Porter - Day 7 in Ethiopia

Sintayehu is the lawyer here who works for Dove and represented me in my adoption case in Ethiopia court last month. I saw him a few days ago for some paperwork, and he’ll be there when I go to the US Embassy with Elsa to get her visa (and no – no news yet about the paperwork… as of today, the Embassy told us that they still do not have it).

This morning I got to have a special treat – Sintayehu allowed me to tag along when he went to court. It was great – he gave me a tour of the building, and explained a lot about the Ethiopian court system. He was very generous with his time and it was really cool to get an insider’s view – although I felt like quite the spectacle there, because I was the only white person anywhere in the court compound and people were definitely surprised to see me.

He had a case to put in front of the judge, but I didn’t get to see it because the judge was hearing petitions in her chambers, not in the public rooms. But I waited for Sintayehu in a large holding room full of people who were waiting for their names to be called. Again, I was quite the curiosity, and many folks just openly stared at me. Slightly uncomfortable, but not too bad. Sintayehu’s case went very quickly – he was in and out of the judge’s chambers in about 15 minutes, with a successful adoption for a family who are adoption 3 siblings. He was all smiles – clearly really cares about the families, which is so great to see.

Afterward we went for a quick coffee, then he had to get back to work. I did some shopping for souvenirs and gifts, then went back to the Sheraton to collect Clare, who had had a great morning filled with some exercise, a massage, and some lounging by the pool.

We went to lunch at a great place called “Deli Roma” – superb pizza and again a great deal – lunch for 3 people, including drinks, was 75 birr (a little over 8 U.S. dollars). After lunch we went to the tour company’s office (to reconfirm our Historic Circuit tour which starts tomorrow).

Then it was off to Toukoul for a visit with Elsa. She was much more awake and lively than during the morning visiting hours… very vocal and just full of energy. We met two other families who are adopting from Toukoul, and all hung out in the visiting room together, which was pretty fun.

I find that I’m calling Elsa by her Ethiopian name (Aden, pronounced AY-dun) more than by Elsa… all the nannies and the orphanage director call her Aden, and so when we talk about her we call her that name. And she is familiar with it, and seems like an Aden… so I’m thinking I need to make that her middle name and keep using it alternately with Elsa…

After Toukoul we came back to the hotel to pack up our things and get ready to check out tomorrow and start our tour. We have a very early start – we’re meeting our guide in the lobby at 5:30 AM for the flight to Bahir Dar.

We’ll be on the road, and I’ll be offline and out of touch for the next 4 days… will post as soon as I can after we get back to Addis.

So long, and I’ll miss you all and all your wonderful comments!!!