I love you

wedeshallo 'I love you'

Could I have possibly received a better welcome home than that?

After arriving at Bole Airport at 7 am without sleeping on the overnight flight, I took it upon myself to take a nap though my first instinct was to go straight to the orphanage. I knew I wouldn't last long there without some sleep and so forced myself to take it easy for a few hours. After sleeping 3 or 4 hours, I was up and ready to make the trip to the orphanage with some of the donations in-tow as I couldn't carry all of the stuff to where I had to meet a taxi. I had left Ethiopia with a tiny suitcase for my 3 weeks stay in Holland and had returned 40 lbs over my limit with two gigantic suitcases. Thankfully, the airline was kind enough to not charge me as I said most of it was for an orphanage in Addis Ababa.

I made my way up to Kechene by taxi and was impatiently waiting while the hectic traffic overwhelmed the streets. As I pulled up to Kechene’s secured, rusted, metal gate the taxi honked his horn to signal to the guard to let us in. I was greeted with a questionable stare as it took a few seconds for the guard to recognize me through the tinted glass of the taxi’s windshield. Then he smiled and quickly opened the gate. We entered and as we made the turn toward the “tach bait” (the young children’s house) I was awaiting my first greeting. Who would be there? Would the children still be in school? And soon enough, I saw little Tscarida standing on the cemented walkway of the house. She was curiously looking into the taxi trying to see who was in the passenger’s seat. Finally, through the driver’s open window I waved and said “Halo Tscarida!” Her then bored eyes lightened up instantaneously as she ran over to the stopped taxi. I opened the door and there she was, right next to me holding my leg as tight as her little hands allowed, ewedeshallo Bettina. Ewedeshallo. I started to tear up as happiness overtook me and I had forgot all of the stress of the last few weeks and complete exhaustion that had plagued my otherwise energetic-, optimistic-, idealist-self.

I picked up the personality princess and she just hugged me for a long while. Though she is always affectionate she is never still unless ill and I soaked up the opportunity to have a silent moment with one of the many children I will never forget. Soon enough, there was a mob of children around me all trying to kiss and hug me as though I had been gone for ages. “Bettina, Bettina, Bettina” I would hear just before my neck was cranked to the level of a child’s face and I would be kissed over and over and then given a great hug.

It wasn’t long before the toddlers made their way to the pile of children that seemed to keep multiplying. As they forced their tiny, unstable-selves across the drive and into the center where I was, they grabbed my pants and soon enough, I had 5 little guys attached to my legs. Wishing I could hold them all at once, I did my best and picked up two of them up, Tamarat and Simon and gave them big kisses as they cuddled or squirmed in my arms.

As the time went on, it started to settle down and I was able to hand out the donations to the boys, who I had brought new jerseys for as they are the most dilapidated of all the children. However, I was still missing three of my “Fabulous Four” as they attend a kindergarten at the nearby orphanage and it runs later than the other schools. I was impatiently waiting for Beamluk, Tarifa and Ilsa to return from school. It took a lot of will not to run over there and take them out of playtime at Kibebsteyhey. In what seemed like an hour but was probably more like a half hour after my arrival Kalkedan yells to me, “THEY’RE HERE!” Beamluk, the biggest of the three was the first to hear I had arrived as she rounded the corner of the entrance and immediately ran as fast as she could into my arms and I to her. Though she too likes to stay still as much as Tscarida she held on tight to me and nestled her face into my neck and stayed their for a while, while I held her in my arms not wanting to let go either. It felt like home.