March 8th (Written by Jeremy)

We've had one complete day with Marie now. It's quite remarkable how well things have gone so far. We were prepared for a lot of crying, not being able to console her, a lack of sleep, the whole gammit. As it is, she seems to have adjusted to us well and is a cheerful little soul. If she cries, picking her up and holding her calms her down immediately. She was a bit of trouble to settle down last night because she kept waking up. After a while though she went to bed and slept the whole night through. She woke up very cheerful and has remained so for most of the day. Are we going to pay for this later in life? We visited the Merkato today with a couple from Edmonton. I think we spent more time looking for parking than actually shopping. Ketema our driver, strongly warned us about pickpockets and other theives. After a relatively short visit to a few shops we headed out. I must say I prefer Church Hill Rd Market. It is smaller, easier to park and has more variety in a small area. It caters mainly to tourists. If we were living here, I am sure we would find the Merkato useful though. The Merkato is broken into areas by contents like "shoes and purses", and "automotive" etc. This is great if you are looking for a particular item, but is lousy if you are just browsing. Apparently you can get anything at the Mercato from false teeth to donkeys. After dropping the other family at the Sheraton for swimming, we went to the Haile Selese Museum in Addis Ababa University. We learned a fair bit more about different cultures within this amazing country. Leah is finishing a Suduku puzzle and we only have one pen, so that's it for my writting for now. Leah: This is a list of the things we know about Marie so far: She cries when we put her down but calms down immediately when picked up. She prefers to sleep on her tummy She likes the snuggly She likes to cuddle She likes juice from a cup She has two teeth She is too busy to get dressed She babbles to herself in the morning, especially if you put her in front of the mirror. She has birth marks on her back. She is perfect.