Giving

We spent most of yesterday at our guest house. With 5 newly adopted
kids and a lots of families present here, it was pretty lively in the
lobby all day. We did make one trip out of the house to the Emirates
office in town. That turned out to be an ordeal of sorts. Our
objective was to get seating assignments and a bassinet for Ellie on
the long Dubai-to-San-Francisco leg of the trip on Saturday. We were
told that we were too late for seating in general, and that all
bassinets have been spoken for for some time already. Also, the hotel
is full on Saturday so we won't have a room to go to. While we were
getting this news, Ellie decided to unleash a major load in her pants.
Actually, it was all the way up to her shoulders. The bathroom key
was missing, so we had to undress her and change her in the drafty
hall. Awesome. The best event of the day was that our friend Missy
was able to take a flight home last night with her sick little girl
Quilla. Their story is long, but Quilla really needs to get home to
her family so she can receive some good care. It was excellent to see
how God was able to make her adoption and quick departure happen much
faster than anyone expected.

Today we were able to visit the Kids Care orphanage to deliver half of
the donations that we brought along on this trip. The first half was
donated to the AWAA transition home that Eleora came from. It wasn't
really much of an event or experience since all the donations are
given to the storehouse manager, who catalogs it all and stores it
away. Today was somewhat similar in that we unloaded the orphanage
donations to the ladies who organize their storehouse. But we were
also able to distribute lots of goodies directly to the kids in the
open courtyard. It was so neat to see their faces and excitement!
Thanks again to all the contributors who gave goods (or money for
goods). Both the transition home and the orphanage were very
grateful!

Some of the ladies of the orphanage prepared a traditional coffee
ceremony for us in the oraphanage courtyard. This included the
roasting of the beans, grinding, brewing in a ceramic pitcher, the
burning of incense. Everything is cooked over little charcoal
burners. The coffee is served in little ceramic cups, and salted
popcorn is offered on the side. Compared to drip coffee, this was
more mild and smoky. The burning incense and charcoal creates part of
the atmosphere. It was really something!

After seeing so much need everywhere, it was really great to provide
such a large amount donated goods to the transition home and the
orphanage. Saturday we plan to give our collection of soccer balls to
the street kids ministry.

I've posted a fresh crop of photos on the SmugMug album, too.

http://bryanbooy.smugmug.com/Travel/Ethiopia-Getting-Eleora/12963734_RNZTN#943537234_GE7LV

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Bryan