May 27, 2007 Journal Entry

* The majority of this entry is written by Lyle. The italics are added comments by Sheri.

We took a trip out of Addis for the first time to the resort area of Sodiere. A hot spring fed pool is the main attraction, while a hotel and cabins are also available. The roads had minimal traffic as it was a Sunday. The drive is about 120 km south of Addis.

On the way, we stopped at Hora Lake. It reminded me of any small lake near Kamloops. As you can see from the sign, when writing English contraction words, they split the words into two. Pan Cake, Ham Burger, Wel Come ...

While Sheri walked with Mikiyas, I joined a few others for a cup of coffee at a tiny shop that did a coffee ceremony for us.

Mikiyas tried to feed a while kitten some of his goldfish crackers. When one of the other children unintentionally scared the kitten of Mikiyas wanted to eat the same cracker the kitten had just licked. This lead to another temper tantrum, with crackers flying everywhere and a lost snack cup.

One of the ladies that worked at Hora Lake was disturbed by Mikiyas' whining. She made sure to let me know. Of course, I had no understanding of what she was saying, just that it was loud and upsetting.

A few men were fishing in the reeds near shore and caught a small fish.

Hora Lake was quite peaceful. It is a crater lake and is on the list of lakes to tour when bird watching in Ethiopia.


An hour and a half more driving through country side that looked remarkably like the southern interior of BC. What is amazing is the amount of people living everywhere in what is essentially a desert. Mud huts with grass roofs dot the landscape as far as you can see.

The hot springs were in the oddest location. It is scorching hot outside and an olympic style swimming pool is full of people playing in warm water.

After having a quick lunch, we drove towards the pool. We stopped for a few minutes on the way to get the chance to feed some of the hundreds of small wild monkeys running around. It was nice to see Mikiyas get so excited about it.

We arrived at the pool and I tried to take Mikiyas in to the water, but that wasn't going to happen. He doesn't like water yet. We are still working on bathing him without fear.

The pool was packed full of people. The pool that is small enough for children had barely enough room to stand in as it was full of adults. Those without swimsuits wore their underclothes. No one seemed bothered by that at all. There are other pools not in view of the large pool for men and women to be separated so they can swim nude. We didn't bother with those pools.

One of the other parents bought Mikiyas an ice cream cone. As it was so hot out, the ice cream began to drip. Mikiyas didn't like this so much. The ice cream soon was thrown onto Sheri's lap in anger. After removing the ice cream from Sheri's lap, it was fed to a nearby monkey.

The drive home was uneventful. Mikiyas thankfully just slept.


We just ordered a pizza and Mirinda for dinner.

The bill was 46 Birr. It seems expensive, but if you convert it to Canadian it is about $6.00. Notable moments of the day include Mikiyas calling me Papa again. He and I took a bath together to get over his fear of the tub and water. He was so preoccupied with the running water that he didn't even notice me wash his hair. It was a nice evening and he slept through the whole night.

Too much stimulation is a bad thing. As a new family, we have been very busy since the day we picked him up. We have shopped, traveled, and toured all over and every day Mikiyas is fighting us and this new situation he is in. Whining and crying are a constant reminder to us that this is going to take work and a lot of patience. Quiet times for the three of us seemed to be the best thing for Mikiyas. We worked on having these moments as often as possible into our days.