Day 5- Leaving Awassa

Our room at the Haile Resort (for all you families traveling-opt for this place!)

Today was a day of travel.  We woke up early, grabbed breakfast and loaded in the van. I'll admit, I was a little sad to be leaving the Haile Resort- I actually had a hair dryer here and a real shower! It was wonderful! Alemu wanted to take us to do a little "Sidama" shopping.  This was the area where our girls were born, so we were excited to collect some items  from their home village. I really wanted to purchase some things for Tsehay that I could give to her on special occasions in her life (birthdays, graduation, wedding) We stopped at a few places where I purchased some cute sacks/purses in the Sidama culture fabric for all of the kids, 2 Sidama blankets (one lovie), a handmade purse, hand painted zebra tables (these took some persuading Luke that we COULD fit them in our luggage and they are oh so cute), 2 hand carved Ethiopian cross pendants and 2 wooden masks for the boys.  We also bought her a few adorable hand made traditional Ethiopian dresses that we'll be sure to use for a photo session.

Showing us the blankets made from Sidama fabric

Everything was made right there-check out those sewing machines!

Then Alemu wanted to show us a "typical" market in the South before we left.  Oh.my.gosh.  Luke and I have never seen anything like it.  Mud lined the roads (it rained last night), kids were filthy, people were sloshing around in mud and there were people EVERYWHERE selling everything from raw coffee beans to plastic bags.  There were many children trying to sell something, anything they had. They were visibly malnourished and I had a very hard time even looking at them.  Since I had given away all of my goods, I found myself whispering to Luke to give them some money. Once again, we broke the "rules" and Luke discretely handed them money as we were walking back to the van.  To see their faces light up was worth the whole visit. Right then and there, I vowed if I ever go back to the South again, I will be much more prepared.  Many of my "light up a childs face" gifts never made it until we got back into Addis tonight)-:

The market in Awassa

It was a LONG trip back to Addis. We stopped off for lunch at an "African Resort". It was in the middle of the desert near a lake! There were little ones adorning the "path/drive" to get there and our driver threw out our empty water bottles to them- you have never seen smiles SO big.  I scoured the van for all of our water bottles and started tossing them out the window.  It was like Christmas morning and I made sure I took a few more full ones from the resort to throw out the window on our way out. Pretty sure the whole van was annoyed with me by that point.  The food at that little resort in the middle of nowhere was amazing. It was owned by a man that was half Italian/half Ethiopian and he knew how to make some delicious Italian food. I dreamed about the wood fired pizzas and the best spaghetti I had ever eaten for days afterwards.  We completed our embassy paperwork by this little lake and it was a nice break to the long trip.

A little guy we threw a water bottle to

SO much paperwork...glad it's almost over.

Luke double checking everything

We made it home and are all exhausted (literally from the exhaust of the oil guzzling cars and vans). An entire day of dodging animals and people are under our belt.  We grabbed a quick dinner and are heading to bed. We can't wait to see Tsehay tomorrow! I wonder if she'll recognize us?

Typical image in front of our vehicle traveling 50+ mph