A year ago today…

Was a wild day!!!

We woke up early to get ready for our trip to Assala. We had breakfast, packed stuff for the long day trip and met Benjamin’s grandmother and aunt outside for pictures.

Besides our concerns about Benjamin’s emotional well-being on and after the trip, we were also a bit worried about logistics… We had been told we would be traveling in a four-wheel drive vehicle. When we were told the night before that we would be driving the grandmother all the way to Assala as well, I asked if we had a big enough vehicle…We had Josh, Benjamin, Dan, a driver, the grandmother and myself…six people. They assured us that we would have a big enough car and a driver that spoke English and could translate.

And yet when our ride pulled up, it was Toyota Rav 4. I think the “4” in the name stands for “four wheel drive” but it absolutely could also stand for “no more than 4 people fit in here”.

The driver and Dan took the two front seats (Dan wanted to video tape out the window). The grandmother and I took the two back seats, with Ben going back and forth between being wedged between us and on my lap, and poor Josh was stuck in the HATCH BACK. He did fairly ok on the first half of the four hour ride to Assala, while the road was still paved…but it got rough enough that it was tough going even for those of us sitting in padded seats. Josh (who is 6’1” and had nowhere for his legs to go) did not have a comfortable ride (but was SO good about it).

Ben was shy and awkward with his grandmother…he would answer her questions briefly and let her hug and kiss him, but was not how I expected he would be.

Things were a little awkward between me and the Grandmother too, but not too bad. We were very squished together, and I blame the awkwardness on the fact that we were two women who very much loved the same little boy and would have lots to talk about, if it weren’t for that dang communication barrier and blaring Ethiopian cassette tape. We shared smiles often, and did manage some communication based on her limited English (usually when the driver was on his cell phone and had turned down the music momentarily).

We quickly realized our driver was on of the first people we had met in Ethiopia that we didn’t like. He didn’t even say hello when we got in the car. He demanded the money (quite a bit in US dollars!) almost immediately, he completely ignored us even when we asked questions, he never pointed out sites or told us anything, he blasted his music and talked on his cell phone and was very “snotty”. And as far as translating goes, he didn’t translate a word. Not a single word. He either didn’t know any English at all, or didn’t like us for whatever reason (from the first minute he saw us). Why the adoption agency hired him for us, I will never know.

It made a long and emotional trip somewhat uncomfortable at times, and it would have been a totally different experience to have someone to translate for us so we could really communicate with Ben's family and to have someone to tell us about the things we were passing, etc. Oh, and he never stopped to offer drinks or food or a bathroom. I have never gone so long in my life without using the bathroom and was almost in tears as we walked those last few feet back to our hotel room at the end of the day!!!!

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