Those who live in Argentina probably heard that sentence a hundred times. It is true?
Well… It’s not!
According to the census, 5% of the population is black. That is between 1.5 to 1.8 million people!
One of the reasons why you don’t see so many blacks, is because they live in suburban areas of the Capital and in other parts of the country because the suffer from discrimination in the “white” neighborhoods and in the job, especially those better paid and more visible.
If you are interested in reading articles about this (in Spanish), here are the links:
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/2001/suple/No/01-07/01-07-05/NOTA1.HTM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_2285000/2285932.stm
AliciA
Sunday 30 December 2007
Wednesday 26 December 2007
Book
Since I have plenty of time in this winter vacation, I’m reading a book written by an American journalist about her experience in Ethiopia, in the orphanage/house of a woman who protects orphan children victims of poverty and Aids. It’s very moving, especially because it’s a real story. It also has notes about the culture and history of the country.
The name of the book is “There is no me without you” by Melissa Fay Greene.
AliciA
The name of the book is “There is no me without you” by Melissa Fay Greene.
AliciA
Sunday 23 December 2007
Names
We are already in the cabin waiting for Christmas, all is very quiet, just the three of us. During the trip from Portland to Ashford we read a book about baby names to choose the name of the child.
We are thinking about giving him/her a western first name and leaving the two original names given to him/her in Ethiopia. We know that the parents are the ones that usually give the child the name but sometimes someone in the orphanage does. We thought it was the right thing to do so he/she can keep the connection to the country and culture.
In Ethiopia, there is not a system of name and surname like we have in the West, but children take the first name of the father as their last name. For example if the of the father is John Paul, and the kid is given the name of Frank, his full name will be Frank John and if it’s a daughter it will be just the same, for example Mary John. When Frank John has a child and name him Charles, the full name will be Charles Frank, and so on.
Women don’t change their names after marrying.
If the girl’s name we’ll adopt is Samrawit Alem, we are going to give her a first name and keep the other two Ethiopians names in the middle, for example Helen Samrawit Alem Grinberg.
AliciA
We are thinking about giving him/her a western first name and leaving the two original names given to him/her in Ethiopia. We know that the parents are the ones that usually give the child the name but sometimes someone in the orphanage does. We thought it was the right thing to do so he/she can keep the connection to the country and culture.
In Ethiopia, there is not a system of name and surname like we have in the West, but children take the first name of the father as their last name. For example if the of the father is John Paul, and the kid is given the name of Frank, his full name will be Frank John and if it’s a daughter it will be just the same, for example Mary John. When Frank John has a child and name him Charles, the full name will be Charles Frank, and so on.
Women don’t change their names after marrying.
If the girl’s name we’ll adopt is Samrawit Alem, we are going to give her a first name and keep the other two Ethiopians names in the middle, for example Helen Samrawit Alem Grinberg.
AliciA
Saturday 22 December 2007
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays!
We are leaving for our winter vacation in our cabin in Ashford, Washington. We expect to see a lot of snow so we can ski, sled and snowshoe, and we wish that next Christmas we'll have one or two new family members!
We are leaving for our winter vacation in our cabin in Ashford, Washington. We expect to see a lot of snow so we can ski, sled and snowshoe, and we wish that next Christmas we'll have one or two new family members!
Greetings!
AliciA
Friday 21 December 2007
Contract
Today we went to notarize the adoption contract and send it to the agency. We told the agency's director that for now we want a girl under 4 years old. If we want two children we have to pay more, but we haven't made up our mind yet, we want to discuss this with the social worker, to see what her advice is, and in any case, she will state in her report how many children we can adopt.
Since we are going to Ashford, on Wednesday we are going to drive to Tacoma and get the Deed of our cabin, this is one of the documents we will need to provide. In January, when we get back home we will get the Deed from our home in Portland.
AliciA
Since we are going to Ashford, on Wednesday we are going to drive to Tacoma and get the Deed of our cabin, this is one of the documents we will need to provide. In January, when we get back home we will get the Deed from our home in Portland.
AliciA
Wednesday 19 December 2007
Why Ethiopia?
Yesterday we received the adoption contract. We need to review, sign and send back with another payment. Tonight we will prepare everything and send it tomorrow morning we get into the holidays...
Now the problem is to choose if we want to adopt a child or two siblings, we haven't decided because we know each has pros and cons and we do not know what is more important.
I was searching about adopting siblings from Ethiopia and found a blog from people who already adopted from there. And the questions was: why adopt from Ethiopia and not from some other country? The answer answer is this: In the mid 80's there was a drought in Ethiopia, one could not turn the TV on and not see images of children dying of hunger - some so weak they could not keep their head up. Things didn't improve much, Ethiopia is still the 4th poorest country in the world, people there earn less than $160 USD per family per year.
Now the problem is to choose if we want to adopt a child or two siblings, we haven't decided because we know each has pros and cons and we do not know what is more important.
I was searching about adopting siblings from Ethiopia and found a blog from people who already adopted from there. And the questions was: why adopt from Ethiopia and not from some other country? The answer answer is this: In the mid 80's there was a drought in Ethiopia, one could not turn the TV on and not see images of children dying of hunger - some so weak they could not keep their head up. Things didn't improve much, Ethiopia is still the 4th poorest country in the world, people there earn less than $160 USD per family per year.
