Ethiopia Day Three

Sunday - today the orphanage was closed and so we didn't get to see our precious little one. We decided to go to church we were highly recommended by a friend. I need to find the link to that church later on and post it.

Anyhow, our driver waited for us early that Sunday morning and we headed over to church (http://www.iecaddis.org/) . We found out we were about an hour early before the next service would start and a friendly older gentleman invited us to coffee. His name was Dave and he took us over to a fancy hotel-bar where we chatted that hour away. We came to find out that he has lived in ET for 5 years, but spent the last 4 in the states. Now he's back to do more projects in Africa. They're setting up villages with missionaries and churches. He also mentioned that he absolutely loves this country (Ethiopia).
I could not understand how somebody would voluntarily live in these conditions. I still had a hard time digesting on all that poverty and the low-(est) standard of living.

Church was packed, I'd estimate about 1000-1500 members. They had an awesome worship team and you could tell the holy spirit was very present at that time. I prayed to God that He would give me understanding on how someone could love this "horrible" country and that HE would open my eyes and let me look behind the facade. I was overwhelmed that so many people living in poverty and had enough or good enough of a reason to be upset with God, they would come to the church and praise our Lord!!!
On top of it - this country has given me (us) one precious gift - our new daughter.
Overwhelmed with emotions I broke and cried. I had to leave church and sat at a bench outside of church and just let it all out.
God has and was slowly opening my eyes.....

After church we headed back to our guesthouse. The cook already had some food prepared for us. We had tomato-rigatoni and cooked carrots (my nightmare), Jesse had ox meat. They served a salad, but I told Jesse to be very careful with fresh vegetables and fruits. Jesse ate half of the salad and i couldn't resist and had half a tomato.

Throughout our stay I was very interested in the coffee ceremony and our cook told us that after lunch we will part take in a ceremony. I'm not a big coffee drinker, I have my cappuccino every morning, sweet and milky, but that's about as far as it goes.

During lunch the ladies started to prepare for the ceremony. They wore beautiful costumes and started to roast the white coffee beans.

We joined and sat with them and more and more people would show up, come, have a cup and leave. We had a translator and that afternoon I started to understand a whole lot more about their culture.
Ethiopian people are very open people, friendly and have a very sweet sense of humor.
I have a small tattoo on my ankle and one of the waitresses spied it and asked about it. I asked her if she had one as well and she said on her gum. I thought it may have been a communication issue, but then she lifted he lip and showed me her gum. She said it is or was tradition to tattoo their gum black. So now everybody sitting there at the ceremony was asked to show their gum. Unimaginable in Germany or the US that all the sudden a dozen of people would compare their gum and gum lines, lol.

The coffee was - uhm, OK and I only had one cup. We learned that coffee was being drunken in 3 stages. People would sit there for a long time, sip their coffee and just chatter the day away. It seemed to me like time stood still sometimes. No rush, no hurry. The unemployment rate is very high in Ethiopia, and that's why a lot of people just hang out a lot throughout the day.

One of the coffee ladies brought in a huge basked of popcorn (and yes, indeed it is regular popcorn), some of it wasn't popped right and so I decently tried to let them disappear in my napkin. Our waitress started laughing and said :"Uh, just spit on floor, we all do!"
It was really interesting to see a bunch of adults sitting there like they were in a cherry pit spitting contest, lol.

The coffee ceremony was over and we did a short trip to a coffee shop to purchase some coffee to take home with us.

It was late afternoon when we got back. The coffee ceremony took about 2-3 hours and we were getting close to dinner time. Jes and I had about an hour left and we played some games in the lounge. I started to feel REALLY odd!!!

I told Jesse that I would probably not be able to eat any dinner, my stomach was in cramps. We set down for dinner and it was highly difficult to reject their food. We were the only guest and the cook came in JUST for us to have meals prepared.

We had tomato soup for entree and I took a spoon full and started gagging. Jesse did the same, but forced himself to finish the bowl. I felt so bad............I heard the waitress approach to clear the table and i did the most horrible thing I've ever done in my life - I switched bowls with my husband!!!!! So there he sat with a full bowl of soup, after he courageously forced it down his system, and me sitting there with an empty bowl telling the waitress how good it was...........I have no idea what has gotten into me (neither did my husband) lol.

They brought the next course - macaroni-tuna casserole...........NO WAY I could have had one bite. Jesse took one portion and gulped it down into his stomach. I could tell he was NOT doing to well. We both felt miserable..............and it just went down the drain from there

We had food poisoning - we were up all night taking turns in the bathroom. Occasionally we fought over the bowl, lol. Laughing now, but we sure were miserable!!!

Ohmygosh, do I have to laugh now remembering my husband screaming " Lord help me!!" at 3 a.m. while hugging the toilet bowl.......

We have a meeting with our guide and driver at 9:30 next morning to visit our baby again, and to meet with the lawyer. Hopefully we will survive the night..........We must feel better, by tomorrow since it will be another wonderful day with our daughter!!!

The church we went to this morning

Part of the coffee ceremony, people kept coming and going.

Popcorn at the ceremony

Roasting the Beans

Don't hey look gorgeous in their dresses??

Some statue on the way to the coffee shop

Our bedroom

The Killer-Food, lol. I kept tasting that salsa all night long - yikes

At a coffee shop