I just got a frustrated email from my sister who is currently in Ethiopia picking up her incredibly gorgeous 6 month old baby boy. It seems that her luggage is stuck in Washington D.C. She's trying to figure out how to get them to send it on to Addis, and she's having a hard time calling out of Ethiopia. I contact her travel agent for her, who hopefully will be able to help her straighten things out.

But her email reminded me of a question that comes up over and over again when families are preparing to travel to Ethiopia: what about phone calls? I wrote awhile back about ... more

A budget hotel that many people have been very happy with in Addis is the Yilma Hotel. It is located in the Mechanissa area of Addis not far from the Vatican Embassy and the Adoption Advocates International children's home. A shuttle from the airport is available. The Yilma has single, double and suite rooms, though the suites are small. Cost per night: $25 for a double room and $30-35 for a suite. You will need to pay in birr, since credit cards and US dollars are not accepted. Money-changing is not available at this hotel.

There are phones in the rooms. To call out you must call the front desk and have them dial the number for you. No internet access is available,... more

I found this interesting story in the New York Times about some of the traditional restaurants in Addis.

Danielle Pergament writes:

On a trip to Addis Ababa last year, I became increasingly intrigued with the cuisine. Everywhere — from dingy streets to polished hotels — I saw people of every age, class and occupation eating the same food and embracing the same traditions. The food is a source of national pride, and a daily reminder of this country’s history.

There are no appetizers or desserts... more

Foreigners 'seized' in Ethiopia Several Britons with connections to the UK government are part of a group of 15 tourists missing in Ethiopia, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed. Diplomats in Ethiopia say the group was kidnapped in the remote north-east of the country about 800km (500 miles) from the capital, Addis Ababa. Most of the tourists are believed to be French, the others British and Italian. They were travelling to the Afar desert, one of the hottest... more

Adoptive families who already have children often face the dilemma of needing to leave some or all of the children at home while they travel to adopt the new child. This has always been the situation with my family, and I've done a lot of thinking about ways to ease the time while mom is gone.

Each time I have gone, we've been able to arrange caregiving that for the most part kept our kids in our own home. I felt like this was least disruptive to our children, especially the young ones. Some families opt to have the children stay with friends or grandparents, which can be a good solution too. The fun of staying someplace new may outweigh the strangeness of sleeping somewhere... more

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Thankfully both little girls slept fairly well, and our flight the next morning was not till 10 am. Tsion and my 13-year-old were happy to see the donuts in the hotel lobby and I was grateful to see coffee. In the bustle to load everything into the shuttle van, Tsion’s donut went face-down on the asphalt. I briefly considered claiming the 30-second... more

(Part one here)

That first leg of the journey to London went really well. Both girls spent large portions of the time sleeping--hooray. My 13-year-old and I dozed a bit too. We didn’t even have to get out very many of the new toys I’d saved just for the way home. All in all, that first leg could not have gone much better.

Once in London, our layover was much shorter than last time-- only about 3 hours. We bought chocolate and odd gummy bears covered in powdered sugar, I dashed off a very short email to John on a computer I paid by the minute for, and we did laps with Tsion. We rode down to one... more

Here is the story I wrote after arriving home from Ethiopia in June of 2005. On that trip I had my 13 year old son and my 3 year old Tsion with me to pick up 6 month old Bizunesh.

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The walk to the Addis terminal from the parking lot is up a hill that feels big when you’re pushing something heavy, but my 13-year-old muscled our cart full of luggage manfully up. Just inside the entrance we had to unstack and send it all through security, including taking Tsion out of the stroller and sending the stroller through too.

The after- security load... more

My light posting lately has been partly due to my laptop. Some glitch in the software has forced me to do a destructive rebuild — twice — in the last day. Destructive, meaning…I had to erase EVERYTHING. Thankfully I keep the bulk of my files on my big ‘puter. But still... inconvenient... irritating... grr...

Anyway, this weekend I thought I'd share my daughters' homecoming stories. This first one was from my first Ethiopian daughter who came home at the age of twenty months in 2004. On that trip I also had my then-thirteen year old daughter with me. We flew Lufthansa and had a good experience... more

I was thrilled today to get a report from Shana about the hotel where she and her husband stayed while they were in Ethiopia in January to pick up their baby. The hotel is called The Damu, and is located on Bole Road not far from the airport. It opened less than a year ago. Along with a great travel story currently being written on the installment plan, Shana wrote me this excellent and very helpful review of the hotel:

We rented a "superior" room, which I think just means it had one king bed versus two twins. I really can't say enough good things about the hotel. It is much... more