Emails from Ethiopia

Teshale playing by the tempting bus ladder in the courtyard/parking lot at Horizon House

I wanted to post this months ago, but had to take a blogging break to deal with a serious illness in the family. The background on this post is that it was difficult to send emails out of Addis (unreliable dial up) but we were able to send a few to update family on how we were getting along with our new son. Our families found them very amusing, and I thought it would be fun to share them with everyone.

Feb. 2:
Sean is sick from last night's dinner, as are two others. He's doing better and has eaten some soup. I went to see Teshale alone this morning. This is what he did:

1) played with hose out back, figuring out how to drain the water out (he's intensely curious about how to figure out how things work and how to solve problems)

2) climbed toy shelves to get at water bottles people had left there (everything on the shelves
is open game for them, so I have to get others to understand not to put water bottles there)

3) climbed pile of discarded items in an attempt to climb over fence and out of compound

4) attempted to open door to compound when guard wasn't there (it's locked)

5) again tried to climb toy shelves to get at bubbles bottles

6) again tried to climb toy shelves to get at yet another freakin' water bottle (I'd moved the first two, but another one appeared)

6a) tried to turn on water spigot in garden area

7) hid next to me when a strange new person tried to talk to him

8) talked to me for the first time, as he tried to locate his photo book (had no idea what he was saying until he found it and triumphantly showed it to me)

All this defiance is actually a good thing (yay, haha) because it's showing he's realizing we're the boss of him now and he's going to test our limits. It's good that he realizes we're his caretakers. #7 is good because it shows he trusts us to protect him. # 8 is good because this is the first time he's said a peep to us other than ai ai ai (no no no). Baby steps.

Feb. 5:

We are definitely ready to come home, but couldn't get on tonight's flight. There is no flight tomorrow, so Sunday night it is.

I didn't see Teshale yesterday because I was sick (seems to be a bug not food poisoning) but we're going over shortly for our fix. The pattern seems to be that he challenges us in the morning and then is delightful in the afternoon. They say they will push and push and push to make sure we stick. The main nurse confirmed that he has a temper and when he has one of his tantrums they just let him work it out, which is what we've been doing. For my family, his "tantrums" are very much like Kristy's -- silent sulking. The other day he threw himself on the driveway and just laid there for several minutes until the guard came over and picked him up. But the nurse also said he is a very handsome boy, which we agree with totally. He has a very classic Ethiopian head/face.

I seem to have picked up the sniffles from the kids (they all kiss all of us).

Today is the coffee ceremony -- we bought him a little traditional outfit to wear and hope he wants to wear it. It will be really cute.

I should warn airport greeters that he may naturally gravitate toward the Anjorins -- he really likes their photo in his photo album (which by the way is his one word in English so far-- photo album). Also he is very possesive of anything given to him, so we may have a challenge when he needs to pack up all his loot to go out to the car. They have nothing that is their own, so when they get something, they hang on to it with all their might.

Feb. 6:
Had the coffee ceremony yesterday. Afterwards, some of the families left (those who were going to JFK or Houston). Those who were due to fly to Dulles, well, they're going to try again tonight. After the gate closed, Teshale started trying to open it and get out, as if he wanted to go back to the big kids house. So we walked him up there, but then he didn't want to go in. It's as if he understood he'd "graduated." He told Sister Terhas that he didn't want to be in that place anymore. So back to the guest house, where he ate dinner and spent the night with us. He sulked for an hour, first because we'd taken his pee-peed pants off him (he missed while trying to pee and poop and the same time) and then we think because he was just scared of this big new room. Finally he allowed me to put my arms around him. After a while he put his head on my shoulder, and I could feel his eyelashes fluttering. Finally a huge sigh and he relaxed, and then shortly fell sound asleep for 12 hours straight.

Today has been mixed, as always. He's bored. They need a jungle gym here or something. But no room, the courtyard also serves as a parking lot for the vans, which have tempting ladders on them. Sean and I are taking turns being the bad guy. He went right up for his nap though with no argument. Never slept, chattered the whole time, but stayed in bed. Mommy wanted to sleep, that's for sure. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Feb. 7:

This morning he has flushed the toilet four times already -- once because he pooped and three times because it's fun. He also likes playing with water faucets. My water bill is going to go through the roof. We're going to check with the airline in a bit to make sure our flight is leaving tonight. There are two doctors flying back on our flight.

I am not feeling well. I have barely been eating since I got sick -- the food is either dry of full of the spices I was heaving. Yuck. It may also be a reaction to the anti-malaria medicine -- I have a vague recollection that appetite suppression was one of the possible side effects. I did eat scrambled eggs this morning, but I feel like I'm force feeding. It may also be nerves -- I don't know. I hope we do ok on the flight.

Now in addition to Daddy, he says Mommy, and yesterday as he was running after his punching balloon he said something that sounded to all of us like "I get it." He chatters to us in Sidamic and we have no clue what he's saying. Yesterday as he was eating his tea and bread he said "matanini". I repeated it to him and he nodded vigorously and smiled. I asked the housekeeper and she had no clue. We decided it must be Sidamic (she speaks Amharic). Fingers crossed that we can leave tonight. He was very sad when everyone else left last night.

Feb. 7:
Teshale's latest trick is playing in the water in the sink. Wonder how well that's going to work in the airplane toilet. He insists on scrubbing like a surgeon. He had his first shower ever today. What a riot! We have part of it on video. You'd have thought we'd brought him to Disneyland. Oh no, here he comes for the computer. Better send this.