What do you think of when you see 'Ethiopia' in a blog headline? Adoption, of course, since this is Adoption.com and many families are falling in love with Ethiopian kids. AIDS, poverty, beautiful children, great food, tremendous history, ancient culture, diversity, dust, mountains ... those of us who have not adopted from the country have taken bits and pieces from the writings of those who have and developed an image of a far-away, exotic land with amazing people facing desperate challenges.

Mary and Erin have done a great job of educating us on the Ethiopia they know and love, and I'm sure we all appreciate the lessons. We've learned a lot about Ethiopian adoptions and about AHOPE and the adoption of HIV+ kids, about places to eat and stay, things to see and buy, ways to get around, and more.

I've been reading so much about Ethiopia, in fact, that I'd lulled myself into feeling that I had some grasp on the country.

Wrong.

This article in the Christian Science Monitor made that really, really clear.

With all I thought I knew, I had no idea that there was any such thing as an Ethiopian Utopia.

Awra Amba is an Ethiopian community of some 400 people where there is no poverty, where men and women function with complete equality, where there are no religious divisions ... in fact, no churches or mosques, but there is a library and a school ... where all the children are educated and many go to university, where the elderly get 24-hour care, and where new mothers get three months of maternity leave, where early and forced marriages are forbidden, where crime virtually doesn't exist.

Where children are fed, clothed, educated, and where they PLAY rather than have to work to put food in their bellies.


Continued in the next post.