Best. News. Ever.

We are getting a house! Here's the run down:

• Tomorrow we're kicked out of the Hilton because ICASA is taking over Addis and there is no room here.
• We aren't sure where we're moving into yet. That's a little frustrating, but we can endure. The cats, we know, will move into a co-workers home for the time being.
• By NEXT FRIDAY we should have a place to permanently hang our hats. Well, at least for the next two years.

Here's what I know about the house:

• It's in a part of town called Meganenya which isn't exactly where we were expecting to live. Most US Embassy employees live either in Bole (for those that are single or have small children) or Old Airport (for those that have school-age children). Our neighborhood is near Bole, but more convenient to the Embassy and we will be less likely to have American neighbors, which I think is great news and will encourage us to branch out even more.
• It's a house that is approved for a family of 4.  That means there are at least 4 bedrooms and a study. The original plan was to put us in a house approved for two and then we would have to reapply after Ryan was born for a larger home.  We're thankful that this tedious step was avoided.
• It's reported to be a very nice home.  We haven't been disappointed with any of the homes we've seen here in Addis, even those described as less than standard, so we're anxious to see what very nice even means in this context.
• It's 500x better than the Hilton.

All of this means that I'm about to spend the rest of my day packing, I'll be offline for a while (not sure if there is internet where we're going and there certainly isn't any at the house), and it's time I hire some staff. I wish I could explain how difficult it is to accomplish, find or purchase anything here. Without being a local, you have to hire someone who knows who you can buy safe chicken from, where to go for pastuerized milk, how to get safe carrots. Each item you eat, use to clean your home or organize it, requires vast knowledge of the resources available in Addis.  Even more, each item has two prices: a Habesha (Ethiopian) price and a Ferenji (foreigner) price. Ferenji prices for consumables are typically twice what they are in America so in the end, it's a cost-saving measure as well.

We'll be busy packing/upacking (our air shipment is set to arrive next week as well!) and doing the new-house dance in Addis for the next few days. I'll update as soon as possible!

Laurie

Week #1

Written via email to family on November 11, 2011: 


Our first day was great, but we were SO tired! I struggled to stay awake until 6pm last night and slept until 6am this morning. Apparently it's not uncommon to be exceptionally tired your first two weeks because of the altitude adjustment.  Basically you fall asleep and your breathing slows to a rest pace, but it's not enough oxygen so you jolt awake thinking that your suffocating. The altitude has impacted us in other ways. We both sound like smokers and it's embarrassing to watch us walk up a flight of stairs. We are told it takes a while to acclimate and to just be patient.  In the meantime, we have to drink a ton of water.  I drank about 2.5 gallons yesterday and I still had a dry mouth the whole time. 

All I've seen of the city is the stretch between the Hilton and the US Embassy, about a 15 minute drive.  Yesterday after Mark went into the office I unpacked and organized the room.  Then the office driver, Girum (pronounced Groom - he's very nice) picked me up and took me to the Embassy. There we met with the Regional Medical Officer to talk about emergency medi-vac procedures for me in the event of pre-term labor or any other incident.  She's very nice. I will medi-vac out of Addis to Atlanta during my 34th week, no earlier (unless it's an emergency, they won't pay for earlier) and no later (they don't allow that either). Which means, as predicted, you can expect me sometime around March 8. After meeting with the RMO we went to lunch at the Embassy cafeteria which was surprisingly good and then took care of some entry paperwork.  We will be doing a lot more of that on Monday and Tuesday.  After that, I was introduced to everyone in Mark's office and together we sat down with his boss to discuss Mark's plan of work, how I can help, and what to anticipate. He's a very nice, family-oriented guy that carries that reputation with him so we're both pretty excited about that.  Around 3:30 Girum picked us up and drove us to a grocery store to purchase more water (it's very expensive at the Hilton) and a few other goods.  Western food is very expensive here and dining out is exceptionally affordable so I imagine we'll be doing a lot of the later during these next two months. 

The streets of Addis are teeming with people everywhere - on the sidewalks, in the streets, etc. - they have little regard for oncoming cars and, in fact, the pedestrian is always right.  Mark and I were both a little surprised by the lack of destitution.  People may not have much, but there is little homelessness and few shack-like homes here.  Addis is a pretty wealthy city by Ethiopian standards and the rest of the country is apparently much worse off.  We both feel as though the homeless rate in this city is comparable to DC.  The driving here is crazy! There are more accidents in Addis each year than there are in any other city in the world. I believe it, too. Fortunately, no one ever moves fast enough to cause serious injury. Ethiopia's status as a Police State is evidenced by the excessive paranoia and presence of troops everywhere.  It looks as though any minute the President will walk through the door - except he doesn't - it's just normal to have so many cops and troops around.  That will take some getting used to, but it's easy to see why Addis is so safe. 

We were able to acquire two Ethiopian cell phones yesterday but since Ethiopia has Skype blocked, we can't login to our account until Monday at the Embassy to set up routing.  Having cell phones will help tremendously not only talking to y'all, but coordinating travel around the city with a private driver until we are able to acquire cars.  Mark's car isn't done being made in Japan and we are just beginning the process of looking for a car for me.  There is a lot of red tape to acquiring a second car as a family and we've been told to anticipate that the project will take us a few months. The Embassy is closed today due to Veteran's Day and tonight is the Marine Corp Ball. It's conveniently at our hotel.  Today I am going to Boston Day Spa with a girl, Lauren, who works at the Embassy in customs.  She is the resident "spa guru" in Addis and we're getting mani/pedis for tonight for the equivalent of $4 USD. We're still working on finding a converter that will work for our US style plugs - it's not as easy as you might think without a way to leave the hotel. Now that we have phones, we can call a driver (once Meg at the office sends us his number) and ask him to pick us up.  Once we have a converter, we'll be able to charge our laptop and at least Skype via that.  I'll also have a way to use a curling iron, which will be great for tonight. 

Mark loves his new job and is happy to be here.  We've got a packed social calendar this weekend.  The Marine Corp ball tonight, a grill out on Saturday night (a couple at the Embassy just got their fire pit in and want to break it in), church Sunday (we're starting out by trying the International Evangelical Church - your only options are the Mormon church, the Orthodox church and the Evangelical church...we obviously fit into the last more than either of the prior as the Orthodox service last 4 or more hours and we want to find a church community that Ryan will be able to fit into...4 hour services won't be it!) and then a brunch on Sunday in our honor.  Monday we have a health checkup and some paperwork to do to delcare ourselves to the Ethiopian government and Tuesday we have a tour of the Embassy (it's HUGE and looks like a prison from the outside) and a bunch of meetings with people like the Community Liaison Officer.