- One in ten children die before their first birthday
- One in six children die before their fifth birthday
- 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
- 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
- The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
- 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
- 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone
- Ethiopia receives less help per capita than any other country in Africa
- In the 90's the population increased faster (3%) than the production of food (2.2%)
- The drought hit the country between 2000 and 2002 (the first year they lost their harvest, the second they didn't have seeds and the third they didn't have animals)
- Half of the children will never go to school
- 88% will never go to high school
- The price of coffee (the only important export of Ethiopia) dropped 40-60% from 1998 to 2002
- In Ethiopia there is one doctor per 24,000 children
- In 1993, after 30 years of war, Erithrea gained independece from Ethiopia leaving it without access to the sea
Monday 17 December 2007
Links
Friday 14 December 2007
Video
The agency mailed us some papers and a CD with forms, pictures and a video of the Toukoul orphanage in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
It is incredible that right there is our future child! We put it in the family web site for the family to watch. We continue researching a lot of things, among them how to learn amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, spoken in the capital. In any case, it looks like not all children speak it, because since Ethiopia has like 80 different tribes with 80 different languages it is probably that the child(ren) we get will not speak it. What do we do? Should be try to learn it anyway? It doesn't look easy at all, and it has its own characters...
AliciA
Thursday 13 December 2007
Application
Today, December 13th we faxed the application to the agency and started the process. How exciting! We believe everything is all right, if Radu gives the OK tomorrow we send the check to pay for the application fee and the home study (where a social worker comes to talk to us and write a report). I went to the library to find books about Ethiopia and we are also searching for more information on the web.
The 13th of the month always gave me luck... I got married on a January 13th and I was giving the US citizenship on a June 13th, so that must be a good signal. Miguel and I feel this is the right decision.
AliciA
The 13th of the month always gave me luck... I got married on a January 13th and I was giving the US citizenship on a June 13th, so that must be a good signal. Miguel and I feel this is the right decision.
AliciA
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Options...
Options...
Hi! We decided to start a blog about our experience. Since long we've decided to adopt because we consider that bringing another child to this world while there are so many orphans did not make sense, there is enough overpopulation already...
We had many obstacles, the first is that since we were not US citizens we could not adopt internationally. Once this was sorted out we started to consider our options.
The first thing to do was to find an adoption agency, which isn't easy, there many small and big, religious and not. The first one we chose was Journes of the Heart, because it seemed an agency relatively small that offered several options. We had to choose the country from which we wanted to adopt, and at first we decided on China, but the problem is that the process on this country is becoming longer and longer and with more restrictions.
Finally we settled on Taiwan, we requested the application and that's when we started to hit obstables. The first was that we needed to name a guardian within USA and we couldn't find anybody willing to do this. The agency started to treat us not so well, and the truth is that this made us feel depressed and for a while we left the matter alone.
What should we have done? Desist or try another agency? We started our search again, we called, and called, and called. Many treated us with not much interest and posed many issues. What we found odd is the commercial aspect of all this, and how the focus is on the parents, in the parents' happyness, that the child is "perfect", to form a "perfect" family.
In the end we selected three agencies that talked to us very nicely and that seemed to put the attention in the children well being, in finding them a family and save them from their state of abandonment.
One of those agencies is in Washington State, and two in Oregon. We were thinking in Haiti and Ethiopia because we thought these are the two countries that have more needs, but Haiti takes too long and more money, so we finally settled on Ethiopia and the agency Adoption Avenues in Portland. The director Radu Baila is from Romania, he was very nice on the phone and answered all our questions. So... here we go!!! The adventure begins!
AliciA
Hi! We decided to start a blog about our experience. Since long we've decided to adopt because we consider that bringing another child to this world while there are so many orphans did not make sense, there is enough overpopulation already...
We had many obstacles, the first is that since we were not US citizens we could not adopt internationally. Once this was sorted out we started to consider our options.
The first thing to do was to find an adoption agency, which isn't easy, there many small and big, religious and not. The first one we chose was Journes of the Heart, because it seemed an agency relatively small that offered several options. We had to choose the country from which we wanted to adopt, and at first we decided on China, but the problem is that the process on this country is becoming longer and longer and with more restrictions.
Finally we settled on Taiwan, we requested the application and that's when we started to hit obstables. The first was that we needed to name a guardian within USA and we couldn't find anybody willing to do this. The agency started to treat us not so well, and the truth is that this made us feel depressed and for a while we left the matter alone.
What should we have done? Desist or try another agency? We started our search again, we called, and called, and called. Many treated us with not much interest and posed many issues. What we found odd is the commercial aspect of all this, and how the focus is on the parents, in the parents' happyness, that the child is "perfect", to form a "perfect" family.
In the end we selected three agencies that talked to us very nicely and that seemed to put the attention in the children well being, in finding them a family and save them from their state of abandonment.
One of those agencies is in Washington State, and two in Oregon. We were thinking in Haiti and Ethiopia because we thought these are the two countries that have more needs, but Haiti takes too long and more money, so we finally settled on Ethiopia and the agency Adoption Avenues in Portland. The director Radu Baila is from Romania, he was very nice on the phone and answered all our questions. So... here we go!!! The adventure begins!
AliciA
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