Update from family in Addis

I am on a listserve that includes a family who has been posting about changes in Addis and the Horizon Houses. Excerpts from their emails are below:
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Dear WHFC families,

In response to some questions I have gotten from new mommies and daddies who are planning to travel very soon, I will write a bit about Horizon House and the current situation here so that you can have as much information prior to traveling as possible. Please also feel free to send me more questions; if I can at all answer them I will do my best. I know how much I would have valued any and all information from Addis prior to coming last year to unite with our son Yirgalem (now 19 months), and it is in that vein that I am sharing this information with you.

First, let me say something about Addis Ababa. Having spent a lot of time in Sub Saharan Africa for work purposes, we were quite impressed with the level of development of Addis. It is a sprawling city with wide avenues and it is very vibrant, with shops, restaurants, businesses everywhere. Because it is so big and spread out, it can take quite a while to get from one place to another. There is a public transportation system which functions very well, just takes a bit getting used to. Because of the distance between places and the bit of difficulty in finding your way around Addis when you first arrive, Dr. Tsegaye and his team will surely be helping you with that at least at first if not throughout your time here.

One thing that quite surprised us as well is the weather. Please bear this in mind. First of all the altitude is like the Alps; so the air is thin and dry, almost parching. It is more than 2000 meters, truly ski material if it were not so close to the equator! So if any of you have breathing problems keep this in mind, and even for those who don’t, expect to be huffing and puffing a bit. The weather in the daytime is gorgeous, sunny and very very dry (sometimes it even feels desert like due to how dry it can feel). But the most surprising thing is how cold it can get, either on a cloudy day or at night. I am bad at quoting temperatures but I would say that if you keep in mind New York at the end of October or beginning of November you will have a good idea of the temperatures at night. We strongly regretted not having warm late autumn jackets with us, and I even found myself wanting gloves at some points when we were walking around at night. There is truly no need for air conditioning in the hotels or guest houses – on the contrary sometimes you might want heat! So bring autumn clothes for the kids, not summer ones, as well as for yourselves.

Ok, now to Horizon Houses. When we were here last year one year ago exactly, there was one Horizon home. A sunny lovely little place, there were about 23 kids there, mostly between the ages of 6 months and 3 years but some others who were older, very very few tiny babies. I remember Yodit, who was 3 or 4 months old by their estimation, (hello Yodit!) and she was the youngest by far, the next youngest was about 6 or 7 months old. There was a family room at Horizon House at that time, not for sleeping in but for sitting when we would come to get our babies, but there was no place to stay there overnight.

On a personal note on this issue, we wanted to ease Yirgalem’s transition to us from his home at Horizon House, so we spent several days from 8 am until 8 pm with him at Horizon House and we took complete care of him under the assistance of the nannies (we bathed, fed, dressed, changed, held him all day) but he slept there, and we went back to the Hotel (we stayed at the Ghion Hotel which we loved) to sleep the nights. On the fifth night or so we finally felt he was ready to come home with us and we had learned enough about how he had been cared for to try to replicate it as best possible, and then he joined us at the Hotel from then onward. We still came back with him to spend some time at Horizon House after that, but we were not there all day each day.

Well, thank god as well but mostly thanks to the very hard work of WHFC, things have changed dramatically since then! Now there are TWO Horizon Homes, with a total of about 90 children! The two homes are far away from each other (let’s say minimum of 20 minutes drive). Horizon House 1, the first one, is still in tact in the lovely way it was, with grass and a swing set and jungle gym and swings, and flowers all around. Warm and sunny and friendly and inviting. That is the place where the “older” kids are – I still thought there were mostly 2 and 3 year olds and some more “advanced” one year olds as well. Toddlers mostly, with some few older kids there as well. There is still that lovely sitting room for families to sit in with the kids, but there are no guest rooms there to sleep.

