Farewell Ceremony

Wednesday July 18 - In the AM we went shopping for souveniers and gifts. I bought some traditional Ethiopian clothing for Maya and myself, some handmade baskets and some things made out of soap stone. There was a guy selling maps of Ethiopia out on the street and every time I walked of a store he followed me trying to get me buy one. I would have bought one too only he started out offering the map for 170 Birr, about $18 US dollars - I bought clothes for Maya and I for about 130 Birr or $14 US dollars so I knew he was just seeking to con the dumb Americans. We went to the Halie Selassie shop also and a music store where I bought two CD's of Ethiopian music. We have been listening to the music everyday lately and I can't tell you what they are saying but Elias loves it and sings along.
Wednesday afternoon was the farewell ceremony at the care center. All the children were sitting in chairs at one end of a large room, the parents lined the wall at the other end of the room. The children who were brought in by their nannies. As they entered the room the school-agers began chanting El-i-as, El-i-as, El-i-as and clapping. I started crying. The social worker gave a speech and handed out cards for each of the children. I started reading the one for Elias and started crying again. Then each child put a hand print on a wall painted to look like the Ethiopian flag. I had counted all the hand prints earlier (nearly 170) there was one for each child who has been adopted so far in 2007. We then had a prayer in both Amharic and English then the celebration with cake. Since Elias was the oldest being adopted that week he got to make the first cut in the huge cake.


After the ceremony Elias gave hugs to his nannies and friends for the last time. Then we took the children back to the care center to stay. The ceremony was emotional but it was so nice to have all the kids with us at the guesthouse, they added some liveliness and, of course, noise.