Trip to Hosanna

This morning, Ato Girma knocked on our guest room doors at 5:00 a.m. We arose, got dressed and had breakfast. I asked Lauren to help prepare peanut butter sandwiches for our trip because we were not stopping anywhere to eat. Lauren blogged about our Hossana trip here.

We left our guest house at 6:00 a.m. and headed south out of Addis Ababa. The views in the countryside were breathtaking, even with the heavy haze in the air:

We tried our best to capture the scenery from our windows but a picture isn't the same. Steve took this picture and I blogged about it here:

After the birth family meetings,

 our bus driver drove us to a new school under construction by our agency. The school opened last fall. 200 children attend the school and are fed 2 times/day. Most of the children are able to attend because of our agency's sponsorship program.

We met many local children who came by to greet us. Some were caring for younger siblings. Many of them were barefoot. For the most part, they all looked happy. One group of kids was playing with a piece of styrofoam and I wrote about it here.

On our way back to Addis, we stopped along the roadside and toured a traditional hut. This family was so gracious and kind to open their beautiful home. The local authorities, however, were not so kind about it.

This was a full day. Full of emotions, anticipation, grieving, touring, site seeing. It was an evening best suited for unwinding, resting and preparing the next day's events, including Samson's first visit to our guest house.