Harar/ Dire Dawa

We went to Harar today! Jacob is from Harar and we didn’t get to visit there last time we were here. I was really excited to go see where he was from, and his first orphanage. We left our guest house at 6am to head to the airport. We flew to Dire Dawa, which was about a 45 min flight. We checked into our hotel and then drove about an hour to Harar. We stopped and bought some bananas to take to Abenezer Orphanage. Then we went to the new orphanage building. Abenezer changed building about 7 months ago. Jacob was in the old building, but the same people were working there. They were so excited to see Jafar! They couldn’t believe it was him because he has gotten so big. It was sweet to see them remember things about him and his story. I was impressed how much they remembered about him. We got a few more details about the day that he came to the orphanage. We got to meet the guard who brought him in and named him. We got to see the road that he was carried down (cars can’t drive down it). I wasn’t expecting this to be emotional, but it really was for both of us. Jacob was great, he didn’t react to anything. The guard wanted to hold him and kiss him and Jacob went right to him. This was huge because he has only let one other guy hold him here. He isn’t a huge fan of other guys holding him. We also got to take pictures with his first nanny and the officer that helps with the paperwork for Abenezer. They were all wonderful and it was so nice to know how much they care about the kids.
Abenezer Orphanage is small and since it is far from Addis, not many families visit there, so we were warned that they don’t have much. We were able to bring 26 cans of formula that was donated by a family in out small group and all the diapers we could buy from a store bought from some donation money my mom had received. When we walked in we first went into the babies room, there was one little boy without a diaper on. We were glad that we had bought a few diapers, but we also know that in a week or so they will be out again, and so it wasn’t a permanent fix, but that baby is at least sleeping with diapers tonight. If you go visit an orphanage outside of Addis, take all your donations there. The store room was pretty scarce and pretty small. When we walked in the doors with two soccer balls, the kids started cheering and singing. They didn’t have much to play with.
After the orphanage visit went for lunch, then to drive/ walk all around the city. We got to see the wall around the old city. It was built to keep the warriors out. There are 3 old main gates to get into the city. We got pictures of those too! Then we went into the old city and got to walk around a little bit. We bought a beautiful basket and some coffee. Harar is known for great coffee. The coffee factory was very small and only a few people worked there. The workers were sitting there chewing chat (a drug) on the job. Harar is also known for the hyena’s that come out at night. The people of Harar have befriended the hyenas and feed them so they will protect them and not eat them. People can feed the hyenas at night from their hand or their mouth. We weren’t there at night, but Brad might have been interested if we were.
Then we went back to Dire Dawa for the night. Since it was Christmas Eve there were people outside singing Christmas carols by a fire. My mom really wanted to go, but we were all tired and went to bed early. The bed was probably the worst I ever slept on and it was a long night. But Christmas morning we woke up and had breakfast downstairs with the Simon’s and Job. Then we drove around Dire Dawa (Dre Daw wa) and stopped by the local zoo. It took less than 10 mins to see everything. They had one hyena, one ostrich, several monkeys and birds, a couple owl, rabbits, and chickens. And in the middle of the zoo was a playground for the kids. The poor hyena was all cut up because it had tried to get out.
Next we headed back to the airport to fly back to Addis. We ate lunch then went to the TH to see Kaleb and Isaiah. Isaiah was happy to see us and was waiting by the gate. He got to go to church to and sing Christmas songs. We got a little (I mean very little) bit of eye contact from Kaleb today, it was the best day with him. He actually sat on our lap or let us hold him the whole time. It was the least amount of crying I think we had too! He doesn’t like to be told no, or if he can’t do what the big kids are doing. We tried to teach him to put his arms up in the air when we ask him how big he is, he started to catch on and liked when we all cheered for him when he did it. Isaiah thought it was pretty funny when we were cheering too.
Such a different Christmas Day than what we are used to, but it was nice to be relaxed and getting to know Jacob’s history better and spend some more time with Kaleb and Isaiah. We will celebrate Christmas on January 7th, the Ethiopian Christmas.