last Ethiopian dinner at the guesthouse with all the other families, and though it was weird to be leaving this place, Eric and I were both ready to be home. One last crazy taxi ride, and there we were at the Addis Ababa airport.

Things are different here. For instance, while waiting in the terminal, several people just lit up cigarettes right next to us. OK, so there’s smoking inside the airport. Only in designated areas, which are in no way sectioned off from the other areas, but apparently, right where we found the only 2 seats together.

So, we moved across the room, and eventually found some new seats. As we waited for the airline to announce which rows would be boarding first, Melese started to get a little restless. He went from uneasy to hysterical in a matter of minutes. Right about then, they announced that the plane was boarding. Not like, “such and such rows are boarding now”, but more like, “Everybody board at once!”. Total chaos.

We frantically tried to gather our things, but could not pull ourselves together in any graceful manner. Meanwhile, Melese was getting more hysterical by the second. What is wrong with this boy? We thought he might be hot in his baby carrier, so Eric started to pull him out… and that’s when I saw it.

Possibly the worst diaper explosion ever.

That boy had poo from his crack to the top of his back. Sick. And what impeccable timing! At this point, Eric and I became frantic. Eric rushed to change Melese’s diaper as he screamed and flailed (his clothes were so bad, we threw them away), while I tried to organize our stuff for boarding and keep Mamenesh calm. Meanwhile, people are crowding right around us to board the plane. We felt like we were on display, with a sign that said: “HEY! Look at these ridiculous new parents. They have no idea what they’re doing!!”

Our stuff was strung out everywhere. Mamenesh was growing more restless by the second, and I could not fit everything back into the diaper bag, that had once all fit so nicely. The situation was making me so anxious, I had to laugh to keep from crying. Which then made Eric upset. He couldn’t understand how I could be laughing at something so frustrating. And of course, I could not explain myself at this point. It was like I was outside my body watching us.

Of course, Mamenesh then had a repeat performance of the messy diaper… TWIN POWER! Luckily it wasn’t the exploding type. So, two dirty diapers later, we finally got everything in enough of a pile to carry onto the plane. Frankly, after such a stressful start, I wasn’t sure if we could handle this flight home. I looked around the terminal, and everyone had boarded but us. The gate attendants were making the last calls for boarding.

We finally step onto the plane, and the flight attendant must have seen the distress in our faces, as Melese continued to arch his back and scream at tones only dogs can hear. She could not have been nicer or more accommodating to us. We had seats apart from each other, but she somehow managed to rearrange other passengers on this sold out flight, and sit us together in front of a bassinet. OH, praise the Lord!! This was nothing short of a miracle, on this flight that had at least 30 other babies. I said a little prayer right there.

Ten minutes later, and we were taxiing down the runway. Bottles in baby mouths, and Eric and I looking at each other, wondering what we were in for over the next 30 hours of travel. (Not to mention, the rest of our lives...) Would we ever make it back to the States? Or would we wind up in a mental institution somewhere in Amsterdam?

Fortunately, after that rough start things could not have gone smoother. The babies slept the whole flight from Addis to Amsterdam. The 7 hour layover in Amsterdam was a breeze, thanks to the beautiful baby lounge in the airport. And then from Amsterdam to Connecticut, we got 2 BASSINETS, and the babies slept nearly the whole way. Seriously, miracles do happen!

On our last flight from Connecticut to home, the babies were squealing again when we stepped onto the plane. Backs arching, tears, screams, the whole package. At this point, Eric and I were so delirious tired, we could only laugh as we tried to soothe them. You know—that scary, crazed laughter, where you’re not sure if you’ve crossed that line of insanity or not. We looked around this tiny little plane at the other passengers, cringing at the thought of these screaming babies, with their new parents who had clearly gone mad. I think we normally would have been more apologetic...but we had no sympathy for other passengers at this point. A 2 hour flight? Pshhh…that’s nothing! HA

Eric saying "Hsss... don't take a picture, he might start squealing again!"

Thank goodness, they fell asleep again on that last flight. (Melese, asleep in the back-arched position. At this point, whatever makes him happy is fine with us.) And just as our heads started bobbing forward, and our eyes began to roll around, we landed in our hometown. Safe and sound! Babies strapped on our fronts. Bags on our backs, over our shoulders, and under our eyes. Covered in spit-up and slobber. But we were here, and we were happy. Life could not be better!

