RTWAdventureFamily: A Visit to Mabret's Village

How do you write a blog entry that could even begin to describe the experience of taking your son back to the village that was home for his first three and a half years of life? Of course, this is not just a visit back to a village. Mabret's Ethiopian family (which we refer to as our Ethiopian Family) still calls this village home and still resides in the same house that Mabret called home until his birth parents died within 6 months of each other when he was three years old. As we do not quite know how to express the experience, we will simply begin writing and we hope that the images aided a bit by our words will convey some of the emotions.

Our Saturday December 21, 2013 began with a 7:30am check-out from the Hilton Hotel in Addis. We were met by Hagirso Desta who would serve as our interpreter and guide on this journey. Hagirso acted in the same capacity in December of 2007 as Bob traveled to Mabret's village to meet his family when we were in Ethiopia to complete the adoption and pick-up Mabret. In 2007, Mabret, Roman and Kathy remained at the orphanage in Addis as we prepared for the journey to America. Mabret had been living at the orphanage for approximately a year so this voyage marks Mabret's first time back since late 2006.

Mabret was born in the Sidamo region in the south of Ethiopia. This region is possibly best known for two things...coffee...and famine. Many believe that the very best coffee in the world is from the Sidamo region. On a more somber front, much of the vast famine that struck Ethiopia during the 1980s and continues to plague the nation today struck this region.

Mabret hails from the village of Dongora Morocho which is approximately 90 minutes south of the city of Awassa. The village sits within the larger town of Aleto Chuko. The drive from Addis to Aleto Chuko will take us 7 to 8 hours if we make good time and few stops. As with many drives through Africa, much of the miles will be on two lane highways with a single lane in each direction. The remaining miles will take us over difficult and sometimes seemingly impassable dirt roads. For the trip to Aleto Chuko, we have rented a 4 x 4 Land Cruiser which comes with a full-time driver.

The traffic around Addis is a bit chaotic and it took us the first 45 minutes to escape the city and get onto the road south toward Awassa. It is well known that this highway should only be traveled in the daylight as the evening brings trucks and other long distance vehicles which are frequently operated by drivers who chew chet. Chet is a substance that creates effects similar to those experienced by users of marijuana. As a result, there are often accidents at night and many are fatal. Shortly after entering this long stretch of highway, Kathy began counting the flipped and crunched vehicles which lay upside down just beyond the driving lanes. While this certainly helped to pass the time for Kathy, it did not reduce the stress level which came naturally for a mother about to walk her 10 year old son into a complex and unpredictable human experience.

At approximately 1:00pm, we had arrived in Awassa. We made the decision to stop only for some snacks at a super market and to change some U.S. dollars into birr. Previously, Hagirso had traveled to Dongora Morocho and informed Mabret's Ethiopian family that we would arrive on December 21st. Dongora Morocho does not have electrical service and cellular phones are a luxury that the villagers cannot afford. Therefore, we must arrive as scheduled with enough time to pay proper respects to the family before returning to the village on Sunday for a long visit. We must also depart the village leaving enough daylight to drive back to Yirgalem where we will be staying for the next few days.

We passed through Yirgalem which is approximately 30 minutes north of Aleto Chuko just before 3pm. While much of the ride Roman and Mabret spent playing silly games when they were not working their iPods, as we made the stretch run toward Aleto Chuko they observed the sights. Mabret was his usual quiet self with a look of introspection and he seemed amazingly calm and comfortable.

The homes in Dongora Morocho are spread over a fairly vast area. The final right turn into the village puts us on a dirt road that will render even a 4 x4 crippled with one wrong move. At the entrance to the village, a distant uncle of Mabret's who assisted Hagirso in communicating Mabret's impending visit jumps in the vehicle and greets us with a huge smile and "welcome back" for Mabret.

The small group of houses that contains Mabret's family home sits back from the road and is not visible until arriving at the location. As we grew closer, children began to run behind the vehicle. This is not unusual as cars are scarce in this area, however, this was different as the children yelled Mabret's name through the open windows. Mabret and Roman waved and smiled as though they had done this before. When we arrived directly in front of the circular area containing the home, in the distance we could see many people assembled both standing and seated. Several village elders quieted the running children and gave Mabret a moment to exit and look around. In photos, Mabret had seen the monument at his grandfather's grave site and he immediately recognized it. The monument is the only one of its type within the immediate neighborhood and we have been told that Mabret's grandfather was a very respected man in the village. Mabret and Roman approached, knelt down and took a quiet moment before walking the 50 yards to where the people were assembled. While we chose not to photograph this initial moment, in part two we will post a photo of our family and our Ethiopian family standing at the memorial.

Village elders and much of Mabret's immediate Ethiopian family were seated while many other local people stood in anticipation of meeting Mabret. Mabret and Roman walked together toward the people and began shaking hands and accepting hugs. Mabret was greeted like a returning hero and the love for him was palpable. He and Roman accepted each handshake and quietly listened as person after person spoke to them in the local language, Sidamo.

As we looked among the people, we could see that Mabret was approaching his siblings, grandmother and uncle. We have their pictures that were taken when Bob visited the village in December 2007 displayed in a photo album in our living room. Mabret's grandmother, Kayet, is a woman whose face reveals the wisdom that comes with many decades spent navigating life in Aleto Chuko as well as the hardships experienced in this place where sustaining enough food and water for your family is an unending battle.

Mabret immediately recognized his grandmother, Kayet, and bent down to hug her. She kissed one side of his face and then the other. She squeezed him close and hugged him for at least a minute before relinquishing him so that his uncle and brothers could greet him.

Mabret's uncle, Tariku, is the brother of his late father and assumed leadership of the family after Mabret's father died. Tariku was the legal guardian who made the decision to place Mabret into the orphanage system and ultimately had to sign off on our adoption of Mabret.

Mabret's (and Roman's) Ethiopian Brothers, Endris and Shemelese, were waiting patiently to see Mabret who left their village 7 years ago. The striking resemblance between them, particularly Endris and Mabret, can only be understood by viewing the photos that appear below. Beyond their facial features, we came to learn that their deeply thoughtful, quiet and generous spirits are distinctly "Mabret". Mabret's sister, Yenu, ran an important family errand to a neighboring village just before we arrived and we would not meet her until returning on Sunday. Read on through part two as we discovered that Yenu may look and act more like Mabret than even Endris and Shemelese.

Below, Endris greets Mabret.

Shemelese and Endris flank Mabret.

After greeting the many well wishes, Roman and Mabret shared photos of themselves during the last six years with particular focus on our travels through Africa. While the technology is something that clearly fascinated everyone in attendance, the comments that we received were universally focused upon the gratitude that was felt for Mabret's happiness and health. This gave us just a glimmer into what we would learn during the next 2 days...that the people of this village are the most selfless that we have ever met.

We arrived with small gifts for the family including Ethiopian National Football Jerseys for Endris and Shemelese. As Mabret and Roman began to do passing drills with their Ethiopian brothers, the entire village encircled them to show their support. It was special to watch. Roman and Mabret handled the entire situation with grace and poise.

As the clock passed 4pm, we began to say our goodbyes but only until tomorrow as we will return to spend Sunday in Dongora Morocho. People surrounded the vehicle to say goodbye for the evening. As some children followed us out the bumpy road, Mabret and Roman waved graciously out the rear window. They were still upbeat at the end of a VERY long day.

Some other images from Saturday.