Acceptance Papers

Today we signed our acceptance papers for our child proposal. We also got the immigration ball rolling again. Wheh what a process. I am told that our part is minor compared to what has to be done in Ethiopia. Apparently it is a big job running from this office to that office, having this paper stamped and then that one etc etc. We are truly grateful to have someone on reliable on the ground to wade through all the red tape for us. I have been doing a bit of research into the Kembata Region (where our daughter was born). There is not a ton of information out there, but from what I understand it is very remote. It is one of the regions of Ethiopia that relies heavily on Entebe (false banana) and is called the green hunger zone. This is because the land is very lush, but there is still abject poverty and a lot of hunger. The area is very densely populated and the land gets divided among sons. Generations and generations of farmers dividing their land has lead to very little land for each family. Consequently, the land has been severely degraded because of over-farming. Entebe is a crop that takes around five years to fully mature. After it has matured, it has to be processed in back-breaking labour before it can be consumed.... its now bedtime for us working folk (yes I started work), so I will post more later