One of the things we love about our agency is that you take a trip to Hosana. This is the town in which our children were at an orphanage. It is also close to the region that most of our children come from. The bigger reason for the trip is that the adoptive families have the opportunity to meet members of the birth family. It is an incredible trip. It is hard to put in to words the meaning behind this trip and I will not even begin to try. The circumstances surrounding our visit will remain private for Terefech's sake. It is her story and her life, she will chose when she wants to share it. I will say that my comment afterwards was, "Childbirth was easy." I will be eternally grateful for that experience and hope that Terefech will be as well.
Unfortunately for us, it was a rainy day. Part of this trip is to see some of the development projects that our agency is involved in. In Hosana, they have a school (one of three that they operate) as well as a bakery. The bakery is a small business and provides jobs, income for families. The roads were not passable and so we headed home.
The countryside is incredible. A stark change from the look of the city. I think most of us just took in Ethiopia as we drove 4 hours south. Our only stop was in a small city to use the western toilets. That term is used loosely. I preferred the hole in the ground style. Our return trip was not silent as I thought it would be. Not sure if we were a particularly close group but looking back it seems that our conversations were for support. We were all very moved by this trip but also needed to talk. We are told that we will be friends with these people forever and this type of trip solidifies that notion.
Our return trip had added excitement in that we got a flat tire in a small village. We were in a small bus so this was quite an interesting event. Soon after our predicament, we were surrounded by the villagers. We were talking to them through the windows before they were all shooed off by the driver and social worker. We later learned that they thought we would be bothered by all the people. We did end up having to get off the bus because we were too heavy and they couldn't get the bus up and the tire on. I can imagine we were quite the sight as I am sure a busload of westerners don't hang out in their village too often. It was an interesting experience, not sure how we felt about being on display rather than interacting. We were kind of held at a distance, as if we were too good to be out with them.
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