Arrival in Addis Ababa!

Don and I are doing good and have been warmly welcomed and made to feel at home. We left Orlando with 9 pieces of luggage and $750 lighter and arrived safely with only one piece of luggage...the water skis! (We returned to the airport at midnight and found 7 more pieces of our luggage. The missing one finally came in on another airline. Go figure!) Seppo and his wife, Mr.Kim and his wife, and many others met us at the airport.
    We are settling in and establishing a bit of a routine. The first several days were spent unpacking, getting past some jet lag, and acclimating ourselves to the elevation of over 8,000 ft. It takes some adjustment for Florida folks! The new guest house isn't quite ready, as the furniture, cabinets, and kitchen equipment are coming fom Korea and are now in the port of Djibouti. Supposedly the container will arrive this week. We shall see. Even if it does arrive, installation has to take place. Some road work and clearing of debris also must occur. Meanwhile, we are just fine in the apartment we were in last year.
    In some ways we feel like we have come home. Upon arrival on Saturday night, we were met with  many smiling and familiar faces. Our apartment had been "spruced up" with some new paint and other special touches of flowers and food. We had so much luggage, Mr. Kim, the hospital administrator, asked if we were immigrating!
    We were warmly and lovingly welcomed by other hospital  personnel who reside at the guest house, as well as the kitchen staff. These are sweet young Ethiopian ladies and all wanted to know about our daughter, Kim. When she was here with us in March, she taught the staff to make some Western-type food.
    We have been invited out on several occasions for lunch and dinner. We are invited to the home of Dr. Rick Hodes for this Friday evening dinner. We met him two years ago and were amazed at the miracles he has been able to pull off or arrange for children and young people with most unusual cases. Imagine our surprise to find him on our KLM flight from Amsterdam to Addis! So we have reconnected, and in fact, Don is on the way to the Mother Teresa Mission, where Dr. Hodes has worked for over 20 years. He is an American doctor, Jewish, and working in a Catholic facility. He has 7 adopted Ethiopian boys and about 10 foster ones.
    A Norwegian staff doctor invited me to join in a birthday celebration for his wife. This was an all-ladies event. Most of the women were Norwegian and were the most interesting group, highly involved in the life of this community, and I think all were participating in ministering to the Ethiopian people.
    I met our young Ethiopian friend, LemLem, (LumLum) for lunch yesterday and a little grocery shopping. We had a great time, and I felt as though she was another daughter. Her husband is an orthopaedic surgeon, formerly on the staff here, but now working in another city. We plan more times together, which will be fun for me and hopefully take away a little of her loneliness without her husband here in Addis.
    Don had surgery this morning, and I think quite an audience. There are about 6 Norwegian medical students here for several weeks, and they have been anxiously waiting to observe Don in surgery. They are eager and excited. There are so many Norwegians here right now that the hospital administrator is saying, "The Vikings have landed!"
    I have been preparing some meals for us, which can be time consuming. The vegetables must first be sterilized and then rinsed in sterile water before they can be prepared for cooking. Most of my morning today was spent in preparing vegetables to have ready for the next time I need them.  We have a two burner, portable gas stove top, which sometimes takes a bit of juggling to get everything cooked at the same time.
    Gratefully, we have a washing machine in our building. There are no dryers, which is just fine as the clothes dry quickly when hung on a rack on our balcony. However, this morning, just as I got the wet clothes hung out to dry, the rains came. I remember my mother facing the same battle and the mad dash by both of us to the backyard to bring in the clothes.
    Almost every day we are brought gifts of food or something else. The Koreans have treated us so kindly and we don't seem to be able to do enough for them. We are continually surprised. It is nice to have such close neighbors, in fact, it sometimes feels like we are in a dorm. We have great neighbors in Orlando, but rarely see them as we all live behind the shrubs.
    We know you will keep us in your prayers.
-- Barbara