Meandering thoughts at 4 a.m.

It is not jet lag, that was over really fast. It is what I am calling fiber lag. Mesay's first night with us is going well. She did wake up an hour ago and had some water and a diaper change. She wouldn't take the bottle. They just changed here, yesterday, from F100 to Babelac 3, a commercial formula here and Mideast. So I'm here with 1.5 liters of Ethiopian spring water and updating the blog. The joys of modern travel.

Just reading the comments from the companion blog, AddisAbaby. Some of them have to be OKed to be published. Also, an interesting thing is we can't actually see the blogs here. We've had to moterate the comments and that is why you might not see them publish right away. I have to get that set up for this blog. OK, enough of that.

Today we had the tour of the Children's Home facilities. We went to the school where I got to see the football (soccer) ball that I brought put into use. It is a six dollar job from Fleet Farm and it is the nicest piece of sporting equipement they have. Zach, a teacher at the school and he lives in the guest house, said the kids were absolutely thrilled to get it. I have a few more balls to give out. I am going to let Zach be the ball minder. He will take care of them, I'm sure. Then we went to the Infant and Toddler center where Julia and I have spent a lot of time this last few day. We skipped the tour and played with Ella. Our final stop was at the center for the older children. They mobbed us, wanting to be held and play. Samantha, the 13 year old girl of one of the couples traveling with us, was so lovely playing ball with the children. Throwing it to each in turn as the other laughed. Ella was sleeping, she fell deeply on the short drive, saw Julia sitting in a chair. The children were so respectful with Ella and her, but they still got what attention they could. I played with a couple younger ones, doing that pick up, twist them to your sholder, and then they backflip as you lower them tgame, I hope you know what that is. Big hit. Then I saw a little boy off to himself, with a flipflop he was clutching. No one was playing with him and he was shy. I went up to him and his immediate smile was just beautiful, defying words. I picked him up, tickled him, twirled him around. We had 10 minutes tops, but I love him. His name is Seezelou or something close, I only heard it whispered and just once. Such a beautiful young boy. I am so honored to give him that short time to laugh and be happy. I couldn't contain my emotion when I set him down and just broke down as we went into the van. I cry as I write this now. Most of the children at that center are placed with families and will leave in the next month, thank God. Otherwise, I honestly don't know if I could control myself. This paticular boy, I don't know if he is or not, but whoever he is placed with is blessed.

Mossi and Zach seem to be a bit more tense lately. The troubles with Somolia are giving them so security concerns. I don't know how aware others are, but they are discreet about it. It is nice to be in the capital and close to the embassey. I don't write this to concern you, but you may be hearing things in the news and I want you to know we are aware and precausious. I would hate to think of anything hurting the beautiful people of Addis. Don and Andrea, Samantha's parents, walked down to the Care Center around 5:30 p.m. to see their boy, Nahom, who will join us tomorrow, fulltime. At 8, Zach became a bit agitated, you could tell by his movements. He was talking with a friend in England (Zach is from SE India), but you could tell he wasn't fully there. He excused himself and discreetly as possible said he was going to the care center. He left and brought them back. That is what I mean by his tension. I think Mossi may require us to ride everywhere at least at night. You may think that is crazy to say we haven't, but I've never felt any hostility towards us, at least in Addis.

The amount of lifestock in the city is absolutely hilarious. Today, a small herd of cattle, came down our street. We got some stills of it and I a little video. Goats and some poltery. I don't know if they really are chickens. The donkeys that are ubiquitous in the south are missing though. I did see a couple today.

The dogs bark constantly at night. If I were home, I'd be so pissed. But here you just deal with it. It is the same thing about the crazy driving, you just deal with it. I hope I can keep this sense of calm when we get back. Americans could really relax. Traffic and dogs aren't important. It is five now, I thought the call for prayed would start soon. I should try to make certain things happen again. I hope it doesn't hit me at the Embassy. I hear the bathrooms are terrible. Go figure, the US Embassy, a little slice of home, can't come through with a decent washroom. Something that is important.

Just threw some more pics on. We will post captions some time, but till then use you imagination. Thank you for all your well wishes.