HAPPY YEAR 2000 ETHIOPIA!

Today September 11, 2007 marks the Ethiopian Millenium or Year 2000. I discovered an amazing site for photos of Ethiopians in their homeland and in America. The photos are protected so I cannot paste them here but for a peek click on Ethiopia pictures.

Millennium torch lighting ceremony held in Bahir Dar
Monday, 10 September 2007


Bahir Dar, September 9, 2007 (Bahir Dar) - Amhara State Chief on Sunday handed over a torch, a symbol of new hope and a vision Ethiopia has in the new millennium, to youth in Bahir Dar town. The torch lighting ceremony was accompanied by mass walk, a brass band tuning music.


Members of the state cabinet, patriots, artists, as well as members of the defense forces and state police forces attended the two-hour mass walk. Ethiopian air force helicopters added color to the event by distributing millennium greeting cards from the air.



Bahir Dar university community accorded a warm welcome to the crowd that accompanied the millennium torch.



Students of the Bahir Dar University received the torch from the hands of the state chief and his cabinet members on behalf of the new generation.



In a speech they delivered to the public, State Chief Ayalew Gobeze, Deputy Chief Demeke Mekonnen and Speaker of the State Council, Dr. Misrak Mekonnen said the new generation is entrusted with the historic national responsibility of making poverty a history and creating a prosperous Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Millennium Day in Toronto, Y2K Celebration, Christie Pits Park, Toronto Canada, Saturday, September 8, 2007

Our social worker came today and gave us some good news. She will prioritize our homestudy in order to get it processed as soon as possible and we are to call the office at the end of next week to see if it has been submitted to CIS (Center of Immigration Services) as part of our orphan petition.

I also checked Wide Horizon's referral waiting list to see where we are on the list. Our application was accepted September 22, 2006. This is our official "start date". As of the 3rd of September the families who had a start date of July 28 will be receiving their referrals next.

When we began this process in March of 2006 the wait time for referral was 0-3 months. Now it is up to 13 months. We would like to blame it on the famous mega-media star mommas. Or the bureaucrats that make money off of us childless folks. But the truth is our baby isn't quite ready for us yet. The baby that is our one, that is.

More later...

Labor Day Weekend '07 Oakland and San Francisco

We decided to check out Oakland's Art and Soul festival on Saturday and enjoyed the company of two new friends but weren't impressed at all with the festival itself. The Zydeco Flames were delightful but were scheduled to play for only 30 minutes and this was how most of the bands were slotted. The food was poor and mostly junk food i.e. meat. This was no "Taste of Oakland" and to top it off the charge for entrance to the venue was 10 clams. This was our first visit into the famed Oakland, heartland of east bay's most violent crime. The downtown area looked similar to San Francisco's downtown and did not cause us alarm. Attendees were mostly families (lots of kids ) and community members.

On Monday we took our bikes into San Francisco on the BART and rode to the Golden Gate Park. Mr. D almost gave up on the hills but prevailed in the end. We had tea at the Tea Garden and rode through the park to the beach, (which seemed a little sketchy to me). We had a late lunch at The Cliff House and walked to the "Sea Cave" next door. Cycling back to the station was all downhill, riding the brakes with not a few prayers.

San Juan island rocks,
Gloucester driftwood,
Okinawa seashell,
New Hampshire shelf mushroom,
California ivy,
three bamboo plants for each year and Happy Anniversary flowers fountain


and with a lunar eclipse no less!

Five Stones
(To Amy and Hamish)


Five Stones
stacked one on the other
make a lady
and five stones mean something.
So he stacks them like love letters
around the garden.

Six dogs, all girls,
talk into the night and delight
in him, the stick thrower, the fire maker, the gardener and chef.

Three cats, one girl who wants to love you all day
and two boys, one who is being coaxed messily by you back into life
and the other who is cat-god handsome.

Salmon and fresh garden vegetables for dinner.
Blackberries and huckleberries for dessert.

Mirror colored balls float around the pond as the bullfrog and goldfish evade our view.
Reflections of the Western Red Cedars.

Jack in the beanstock Kiwi in the back climbing 30 feet and counting.
Giant fallen Hemlock behind, its roots exposed and ancient. As big as a Volkswagen.

