Our Independent Ethiopian adoption

Thursday, June 10, 2004 – continued

We were there for 3 hours playing with kids. One of the toddler groups was outside and their “nanny”, Shefanah, told me Michael is her baby and gave him big hugs. She asked me to send her a big picture of him when we get home. I think that’s really sweet. He has been very popular here – the kids seem to really like him. They call him “fat” and I wish they wouldn’t do that, but I’m not all that sure it’s an insult. I’m sure it is for some, but Ashenafe said that being fat means you’re rich, just as it did in the middle ages. I can understand that. I asked him if he thought he was doing anything special and he doesn’t think so and I haven’t noticed anything different, but his good nature and sweetness just come through. Even the teenage girls really like him. One calls him her brother (and Ashenafe). He seems to have a real affinity for the language – he’s leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us. In fact, Ashenafe is asking him how to say words in Amharic! We will pursue this for him – what an incredible feat if he can learn it, especially if he could learn to read and write. There are LOTS of letters – something like 33 consonants and each one has 7 vowels associated with them, each making a new letter. But, it’s very methodical and very phonetic.

I took pictures of his “other mama” and we all played with the kids. Actually, I sat on the steps or the ground most of the time, as I was feeling sick. (Yes, eating all the raw veggies caught up with me and I had giardia and bad!!) I had my hair done ala Mekelle, the region Halofom and Ashenafe are from. They did it fast and super tight. I looked like I needed a suntan on my scalp though – all the white showing through was pretty scary! Greg ended up playing 4-square with some of the older boys and Asafa even joined in. That was great to see him playing with the kids. Beti got really mad. Michael brought a CD player and found a radio station to listen to. One of the other little girls, maybe 4 years old, was listening. Beti decided SHE wanted to listen, so she went and took it away. I made her give it back and wait her turn and ooh, was she upset. I know she hasn’t ever really had things of her own and that makes it almost impossible to share, but soon enough she will get “ownership” of many things (although there’s an awful lot of sharing at our house, too!)

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