Day 7 - last day
Wow. What a week. The cumulative effect of the week has started to catch up on everyone. Eating out everyday. All sleeping in the same room. Sharing one bathroom. It has been a wonderful trip. I can imagine that Hermella has very mixed emotions right now as she will soon leave familiarity and enter a whole new world. Good and bad. Easy and hard.
We had one last lunch at our favorite place (I think this was our 4th lunch their). They have a good mix of traditional Ethiopian food as well as some int'l dishes like pizza and chicken cutlets. The place was called Samet Restaurant and we usually got out of there for about $20 - $25 depending on what we ordered (including our driver's food). The service was more attentive than normal and it was never very busy.
We also had to make a quick stop at the Gladney office to pick up Hermella's shot records since we will need them for her to start school.
Finally, Oscar has been craving Sambusa (fried pockets of meat) ever since we left Ethiopia two years ago. We grabbed some for the airport at the Ethiopian equivalent to Starbucks called "Kaldis". Everything except for the name has a starbucks feel. Our driver had said that they tried to sue Kaldis but really didn't have any jurisdiction in Ethiopia. Also, someone from the Ethiopian side had argued that since Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, Starbucks should be very careful when trying to argue about naming and branding.
Finally, off to the airport with 4 bags to check and 6 to carry on. Versus 14 checked and 7 carry-on luggage before.
We feel a strong calling to return in the next year or so for Hermella to be able to show us the city she is from, Gondor. It is about 10-12 hour car trip, so our next journey to Ethiopia will have to be closer to two weeks. Fortunately, Emily and I can confidently say that we will be able to be in charge of the timing of that trip and we will have the same number of outgoing passengers as those coming home. Our family feels complete after a long 8 year journey.
Sent from my iPad
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