Our families anxiously awaited us in the terminal, and it was an awesome greeting. These tiny little celebrities were surrounded by the family paparazzi, and boy did Melese ham it up. All the excitement caused him to puke a little on his granddad, but he was good after that. Our drivers took us home, and Eric and I crashed hard, while Grandmama took the first night shift and saved us from the sleep-deprived insanity that we feared was just around the corner. It was a beautiful thing.

We are so happy to be back home in sweet home USA!

Ethiopia: August 6

Today we ventured out to see the Ethiopian national museum in the afternoon, only to find out that Melese isn’t much of a history buff. We walked around the ground floor for about 20 minutes before he started wailing for some reason, and no matter what he tried, we could not calm him down.

There’s a funny thing about being in Ethiopia with an Ethiopian baby. The whole community notices you. And in a way, feels that they know your baby. Sometimes the attention is really nice, like when people compliment your baby, or say nice things. Then again, sometimes it’s just weird, like when people (total strangers) tell you how to hold your baby, or that you need to feed him so that he will stop crying (even though he just had a bottle 20 minutes ago). Hey, thanks for the tip!

So after 10 minutes of trying to calm Melese down outside the museum, attracting the security guards, cashier, and an American doctor (ya, this boy can scream), we gave up and headed back to the guest house. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we sat in the car Melese mysteriously stopped crying. Go figure!

This afternoon we headed out to the Post Office, a touristy shopping spot, to pick up some souvenirs. Beautiful carvings, hand woven scarves, clothing, jewelry, artwork. Anything you can imagine, it’s all there. And the bargaining is kinda fun too. We even picked up a couple future birthday presents for Melese and Mamenesh.

Afterwards we hit up a coffee shop, and bought some fresh roasted beans to take home with us. The shops here roast their own beans, which we heard takes around 3 days to do. The shops are a little smoky inside, from all the roasting, but they smell wonderful. Can’t wait to try that stuff!

Later, we headed out for dinner with the other families from the guest house to Fasika, a traditional Ethiopian restaurant in town. The restaurant was beautiful. The music was thumpin. The dancers were stompin. And the food… oh! Awesome. Just look at this beautiful plate of food.

I think my favorite part of the evening was the dancers. They performed the whole evening, doing dances from each of the cultural regions of Ethiopia. It’s amazing how different each region is. And all so beautiful. One set included the dancers wearing giant fluffy wigs made of monkey hair. But we particularly enjoyed the region our babies came from —Gamo Goffa, shown here.

At one point, the dancers split up and went to tables to involve the crowd. I was lucky enough to be chosen to dance, and I did my best—though my classic dance moves didn’t quite fit the bill. Lots of shoulder action on this one. And I swear this guy was looking just below my shoulders the whole time. Maybe that’s part of the dance… or maybe he was just a perv. I dunno.
Anyway, it was an awesome night. It was great to spend one last night with our fellow guest-housers, and the entertainment was amazing. Oh, and can you believe, all of this only cost around 100 birr/person? That’s about $10 USD, including tip. Pretty amazing.

Ethiopia: August 5

Our first night with the twins started out well. I’m not saying we slept much (since both of us were listening for them to breathe every 5 seconds), but at least the babies slept well. They’ve both been fighting some congestion, and I think they sound a little bit like Mogwais (you know, baby Gremlins) when they breathe… so when the snorting stops, you wonder if they’re still ok! All was good until around 2:30am, when Mamenesh decided it was time to get up and play. In addition to her stuffy nose, the formula we’ve started her on doesn’t seem to be settling as well as it is for Melese, so she’s having some tummy issues. Eventually, we got her back to sleep and Eric and I were both tired enough to ignore their little Mogwai snorts for awhile. Then Melese woke up and was ready to party too. Woo hoo! Long story short, we didn’t sleep too much. I guess I better get used to these shiners around my eyes, cause life might be this way for a while… Anyway, it’s lunchtime now, and Eric just left to grab some formula that may work better, and amazingly, the twins are both sleeping right now. (Of course they would, it’s daytime now!)
The guest house has been really nice. You pretty much have a full service staff here, which is weird to get used to, but I can’t complain. They’ve cooked great meals every day, and even wash the baby bottles for us! I’ve heard they even do your laundry here. My only problem is that I feel a little weird handing my undies off to a stranger, and asking them to wash up! Hmmm. I’ll have to ask some of the other guests how they’ve approached this.

Ethiopia: August 4

We’ve checked the babies out of the orphanage to play the last couple days, but today we took full possession of them! I’m not sure M+M realized what a milestone this was, but they were sure excited to be back in the taxi with us.

