Useful tips for families travelling to Ethiopia !

When I was in Addis , everytime I thought of somethings to share or things I didn't want to forget next time we went to Ethiopia,I wrote it down and I thought I would share this on my blog too.

Some of it maybe someone can use and something else maybe others can use... We all do things differently but hopefully it will be able to help a little bit...

If you guys have any questions or anything like that, please don't be afraid to ask, I had lots of questions before I left and was able to answer many by being there !

1)Face Clothes
They did not have any face clothes at the guest house and WE are a face cloth family LOL....So I will be packing a few at least when we return.

2)Laudry
Laundry at the guest house is fabulous... you give them your clothe one day and they are all washed and pressed and in a bag and ready for you at the front desk the next day. I had brought enough clothes not to have to wash so not sure of the price but the others said it was not expensive. SO when I return I am planning on having the laudry done there, this way we don't have to worry about running out of clothes and I won't have to bring as much as I thought for the kids....

3)Telephone Calls
Calling from Addis is EXTREMELY expensive... . for 3 minutes it cost about $10-$12 CAD that was from our guest house. Calling from Canada is less expensive however it still cost us about $60 CAD for 12 minutes... and Pierre called me twice while I was in Ethiopia...You can just imagine my face when I opened our phone bill last month

4)Pharmacy
There is a pharmacy about 2 minutes walk from the guest house(just around the corner) and it has EVERYTHING you need for children. It has diapers, wipes, creams, children medecine, hair sutff for children (maybe not lots of kinds, but there was some that I was able to buy here too). They also have baby food, baby cereal and the NAN-1 formula that our babies are given at the foster home and lots of other brands of formula (I didn't see any brands that I knew of though).

5) Granola bars
We were really glad that we had brought lots of granola bars or something else to eat as it was really nice to have something to give to the people on the street when we were driving and that. They sometimes come to your windown and say they are hungry and ask for food.Sometimes women with babies on their backs.... we did also give Birrs (which is Ethiopian money) but they seem to really enjoy the granola bars.

5) Food
If you go out to a restaurant at night (we did every night) and you have food left over, its really a nice gesture to package it up and bring it for the guards at the guest house. You will see they are wonderful people and they make only a few US dollar a week salary so they truly are greatful when families bring them their leftovers... Lots of people were doing that and they were just beaming when they were opening the gates for us when we arrived. It was nice to be able to do something for them.. They do long overnight shifts keeping us safe so we thought it was the least we could do.

6)Converters
We were able to use the TWO prong converters for our hair blower and cameras and it worked really well. I said that it could fry my cameras and I was scared but I would never have had enough batteries so I'm glad it all worked out. warning though, don't leave your camera charging let's say overnight or while you are not there as it gets extremely hot because of the voltage so I always made sure to be in the room when it was charging and to unplug it as soon as it was done cause you could see it would overheat.

7)Patio on top floor of the Weygoss guesthouse
If you climb all the way up to the last floor of the guesthouse, it is an outside patio. At night, it is really fun to go up there to get air and its really peaceful too. With children, they would be able to play with toys and that, its a pretty big area so thought I would let everyone know as it took us a few days to find it but it was nice ! There are actually really big suites on that top floor so maybe some of you will even be there with your families.

8)Swimming
When you are in Ethiopia, Selamneh brings all the family at the hot springs usually for a day in the water and that. He was telling me that for the small children and babies that we could bring floaters for their arms as there is a wading pool but still way too deep for babies or toddlers.If you want to go swimming, don't forget your bathing suit. I had not brought mine and had to buy an Ethiopian bathing suit and they are NOT LIKE THE ONES HERE.... Julie also had to buy one and people we were with got a good laugh but it was worth it cause we had so much fun bringing the 50 kids we were with in the pool (most of them had never even wore a bathing suit or gone swimming in their lives) Priceless moments that I will remember forever !

9)Sunblock
Sunblock is necessary in Ethiopia. I used 45 all week and still got sunburns and this was in winter over there. So please remember to bring sun block even for your children as they will burn easily, even worse in summer.