The prickers got me and we called out for him to machete us out as I was only wearing sandals.
I would like a machete and five stones.
Hack me out of this limbo and make a woman of stone who doesn't mind the rain at all.

Mamacita helps me find Hamish

Habituated foxes like this one, will walk up to your car for food. They are beautiful to look at but sad because they trust people and are (obviously) much more vulnerable than wild foxes.

SEARCHING FOR ORCAS
For the next 24 hours our lives revolved around sighting Orcas from land. I say this because the whale watching industry has interfered with the general well-being of the Orca and watching these creatures from land is the only guilt-free way to experience them, unless you work for Soundwatch in which case you would be out on a boat seeing the orcas while chastising boats that are too close to the whales.
We did indeed see the whales on the west side of the island in case you were wondering but did not get any pictures. In addition to whales we saw a sea otter, two foxes and some gorgeous island birds.

This photo is being entered into I *Heart* Faces, the Face Photo Website where this week their are doing not just kids and adults but pets! Check it out!!!



There have been so many changes here! A new pond and I went crazy with the camera and used up my battery.

Amy and I ferried out on Thursday to Friday Harbor on San Juan island. We took an early morning ferry to the mainland and drove out to Anacortes to take the ferry to San Juan. We arrived at noon and drove out to the Lime Kiln lighthouse to eat our picnic and wait for the Orcas to swim past us. While waiting for the whales that did not arrive we watched the harbor seals. Later in the afternoon we realized we needed to find lodging. We sat in my car with my laptop and after an hour we discovered a farmhouse called States Inn and Ranch that still had a vacancy and drove out on West Valley to secure our room, fed alpacas, collected eggs for breakfast and headed out again in search of ORCAS!

There are a lot of creatures to love here on Amy and Hamish's Vashon home; the handsome cat, Monk as well as two other cats, momma kitty( passionately affectionate) and Dexter,(very sick at the moment and hanging in there).

This morning started out very quiet. My friend Amy had gone off to work and Hamish and I had breakfast and a dog walk by noon. Dogs (Rooti, Lulu, Isabel, Mamacita, Sandy, and Chica) snoozed. I read the New Yorker. Hamish drove into town to buy mulch and worked in the garden. Mr. D and I instant messaged each other occasionally. This is August. Everything moves slowly. I got a tour of all the new fruit trees and flowers around the property which has changed a great deal since I was here 7 years ago.

I have returned to Vashon Island, my home away from home. Maybe it is islands in general or maybe it is this island in particular but taking that ferry ride and driving up the driveway to my friends' (Amy and Hamish) house gave me a delicious contented feeling. Or again it could be that I am missing friends and these last few days have been so satisfying seeing such people. The dogs, (Rootin'toot tooti, Isabel, Lulu, Mamacita, Chica, and Sandy) welcomed me in like good lovin' doggies. Even the cats are sociable and affectionate with me, all unknown to them.

Hello from Seattle!
I am staying with friend Mary, (see photo left, taken in Fair Oaks, CA) and her cats, Delia and Gracie. Today we went to Green Lake Park and then on to Half Price Books to find some books on tape:

(Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, some Garrison Keillor, and Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson) for the drive back home.

I was also able to visit with my Auntie Gail before I took the ferry over to the island.

On Friday I arrived in Portland at about 7pm after a very LONG drive up 101 and east to route 5. My cousin and his wife entertained me until my departure on Sunday morning. Most exceptional was the visit to the Japanese tea house in Portland and the lovely company. It has been a lonely two months and having family and friends to visit has been wonderful. Seattle and Portland seem very different to me. Portland seems more provincial and Seattle more funky like Berkely. As my friend Mary says, "Portland got planned, 'Seattle just happened."

Portland! with cousin and his wife. A wonderful time.

WANT SOME FUN?
TRY ROUTE 101

I packed the car this morning prepared to be away for 11 days. I brought food for the road trip to the Redwoods and then on to Portland, Oregon tomorrow. The Redwood forest is incredible.

This land is your land
This land is my land
From the Redwood forest
To the New York islands...

