le toukoul guest house

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Here are pics from where we stayed in Ethiopia, Le Toukoul Guest House. The guest house was like an oasis/compound amidst the crazy city of Addis Ababa. Surrounded by gates and high walls, it was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle and pollution of the city. The grounds were beautifully kept, with four resident old tortoises and many dogs, including a couple of puppies. Man, those dogs would bark up a storm at night. Sleep wasn't easy at the guest house. Besides the dogs barking, at the wee hours of the morning (5am?) you could hear music playing in the distance which brought people to church each day. Also, the crib that was provided for Weredesh had slats so wide, I would constantly wake up to check that she hadn't wedged her head in her crib in the middle of the night. All meals were provided for us there and all of the families (there were 4 or 5 other familes at any given time) would enjoy meals together, family style. However, we were disappointed they served American/European fare rather than the Ethiopian experience we were looking for. The hostess, Aster, explained to us that this was intentional so that we would head out into the city to experience Ethiopian culture rather than just stay at the guest house for every meal. We did this on our last night there (this will come in a later post). The staff there was wonderfully helpful, sterilizing bottles whenever we needed them, doing our laundry, driving us when needed, and babysitting at any hour of the day - like I said in an earlier post, they LOVE babies there! Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the guest house and I would recommend it for adopting families of Le Toukoul.