Durame to Addis Ababa - Friday June 24, 2011

I did it! Went to bed at 10 and actually made it to 6! Woo hoo! Just got acclimated two days before returning home... Great...

We met downstairs for coffee and breakfast and I was able to meet some more with Zeru and discuss some details of the project. We spent a lot of time discussing the differences between doing a project in the US and one in Ethiopia, especially in medical. There were a lot of things that I would bring up that he would ask " why do you do that?" and to be honest, for a lot of those things all I couldn't come up with a good logical answer. We had some good laughs about our differences in projects and it was interesting to see their way of planning, in a lot of ways it is way more effecient!

One of the new school buildings

After breakfast, we loaded into the vans and headed south to Wolaita, where Miles was born. Our first stop was a school that Holt had helped finish after the project needed help. They are now able to enroll 540 kids from the surrounding area. Cost on the project was $8,000! Simply amazing that $8k can stretch as far as to provide education for that many kids, who will have such different lives simply because they are educated. Between that, and the sponsorship program, Holt is making such an impact here in Southern Ethiopia.

This next part of the journey is one that I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my days. We went to the area where Miles' dad was buried, to pay respects. This is not commonly done, but dr Fikru made it happen and I will forever be grateful to him for the opportunity he gave me today.

We entered into a village not far from the school. The village surrounded a large grassy clearing where the van came to a stop. A man named Birhanu was waiting for us at this location. Fikru and Birhanu led all of us to a patch of cleared dirt with many mounds and told us this is where Miles father was buried. There were no gravestones or flowers, just mounds of dirt. Birhanu then led me to an unmarked mound of dirt to Urqato's grave. All of the sudden everything stopped for me. I looked back and members of the village had gathered and were coming down to the gravesite. I asked Birhanu if I could have a moment alone with  Urqato and he obliged. All of the people then started walking back towards the direction of the van and all that was left was myself and a bunch of kids that were too curious to leave, which I didn't mind and actually was comforting to have them there.

I placed a picture of Miles on Urqato's grave and a wave of different emotions came over me. Feelings of sadness that Miles may still be with his family if his fathers death had not occurred, feelings of hope that I am raising Miles in his dad's honor, and a feeling of peace that I finally got to pay respects to this man that I have never met but share an incredible bond with. This experience both broke and healed me at the same time.

I took some video and pictures for Miles to someday see and then slowly made my way back to the van. It was incredibly hard to leave, I found myself stopping and turning around to make sure I was taking in everything that I possibly could. As I made it back to the van there was now a crowd of people from the village. I found Birhanu and asked how Miles mom and sister are doing and he said very well. He also said that they were both at the gravesite yesterday. I then felt an overwhelming sense of closeness to them just knowing that I was in the same proximity as they were the day before. I knew I couldn't visit them, but I knew they were with me just the same. I gave Birhanu the photo album and asked if she had received the others and learned that she had, and loves them! I felt so good about this as this was the first I had heard that she actually has picked up the albums. I thought primarily about her words when we met and she saying "make sure he always remembers me and knows why I did what I did" and thought of the pictures at the end of this album that showed Miles with a picture of  his birth mom and kissing that picture. It made me realize that everything was supposed to turn out exactly like it turned out today.

We got in the vans and it began to rain and I began to cry, in fact I lost it. I still cannot totally understand what the true reason for my tears was, but it needed to happen. Everyone in the group was incredibly supportive and let me have my space. I am still so grateful and thankful for this experience. I feel a closeness to Urqato that will help me continue to try and be a great father to Miles.

From here we began to travel North up another stretch of road that led down into the Great Rift Valley, but it kept raining and raining hard. We got to a point about 20 miles up the road where the river had completely washed it out and it was too deep to cross. A man  jumped in the car with us saying he new an alternate route, so we turned around and followed his directions, which led us to a field that was not as flooded (but still pretty flooded!) to cross to a road on the other side. It did not look like a good place to cross, but our driver decided it was fine and went for it. We made it 2 feet before we were stuck and spinning up mud. So, everyone got out, minus Cindy, and began to push. It took a while, but we finally got the van back up on the road. So the trek back to Addis ended up being 8 hours instead of 6, because we had to backtrack and head up an easier route. Everyone was ok with it because the alternative was to try to go forward on the washed out route and really get stuck!

We got into Addis late, checked into the Beer Garden Inn, had a quick bite and promptly went to our rooms and passed out.  Dan left us that evening and headed back to the US. It was an absolute pleasure traveling with him and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

Tomorrow is our last day in Addis and we will leave at the end of the day! I am looking forward to relaxing and shopping a little and then boarding a plane for home. I miss everyone so very much...

Goodnight!