Mekele-Days 5 & 6

Before I start into Days 5&6, please pray with us for a solution or Adia's digestion.  We are running low on Ethiopian formula and tried transitioning to several formulas.  Our doctor says formulas are basically the same, only dairy or soy-based, but Adia is having problems!  This morning, we switched to powdered goat's milk for 1/2 of the mix, but she still seems uncomfortable (not as bad as she did with Similac). 

My mom started the day with us and then Kristen drove from Indy for the afternoon.  We have had some fussy girls, hopefully she will come back!  :)

On to our adventures...
Mekele is in the state of Tigray, far North in Ethiopia. The girls are from this region and we were very interested to learn more about the area they were from. We had the opportunity to spend two days there.

We boarded a plane early Saturday morning and then embarked upon many adventures.  At this point, another family from IAG had joined us, so it was so fun to have travel buddies! Brian and Mabel are both nurses and have been through several kinds of adoptions, so they were great resources!

The region was very arid and more like a desert.  The architecture was very different and much was done with this amazing stone from the mountains.  The houses were mostly rectangle and covered in stone.  The landscape designer in my husband couldn't stop taking pictures! 

Our first stop was the IAG Care Center.  We met the kids and took hundreds of pictures for the waiting families, delivered care packages and did lots of playing.

All of the pictures I had received of the girls were from families who had traveled and were kind enough to post pictures, so we wanted to return the favor! Unfortunately, I can't post pictures of this, because some of the waiting kids haven't passed court. 

We went to the coolest, biggest open air market I have ever visited.  It is very likely the market that the girls would have shopped in, had they grown up in the region!

This little boy cut chunks of salt off from the salt mines. Camels bring salt in from the mines.

Every aisle had new wares

Kids in the marketplace followed us and wanted to see themselves on camera

We bought the girls dresses from the Tigrina region and I bought this dress, typical from the region.  The vendor told me "You look like a beautiful Tigrani woman!"  He may have been trying to get a sale...:)

I love this picture!  A little boy, totally decked out on top with no pants.

We wanted to go to the Castle of King Johannas IV.  Our driver dropped us off at "The Castle".  We were so excited and took pictures on our way in...turns out it was a hotel called "The Castle".  We walked to the real castle we wanted to tour.  This is Brian and Mabel.

We weren't supposed to take picture of the outside our inside, but our guide let us.  Here, Jon and I stand with Biranu (a social worker for IAG) in front of King Johannes IV throne.

It was so funny, our guide went from "don't take any pictures" to telling us where to go to do a photo shoot for us!

We went back to our hotel and met another IAG family, Scott and Heidi.  Heidi and I had been reading each other's blogs, so it was so fun to finally meet!

Everything was stone and built to last.
The following morning, we headed out with a driver to see a "rock church".  Northern Ethiopia has churches that are over a 1000 years old and still used. These churches, built by the orthodox church, are incredible, hewn out of a mountain, everything is one large stone.

We thought it would be so close, but after twirling and climbing up a mountain, we learned why the locals said it would be hard to do in a day.  :)  We made it though and the way up was fantastic!

A view of the terraced mountain

More houses.  The girls were from a farming background, likely their house looked like this...

The front of the church, carved right into the mountain.

The church bells aren't 1000 years old. :)

Inside the church

Okay, going to have to finish tomorrow, this is too much for one day!