Arrival - Day One

*I (Aimee) added pictures just for your visual pleasure. Bole Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Shopping in Addis

Lauren and I arrived safely in Addis Ababa a little after 9 am this morning (Saturday). By the time we got our visas, made it through customs, retrieved all of our bags (yeah! All of our bags made it!), and arrived at the hotel, we were pretty wiped out.

We took a little nap, ate lunch, and then decided to see the city a bit. We took some cabs with two other couples, went to the Hilton to exchange some money, and then went shopping at an Ethiopian Market for a few hours. Shopping turned out to be pretty draining, as we were swarmed with kids who turned on the tears for us and were infatuated with the suckers we were passing out. Trying to convert Birr to American dollars while assessing the value of an item, all on minimal sleep proved to be quite a chore. We were happy to get our shopping in today though, so that the rest of the week we can just hang out together with Melia.

Speaking of Melia, we will go to the orphanage tomorrow, (Sunday), at 1:30 pm (5:30 am EST) to get her. We had originally thought that we were going to get her in the morning, but they actually changed the time on the itinerary with white out, so everyone in our travel group was a bit disappointed. The waiting is almost over though, and we are brimming with anticipation. We will send more updates when we can. Not sure about pictures or videos, as the computer at the hotel does not have the right hookup for our memory stick. Love you all. Please forward this on to your respective families.

Michael & Lauren

8:00 pm local time, Saturday