Yesterday we went to Entonto Hill, one of the highest points in Addis. The drive was beautiful, and the view from the top was nice. (Though the smog here sort of thickens the air, a bit.) The road to the top was a steep and curvy one, and since we have been riding with another (more aggressive) driver, named Frew, we were bracing ourselves with the twins in tow.

As I mentioned before, the streets of Addis are a bit nuts. Oncoming cars drive so close to our vehicle, that I don’t feel safe putting my arm out the window. In fact, as we were headed up the mountain to the lookout point, an oncoming van drove so close to us, that it knocked our sideview mirror off! Frew stopped the car, got out, threw his hands up in the air, and then got back into the car and kept driving. Everyday event, I guess? Anyway, the drive was still nice, and we enjoyed the view at Entonto Hill. At around 10,000 ft above sea level, you get a little winded walking only about 200 yards. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before. I imagined maybe this is how the fatties in my neighborhood feel when they’re walking to the city bus. Awful, I tell you!

There was an art gallery at the top, and the artist who worked there also gave us the official tour of the lookout site. Afterwards, we checked out his paintings…which I would describe as somewhat Picasso-esque. Bright colors, funky/modern interpretations of everyday life in Ethiopia. We decided on one that pictured an Ethiopian mother and her twins. (How could we pass it up, especially considering the artist said because we have twins, he would give “good discount” ha)

This afternoon, we had our interview at the embassy, and except for Mamenesh’s small diaper explosion, things went very smoothly. Due to the horrendous odor coming from Mammy’s diaper, and the high-pitched squeals from Melese, I think the embassy rep may have rushed through the questions as quickly as possible. I guess sometimes those things will work to our advantage! We left the embassy with our little immigrants, and went back to relax at the guest house. Woo hoo! One step closer to sweet home, USA.

As I type, they are both sleeping. Hopefully for the rest of the night. Realistically, for the next 30 minutes. We’ll see how this goes. It has been an awesome but exhausting day. I feel completely disorganized and disoriented. Craziness! Even with both of us caring for them, we have our hands full all the time. (Dear husband, can you please not go back to work? ...ever?) I can hardly wait to be home, not living out of suitcases, and with some order in our lives. Right now the mess in our room is making me a little crazy, so I’m gonna go attempt some cleaning. OH, and as if right on cue, I hear a baby snorting herself awake. Hopefully temporarily. Likely not.

Ethiopia: August 2

This morning we went to pick up Melese and Mamenesh at the orphanage, and brought them back to the guest house to play for the day. We really enjoyed getting to feed them, bathe them, and of course change diapers for the first time. Mammy thoroughly enjoyed her bath, but Melese was another story. He arched his back and squealed as soon as his toes touched the water!

But both were very happy after their baths, and in fact, we saw Mammy smile for the first time since we’ve been here. And guess what? She has a dimple! We got her to smile a few times today, but she’ll definitely make you work for it. Melese, on the other hand, could not be a bigger flirt. You just put your hand on his tummy and he starts to squirm and laugh. Later in the day, both Melese and Mammy showed us their latest trick: blowing razzzzzberries!

Overall it was a great day, and it feels weird not to have them here with us right now, since they’re back at the orphanage for the evening. Only 3 dirty diapers (x2), and 1 throw-up incident. Not bad for our first full day!

We have yet to see much of Addis Ababa, but there are a few things on our schedule, as time allows. There is a ton of construction going on here, and all the scaffolding is built from eucalyptus poles, nailed together. I’m just glad I’m not a construction worker here!

Ethiopia: August 1

Today was our first full day in Ethiopia. We arrived last night at the guest house around 11pm, and were welcomed with a delicious meal. Thank goodness, because we were hungry and tired, after the 27 hour trip to Addis.

During dinner, we met Lisa, (another adoptive parent, who is here with her husband Jay, and sister-in-law, (also) Lisa) who gave us a quick rundown of what to expect during the following days. She could not have been nicer, and we were very grateful for her giving us the scoop. Right after that, we crashed hard. I don’t know how I slept with all the excitement in the air, but I did. And I am thankful!

After breakfast this morning, we hopped in the car with our driver, Solomon, who took us to meet our lawyer, Abebe, to finish some paperwork for the Embassy. We arrived at Abebe’s house, and as his servant opened the door to greet us, a huge cloud of smoke rolled out the door. This was an incredible amount of smoke, like something out of a Cheech and Chong movie. I wasn’t sure how to react, so I turned around and looked at Eric, and he was equally confused. We giggled a little. When I turned back around, Abebe was standing there with open arms, and insisted we come in immediately, even though visibility inside the house at that point was about 1 ft, max. (I would describe Abebe as looking somewhat like Jesse Jackson with a buzz cut, and with equally as much character.) Turns out he was just preparing his house for guests by lighting some incense. A lot of it.

