Arrived, survived...thrived

We are here!!! We arrived around midnight last night. By the time we got to the Guest Home last night, we had been traveling for about 26 hours...with about 3 hours of eye rest only. Our luggage did not make it with us. We are hoping to have it by tomorrow. I could go on and on about the craziness of our travel and the shear miracles that occurred to get us here, but I would rather focus on our experience since we have arrived. We are blessed by the generosity of everyone here. The sweet guest home attendant blessed us with a big welcome even though it was super late. After we got all settled in our room upstairs, I came back down to ask her a question and she popped out from under the stairs. Her little dwelling place and bed were in a tiny closet under the stairs. She was not bothered by her small quarters. She is young, probably and older teen, and she is grateful for the job. After about four hours rest, we were up again this morning to have breakfast downstairs; scrambled eggs, fresh bread, and coffee. We then got in the car with the social worker and a driver and headed to our trip South of Addis to Hawassa. It is about a 4.5 hour drive. Much horn honking, brake slamming, swerving, dodging, and speeding. Enough to make even the heartiest stomach a little queasy. I don't have a hearty stomach, so needless to say, I am still suffering from motion sickness. We saw soooo much on the drive. So much that it is impossible to really express and even pictures dont do it justice. National Geographic is very close to what we witnessed today. On one of our previously lost referrals, the comment was that the babe had been found while a woman walked to work. It is one thing to read about it, another to witness exactly what that means. I am not talking about a casual stroll down the sidewalk to work. "Walking to work" means walking miles on the side of this dangerous road or through pastures and over freshly plowed and rough fields to their place of work. Most work on farms. Some travel long distances to bring water back on the backs of donkeys to bring back to their straw huts or to the animals that they tend. We dodged folks all day on the road, nearly hitting them. I cannot describe it. They often walked in the middle of the road or drove their donkeys in the middle of the road..and typically they move if you honk loud enough and often enough. We were fortunate not to hit any living thing. I think what spoke to Chris and I most was the fact that there was not an age excluded from working. It was typical on this drive to see 3 and 4 year olds herding cattle or goats along the road with no one else with them. "Careful, babes, this is a dangerous road! Big trucks are having to dodge you!" They even carried whips and knew how to use them. We saw a pair of about 5 year boys walking together carrying an oxen yolk on their backs. They were working together following behind a clan who were moving their farming tools to a different plowing area. We saw an equivalent number of women carrying bundles of hay, baskets, water, or farming tools and their little girls with them. Every 10 miles or so, was a tiny village consisting of a dozen or more clusters of huts....that's it. huts and farms and kids and farmers. The images are forever engraved in our minds with a serene backdrop of mountains, fields, or deserts trickled with shapely bonsai looking trees and cone shaped huts amidst the farms. Oh forgot to mention that we stopped for a humble bathroom and coffee break halfway there. Chris and I both got a coffee, our sw got a macchiato, and our driver got a hearty injera breakfast. After getting the bill, we began to divide out our portions and then Chris ended up taking care of the whole bill. Not even $2 total for it all. They were moved but I am not sure they understand how moved we are about all of this. So very humbling. We finally got to the hotel..and then orphanage. details to follow.