Today I don't have the patience for paragraphs, so here is a laundry list of more of our trip.
* We were thrilled to participate in our first coffee ceremony. This takes about 2 hours and begins with the roasting of the beans. Here the cook is fanning the fire that the green coffee beans are roasting over. The cook brings the pan of roasted beans around for everyone to smell before the next step. After roasting, the beans are ground with a mortal and pestal and then boiled over the fire in a hand made coffee pot. The final product is served in tiny tea cups and is thick and dark and so tasty! They always served us 2 cups. I was surprised that we were served this coffee EVERY DAY after lunch while we were there. It is so much work, something we would never do here. Tsegay said that Ethiopians do this every day (usually after breakfast) and sometimes twice a day. Needless to say, life is much slower in Ethiopia.
* Much to Brian's delight, Anna took immediately to napping on Dad's chest. This is one of Brian's talents in life. God certainly made him perfectly for rocking a baby to sleep.
* We called Anna by her Ethiopian name while we were in Ethiopia. Mostly just because that's what everyone else called her. The first thing we asked when we got to Ethiopia was how to pronounce her name. They told us it was difficult to pronounce even in Amharic. So here goes: Etagegnehu, etta-GAIN-you, or etta-gen-YOW, or e-TA-goo for short. Don't be surprised if you here us saying TA-goo in a high pitched voice. Thats an even shorter form of her nickname.
* The staff at HOH told us how serious Anna is, and how difficult it is to get her to smile. But we found a sweet little girl that smiled when we paid her attention and called out her name. The staff attributes this to her finally being united with her family. We'll take that, even if it is just flattery!
* The HOH staff were amazed how much Anna looks like her dad. They were polite and said it was the eyes that made them look like family. We all know it's really the lack of hair.
* Ethiopians don't take their babies out in public until they are about a year old. We got double stares since we were white carrying a black, nearly newborn baby.
* Hooray, Anna slept until about 3am last night, only waking up for feeding, not to play with Mom and Dad. After spending a few hours awake, she is back asleep.
* Ernie asked the other day when Anna was going back to Ethiopia. Not out of malice, or jealousy. He was just wondering.
* Thursday also featured a visit to the orphanage where Anna started out. Her Ethiopian mom brought her to the orphanage at 2 days old. It was bittersweet to visit and know that we wouldn't get to meet her first mom- she had disappeared shortly after relinquishing Anna. We did get to learn a few tidbits about her mom, and felt so fortunate to have a photocopied picture of her. We also figured out the reason behind Anna's Ethiopian name, Etagegnehu, which means "I found a sister." We were puzzled at first because in our referral, it said that Anna did not have any siblings. Our coordinator in Ethiopia told us that a child might be named Etagegnehu because the mom is young or doesn't have any sisters of her own. We learned that Anna's first mom was both young and was an only child.