As the smoke began to clear, we found our way to some couches and finished filling out the papers, and were served our first cup of Ethiopian coffee. Being the nervous freak I am these last few days, I decided to forgo the caffeine. A few sips of that black, almost oil-consistency stuff, and I would have been jittering off my chair. (Hopefully I didn’t offend Abebe by not drinking the stuff...I did take one sip. And it was the kind of stuff that puts Starbucks hardest stuff to shame.) After the meeting, we ran to the embassy to drop off paperwork, and then, the much awaited moment… meeting our little M+Ms!! And it happened in the blink of an eye.

We literally pulled up to the orphanage, and there they were, in the arms of nannies, waiting for us outside! The most beautiful babies in the world! The babies we had only imagined over the last few months. Like tiny little celebrities. In our minds we knew them so well, and yet they had no idea who we were... I was so in shock when I saw them, I think I was holding Melese for about 5 minutes before I realized what was happening. He kept smiling, and is probably the happiest boy ever. Mamenesh is also a very happy baby-- but definitely the big sister of the bunch. She seems very cautious, and I have a feeling she will always be Melese’s watcher. Always checking things out – and not handing out smiles as freely. I guess somebody’s gotta be the responsible one, right?




Even as young as they are, I can tell that they already have a serious brother-sister bond. At one point, Eric and I were holding each of them on our laps, and they kept looking at each other. Melese reached over and grabbed Mammy’s hand. And maybe I just imagined it, but it seemed intentional. Almost like he was telling her, “It’s gonna be ok, sister bear…These are the ONES!”

He reached for her several times. And by the end of our visit, she had relaxed enough to fall asleep on Eric’s chest. (Of course, this was after she tried to latch on to Eric’s chin, in a mad hunt for some mother’s milk. No luck there.) Shortly after, Melese fell asleep in my arms. His whole body went limp. And Eric started singing “Aww, I just died in your arms tonight!!” It sounds very weird as I type it now, but I guess you had to be there?

I counted their toes, and yep, they each got 10 of ‘em. And long ones too! One proud mama, I am! Their curls are so tight, almost like Velcro. And only on top of their heads, as they have apparently rubbed the sides and back off by “rocking” themselves to sleep. The hairstyle, as Eric puts it, is a Reverse Mullet. We had heard about this rocking phenomenon before, but it really makes you think about what their lives have been like to this point. I only wished we had met them sooner… and not just to prevent this serious case of Reverse Mullet.

Our new friends, Jay and Lisa, were with us and acted as our personal photographers, which was awesome. They have also been our Ethiopian mentors. (They’ve been here 4 days, which makes them experts in our eyes.) We’ve enjoyed getting to know them and their sweet boys Bereket and Seto.

After lunch, we ran to the internet café and sent out the “We’ve arrived, and the babies are so SWEET!” email to our families. Then off for a little bit of shopping in an outdoor area called the Post Office.( I assume there is an actual post office near there, but never actually saw one.) We spent 15 minutes there before it started raining. So we had Solomon take us home to the guest house.

Solomon has been great. I cannot imagine getting around Addis without a driver. The streets here are insane. Cars everywhere, no lines, no lanes, cars passing into oncoming traffic. People in the streets, taxis pulling out in front of you (missing by inches, I kid not). It’s absolutely crazy. I sat in the front seat for a while this afternoon, and when this taxi van came charging right towards the passenger side, I sort of braced myself with my right foot (keep in mind, there are no seatbelts in these vehicles). I really tried not to seem alarmed, but Solomon must have noticed my tension, because he told me it was ok to take my foot off the brake, and that everything would be ok. I laughed away the tension. Sort of. But from here on out, I think I’m gonna ride in back so Solomon doesn’t notice my subconscious “braking”.

We came back to the guest house this evening, and had another delicious meal, visited with Jay, Lisa and Lisa, and now I’m headed to bed. I’d say our first day in Ethiopia was a success! Tomorrow we plan to check M+M out of the orphanage for the whole day and bring them back to the guest house to play. We’re thinking about giving them their first baths tomorrow. Literally, their first real baths! They only get sponge baths at the orphanage, so this will be their first time smelling like sweet little babies are supposed to! Looking forward to it. J