Horizon House 2 is brand new and houses the babies. Now Tsegaye has many many tiny babies there as well as older ones, all are in lovely cribs with netting, there are two full time nurses on staff…incredible place! On the same site as HH2 is a gorgeous and brand new guest house, with rooms for approximately 7 families in it to stay over. The idea is that families will come and stay in the guest house which is in the same place as their babies. This way, families can be united with their babies right away upon arrival, can have the support of the nannies and nurses right away, and do not have to go anywhere away from the babies if they don’t want to from the first moment. The house is communal and basic but clean and very comfortable atmosphere. The rooms are all different sizes and most have shared bathrooms on the hallway. There is one big kitchen – Tsegaye said that food will be prepared for the families but that if you want to cook or prepare something for yourselves, the kitchen will be there for you to do so. There is a lovely living room/dining room where you can all gather and sit together. It is really a communal home for all of you to stay together, to be together, to support each other and help each other, and in my opinion it is a phenomenal idea. He has set up a computer there and hopes to have internet access from there (one shared computer – bear in mind that email access from Ethiopia is very very slow so you’ll have to adjust your expectations accordingly, unfortunately) as well as a phone on which you can receive calls. He is trying to figure out a way for you to make calls on a mobile phone with prepaid cards, this is easier said than done but knowing Tsegaye he will find a way!

When my husband and I saw this guest house, we were so incredibly impressed; we wished so much that we had had something like that rather than being all alone on our own in the Ghion hotel last year. So it is a remarkable place, and a wonderful idea.

As I said, the Guest House is on the site of Horizon House 2, which is where the infants are living. Those families who are adopting older kids from Horizon House 1 have a couple of options as I understand it (Dr. Tsegaye, correct me if I’m wrong!). Tsegaye has room at HH1 for the older kids to come and stay; so those families can stay with the others at the Guest House and their kids can come from HH1 to HH2 to be together with the families. The kids can either stay in the rooms with mommy and/or daddy or in a room which Tsegaye has set up for them at HH2. Alternatively, and perhaps to ease the transition of those older kids as well, those families could perhaps stay in the Hotel and visit with their kids at HH1 for a couple of days and then take them back to the Hotel with them. There are many options as you see, and Dr. Tsegaye wants only to do what is best for the families and the kids, so you will have a lot of say and choice in how you want things to be and how you prefer things.

Now, you will be given a choice of whether you wish to stay in this guest house or in a hotel. In fact there are only 7 rooms at the guest house, some of which are relatively cozy, so in some circumstances not all the families who come in a group will be able to stay there at one time.

There are advantages to each, and it all depends on your individual choice. The hotel is more luxurious of course, but is far from both Horizon Homes. There is a pool, restaurants etc at the hotel, but you could also always go over there by taxi during the days to spend time there if you like, if you decide to stay at the Guest House. The Guest house is simple, nothing fancy, but very homey and best of all – it is on the same site as the babies’ rooms with nannies and nurses. Let me share why I think this is so important.

Yirgalem was 7 months old when he joined our family. As I explained above, we spent 5 days with him at Horizon House before taking him back to the Ghion Hotel with us. For 5-6 weeks thereafter he woke up every hour on the hour throughout the whole night hysterically crying. We were so terribly exhausted -- not to mention distressed at our son’s distress, of course -- that there were parts of our experience in Ethiopia that we did not enjoy to the full extent because the nights were so rough. If we had been at the Guest House, we could have sought the help, advice, support of the nannies and nurses and could have perhaps had a bit more rest as well, and that would have been more valuable than gold.

So that is my input and information for the moment. Bear in mind again that Dr. Tsegaye is the godfather of the kids and of the program on this end, he is an absolute angel who is adored by all the kids and immensely respected by the staff, and he wants above all to make the kids and you all happy. He works night and day tirelessly to this end, and you will love him as much as we do, I am sure. Thus, you have merely to mention something that you would like or want and he will do his utmost to make that happen, without hesitation. He is an absolute blessing, and we and our kids are blessed to have him in our lives.

Warm wishes to the rest of the WHFC family,
Max