My first song, (my mother taught me) when I was 3 and living in California was, This Land is Your Land. I love that song and hummed it to myself as I hiked in the park today trying not to hug every single old growth tree I saw.


Tonite I am staying in Brookings, Oregon at the South Coast Inn
and just had a lovely meal at Cafe Kitanishi. The sushi chef and I chatted while he made my hand rolls. Now I am going to choose some pictures from todays adventure to post here. I think the banana slug must be included! These guys can be as big as bananas!

The Roosevelt Elk is alive and well at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. On two separate occasions I was surprised by them as they are not afraid of walking very close. There are signs warning people not to approach them but maybe there should also be signs for the elk "Don't startle humans"

For more information go to www.nps.gov/redw

Our new homestudy caseworker has postponed our last homestudy visit another two weeks. This is after an already extended gap between the first homestudy. It feels as though our adoption is stretching out longer and longer as time moves on.

When we do finish the homestudy, (September first week) we will be able to complete the application for our new I-600 in California. In about 2-4 weeks the powers that be will give us another fingerprinting appointment, (we have already been fingerprinted for Dep. of FBI and Child Services). After we are fingerprinted they will process our orphan petition (I-600) and ideally within 2 months grant us an approval and we will be ready for our referral.

Now that we are on hold, we don't know what our wait time is (where we are on the list). Until we come off hold we won't be told. So, this means we could be off hold between October end and November end. If we receive our referral in November we will be flying to Ethiopia in December, just in time for Christmas. Maybe before or after.

We have family flying out for Christmas. They have already booked flights. I don't know what it means in regard to flying to Ethiopia. I am trying not to calculate or think too much about it but if you know me you know I plan plan plan and then see it all fall apart.

Our case worker looks like a dark haired Uma Thurman librarian. She is very "nice" but I sort of laid it on heavy when she rescheduled.

Africa America We Belong To You

Today I made a realization that I hadn't made before and that is about the judgment that will occur not only on behalf of my European American and my Asian American brothers and sisters but also my African American brothers and sisters. Because our family is different. Because we don't belong to one nation.

But one thing we do belong to is the family of humanity. Art of Living teaches us that we are a one world family and are home everywhere. This is true whether we believe it or not.

I am saddened by the groups of people who are bound only by their perception of their own oppression. When we go to peace rallies we cannot enter into violence, be it violence of mind or body. When our brothers or sisters are tortured and killed, is torturing and killing of the murderers then justified? The joining of the Iroquois Nation was a profound lesson in forgiveness and required that many deaths go unavenged. But it forged an enlightened unity among warring tribes and is a lesson to us now and into the future.

The Oneida, are one of the original five members of the Iroquois League, being situated in what today is upper New York State. The traditional lands of the Oneida were the second most easterly of the Iroquois, situated between the easternmost Mohawk and the Onondaga. Their name means either, the "People of the Boulder" or "People of the Standing Stone". This refers to a significant rock formation found within the lands of the Oneida.

Even in the glory days of the Iroquois League, long before there was ever United States, the symbol of the Oneida people was a great tree. This continues right up to today. The tree is a white pine; this tree was selected by Deganawada, the Peacemaker because its needles stay green forever. The Peacemaker had a vision of the tribes coming together in peace under a "great tree". It is Deganawada and Hiawatha who are credited with uniting the Iroquois nations in the 16th century. The Peacemaker, according to legend, instructed the nations of the Iroquois to "bury their weapons of war under the sacred roots, and never unearth them again to use on each other".

We are becoming a world without nations. Our children do not want to stick solely with their own ethnic group, gender orientation or culture but to belong to many. Our children want to be responsible for the earth and All who inhabit it.

I hope that our “Clubs” disintegrate and our “Non-resident” status becomes invalid and that people will act not out of loyalty to their skin but out of integrity and conviction for doing what is right. Human beings are NOT animals. To be human does not mean to be naturally violent in word or deed but rather to carry within a compassion and an ability to choose beyond personal desire. Some believe poverty takes away this choice but I have seen otherwise.

My investment is with the children. They are the ones that will show us our folly. They already know this world better than we do and have chosen to reach out to their brothers and sisters regardless of our personal constraints. Please ask them. Don't shut them off from people who are different. We belong to you.