10)Bottle water
They have bottled water right at the front desk of the guest house so everytime we would leave for the day or come home,we would pick up some bottles.. .it is room temperature water so after a few days we got really sick of drinking warm water so we had brought little packages (singles) of Crystal Light and it did wonders on the days that we just couldn't drink the water anymore.... I will be bringing some next time as well.... Gatorade is also very useful when you are trying to stay hydrated. When I was there I seemed to forget that it was important to drink lots of fluid and had to remind myself most of the day to drink some and its funny but when you are busy you don't think you are thirsty but when you drink you can see that you were.

11)Pepto Bismol
This came in handy more than once for us... and we even had to share it with others that had not brought any too LOL.... We both took two tablets every morning when we got up and this would help cover our stomack and keep us from getting something (thanks for Susan T for that tip). We honestly think it worked wonders.. When we were there we wanted to try all the different foods, Traditionnal Ethiopian food, we went to an indian restaurant, and italian restaurant and well sometimes the food just did not agree so we took a few Pepto Bismo tablets and we were both feeling better within a few hours.

12)Pants
I had brought lots of capris and well some of them were the light beige color and they got dirty really fast... as soon as I sat somwhere when we were out, they looked really filty. Not that it matters that much but let's say after we were out, we would sometimes go directly to a fancy restaurant or something, and then it would be awful cause I felt sooo dirty so I'll be bringing lots of darker pants and capris when we return so I don't have to worry as much for being dirty when we are out and about during the day ! It was a little different for us as we were working with the children and sitting on the ground with them and things like that...but thought I would still mention it !

13) Sandals
I had not brought any sandals and only had sneakers... .but on nights when we could get ready at the guest house and we were driving directly to the door of the restaurant, most of the women in our group (had been before) and had brought sandals and I LOVE sandals and would have loved to not have to wear sneakers into the fancy restaurants so wrote that on my list. I will bring a pair of sandals just to let my feet breath some night as it gets really warm in sneakers in that weather....

14) Sneakers
I would also bring an extra pair of sneakers as it was nice to be able to change them once in a while and if you travel in Summer there will be lots of mud and stuff like that so definetly on my list too.

15) Flip Flops
I also had a pair of cheap flip flops (wal Mart I think) that I thought were great for walking around our room and in the guest house (to go check emails or go meet others downstairs) and that.... I also used them in the shower , the showers were not gross or anything I just always like to have flip flops in showers that I am not used to so we both did this and Julie also agrees that its a must around the guesthouse even if it is REALLY clean.

16)Money Belt
We would have been lost without our money belts... We never took it off other than to sleep or shower.. It had all our important documents like passports, immunizations records, travellers cheques and cash. It was great not to have to worry about this stuff as we always had it on.

17) Back pack
I also had a back pack that came with me EVERYWHERE I went. This had my cameras ,lip sil, extra DVD for the movie camera. Protein bars for when we were hungry between meals or had to skip a meal because of something we wanted to do. I also always had band-aids and ointement and a bottle of water for the day and thought it was great to always have all that with me during the day ! It did come in handy often

18)Comfort food
I would recommend bringing comfort food. At night when we were in our rooms, it was great to have something to much on. And I will be bringing protein bars and granola bars again to eat when we are hungry at night or between meals.... It really came in handy more than once.

19) Purell & Kleenex
This is something else that all the group thought was indispensable. We used purell even after washing our hands at the guest house and that just cause if we would then put our hands in our mouth, we were scared that some of the water bacteria would get in the food we were eating and things like that... Also when you are out and about.. lots of time there are nothing to wash your hands with before you eat or after having gone to the bathroom so it was nice to have the Purell for those occasions.Same goes for toilet paper, most bathrooms in the city don't have them(except in the restaurants but sometimes there is none there either) so it was great to have packages of kleenex in our back packs to use !

