Sunday - Finally a day of rest!!

What a relief it was to be able to sleep in and not have to leave by 7:30 in the morning like every other day this week.  We slept in until a leisurely 8 am, had a great breakfast at 8:30 and just relaxed and hung out.  At 10:30 we enjoyed a coffee ceremony downstairs and were able to meet some Canadians who had just arrived.  There are 4 bible school students who are here for a month to help out at one of the orphanages and it was nice to visit with them.

We wanted to reward the kids for the amazing job they had done through all of the travel, lack of food, lack of sleep, trying new things, having good attitudes, not fighting, etc, etc, so we decided to go to the Sheraton to swim.  We knew it would be very expensive, but were shocked at the price.  It cost $20 USD PER PERSON to get in.  OUCH!

I have never been to the Sheraton in Addis before - I prefer not to hang out at all of the western places and knew it was expensive.  It is just too weird to drive through extreme poverty and end up at a hotel that is nicer than most hotels at home.  However, it was decorated for Christmas so beautifully, and after the hard week we had, it was exactly what we needed.

Although we didn't love the price, the rest of the day was great.  The students joined us and were great at keeping our girls entertained in the pool so Arvid and I were actually able to hang out on a lawn chair and read.  What a treat!  The weather was perfect - about 23 and sunny, and we enjoyed every minute.  After a bite to eat there for supper (thankfully the food prices at the pool grill weren't as exorbitant as the price to swim) we came home.

Not as much to blog about this day...and that was perfect.  However, the hotel there is amazing so I'll include lots of pictures!

Some pics of the girls

One of the kids took this picture - at least our heads made it on. :-)

Such a gorgeous hotel

The view from the hotel - this area has already been quite cleaned up.

So nice here!

Celebrating Christmas...again!  These were the first nice Christmas decorations we saw...every other place has the tackiest decorations!

More hotel pics

Giant gingerbread house.  They even had photo ops with some reindeer!

Aah!  Enjoying the pool!

Such fun after spending most of the week in the car!

Beautiful pool area

Freeze tag, throwing the kids up in the air, finding things...our Canadian friends kept the girls very entertained!

Aaaah!  LOVING life!

A short rest before heading back into the pool

Such pretty flowers