March 3rd

We arrive late after over 30 hours of travel. We were releived to find Messfin and Ketema (our drivers) waiting for us. They brought us directly to the guest house which was about a ten minute drive. They checked us in and we collapsed into bed.

March 4th (I think)

We are unsure what day it actually is since we lost a day somewhere along the way. Jeremy and I woke up at 4:30 this morning. We played cards because there was nothing else to do until the rest of the world woke up. We heard the call to prayer (Muslim I think) at around 5 ish. It is a beautiful sound to wake up to. At 7 we went down and had breakfast. Around 9 Messfin and Ketema came by and asked us if we wanted to meet with Haregwoin and meet Marie! We jumped at the chance because we thought we would be unable to meet her until after our trip to Durame. One of the foster home workers brought her down. She was shy with us. She remained stiff and shy for about 15 minutes, not making a single sound. After that she relaxed a little and by the end of the hour she was starting to coo a little. She is a very beautiful baby, round and roll polly. I think it will take her a little while to get used to us. We must look and sound so strange to her. We spent around an hour with her and I thought it would be difficult to give her back, but it wasn't. We knew that she was tired and that she needed the time to process the experience. I hope that next time we meet her, it will be a bit easier. She loved the book I brought for her and she did not want to let it go so we let her keep it. Hopefully she does not lose it because she likes it so much and it would be nice to have. When we were first introduced, Haregwoin asked me if I recognized her and I said "yes", she said "really because this is a different baby!" I nearly died... she said later that the look on my face was priceless. Aparently she finds it funny to tease jetlagged Canadians! It was rather funny in hind sight. The other eventful thing that happened was that I got peed on. At the foster home they use cloth diapers which are not nearly as absorbant. Haregwoin told me that I had been "claimed". It was quite funny. On this day we also made arragements for our trip to the Kembata region. The cost of the vehicle is $100 per day plus fuel. We will leave sometime tomorrow.