Saturday

Wow! our week is winding down here. Today our taxi driver Yonas took us to the supermarket (I am using that term loosely). We are in need of formula and picked up some diapers while we were there.

Abera has been eating 6-7 bottles a day, and I had planned for 3-4. I don't know where he puts it, but he has a BIG belly now and is really solid. Not chubby yet, but we can't be far away.

We first went to one market that seems to cater to Ethiopians. They had diapers but no formula, so we went to another market that had higher-end foreign goods. They had formula there. I paid 56 birr (about $7) for a small can that is about half the size of the formula tins we have at home. No wonder the average Ethiopian baby is breast-fed. There's no way that one could afford formula. According to Girma, the social worker in Sidamo, the average wage for an educated Ethiopian is $100 per month, and much less for the uneducated. imagine half of that going to formula.

After the trips to the supermarket, we headed back to the souvenir shops for some more loot. i bought out the store. I bought about $275 worth of goods in both shopping trips and filled up two suitcases. We don't know when we will be back in Ethopia, and I want stuff for all of the folks taking such great care of Grace and for Abera for future birthdays.

I was efficient and we were back home by about 1 p.m. (we left at 10 a.m.) Even the simplest tasks here wear us out. The traffic and pollution are terrible, and every time we leave the confines of the Hilton we are hounded by shoe shine boys and beggars. It is really hard. I want to give money to everyone, but it can cause a mob to form. It never really feels very safe, particularly with the baby. I don't mean that anyone would hurt us because we are never threatened like that. It's just being in a crowd wanting stuff from you and you don't speak the language. Intimidating is probably a better word.

The begging is so much worse than anything I have ever seen. Every ten feet there is someone new, and this can go one for miles and miles on the same street. Needless to say, we haven't been able to walk around as much as we would like.

Abera continues to adjust marvellously. Each day we see more and more character, although he didn't start out as a sedate baby! He actually cried and fussed today for the first time when we put him down for a nap. It was only 5 minutes or so, but it seemed like he didn't want to be separated from us.

Tomorrow we are headed for the Ethnological Museum in the former palace of Haile Selassie. Then more packing. Then probably room service again. We seem to alternate between the burgers and the pizza marguerite. On every faranji (foreign) menu we have seen, there is always an entree that includes a fried egg: chicken with fried egg, waffle with fried egg, etc. Steve loves fried egg on ANYTHING. The Hilton Room Service menu lists the burger options as cheese, fried egg or chili. The first time we ordered, Steve did not get the fried egg and was quite disappointed. So I ordered last night and he got a fried egg on top of the gigantic burger with cheddar cheese. He was pleased.

The weather here is constantly overcast and rather cold. Maybe low 60's. I don't have a weather report other than CNN International. We haven't been to the pool yet which is from a thermal spring. We can't really sit by the pool wet because it is too cold, although there many people who do. And Abera HATES water. He screams during bath time. We are trying to slowly acclimate him.