20)Face Wipes
We also had brought DOVE face wipes. They are dry and you just put water on them and the soap comes out. We used this to wash our face and with no face clothes I DON"T KNOW WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT THEM. THere is a lot of pollution in the air in Addis from the fuel of all the cars and that and well our faces were really really dirty and left black marks on the wipes so it was really necessary to wash our face often. Even when you blow your nose there, it is usually black..... The guy leading the expedition had told us this so the first night Julie and I were blowing our nose and we were glad we were made aware as its pretty gross ...

21)Journal
This I also found to be very useful to write down thoughts and stuff not to forget.... When you write too make sure to record things like what you felt, what it smelled like or what you thought..... I wrote everyday and well there are stuff that I wrote that I didn't even remember when rereading it at home so It was great to have. Selamneh also translated my girl's names in Amharic for me in the journal so I was glad to have it to be able to keep the original one for the girls. I plan on having it painted in a frame in their room !

22) Halls
It is really dry in Addis and well our throat sometimes was sooo dry that halls came in handy as well.

23)Alarm Clock
There are no alarm clocks in the rooms. We had brought ours and it was great to have even just to look at the time as both of us do not wear watches !

24)Pottery
We went to a pottery and it was great to visit. If someone would be interested, Selamneh would be able to bring you. It was neat to see the women making the clay and the pottery. The stuff there was really really cheap and beautiful ! I will post pictures of it on my blog when I get there in my story but just for an example, I bought a serving plate, two children bowls and cups (its breakable but we will only use them on special occasions), I also bought a coffee set (carafe and 4 cups), Two small clay elephants for the girls, again more to put on a shelf in their room and I also bought an inscent burner ( you will see they use a lot of inscent in Ethiopia) and I really wanted something to burn it in at home. So I got all this for about $25 US.... I brought it all back in my carry on and NOTHING got broken I was amazed. So I would recommend going if the chance comes up !

25) Marinda
There is a local pop that is bottled in Ethiopia (with good water just in case you are wondering) and we drank this a lot with our meals (its kinda like Orange Crush and its called MARINDA) Thought I would let all know so you can try it at some point ! (if you like orange pop that is).

26) GUM
We also really had a hard time buying gum in Addis other than the one that some children were selling on the street that we all bought. But they only had like the stick gum (like old juicy fruit) and after 2 seconds you had to throw it out cause it got soo hard.... We had brought a few packs of gum from Canada but we could have used more... the food there is really spicy and after your meal, we just felt that we really needed gum before we could speak to each other so just a thought to bring gum !

27) Makush
There is a wonderful Italian Restaurant (http://makushethiopianartgallery.com/)like 2 min away (close to the pharmacy) called Makush. Selamneh knows where it is but you can just even ask the guest house but it was definetly worth seeing... The food is all imported from Italy so you can eat ANYTHING and not worry and its an Art Gallery with beautiful African art. It was my favorite place to eat other than the traditionnal restaurants. We went I think like 5 times... There are postcares for sale there and some wooden stuff. I bought a woodden pot that is really nice... Will also post pictures on my blog when I get there is someone would like to see !This restaurant most of the meals (big portions and really good) were about $4 US..... Its really cheap to eat in Addis. Even the TOP View restaurant where we went which is one of their really expensive restaurant, the meals were all under $10 US...

28)Coffee Shop
There is also a little coffee shop just down the road from the guest house. Coffee is big in Ethiopia. We went a few times and its really great coffee and it was like $0.80 for a coffee... I also tried the Machiatto and really really enjoyed that as well !

29)Sharing food
This was something that we ALL enjoyed but when we went to a restaurant for example the indian restaurant, as we did not know what was good and what to take. We asked the waitress to bring us lots of different apetizers and different meals to share and we all shared !!! It was wonderful to taste everything, there was lots for everyone and for us 9 I think the bill with drinks and desssert(coffee) came to about $40.

And that is all I had written down, if I think of something else I will post is and please don't hesitate to ask anything at all or if you want something clarified !!