A few more pics from our week in Ethiopia.
Stephanie loves the Noonday company, not only does she love their jewelry but the whole premise behind the company is to train/ empower/ employee women in developing nations and help these women step out of poverty. So, she was very excited to discover that we could visit the site where Noonday's Ethiopian jewelry is made. We were able to see the women at work and do a little shopping in their store.
We did not expect horseback riding but the kids were able to go for a little ride at the restaurant where we had lunch.
We visited a shop where women who were once fuelwood carriers ( a very physically taxing job) were trained to make scarves. They allowed our kids to try their hands at looming. My favorite quote of the day came from Mekdes "I never in my life thought I would loom!"
We got the chance to visit with our sponsor child (as well as my parent's sponsor child)
We visited Yezelalem Minch's feeding program where the girls enjoyed helping serve meals to the children.
We stayed at the The Family Morning Coffee Guesthouse which is run by our friend Birtukan. We love staying here for so many reasons but one of the biggest is that our kids feel like this guesthouse is their Ethiopian home, with the warmth of Birtukan and her family.
They have a rooftop deck with the best views in all is Addis.
On Tuesday we drove 5 hours south towards Hawassa, the birthplace of our son Biniyam.
We saw camels on the way.
We stopped for lunch at this lake, which had an amazing assortment of birds, and a few large tortoises.
The view from our hotel on Lake Awassa.
We took a little boat ride to see hippos!
Monkeys!
Our friend Abel, who we met when we adopted Mekdes now has his own company specializing in helping connect families who have adopted in Ethiopia with birth family. He is amazing and his gentle guidance and advice was invaluable to us this week.
http://www.bridgetoethiopia.com/
That's awesome:)
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