Communicating from Ethiopia

Since it's not possible to take every loved one with you on your trip to Ethiopia, you'll probably need to figure out a way to communicate with those left in the States while you are meeting your new child. Here are some suggestions from IAN families who have already traveled:

Regarding calling home:

• "I used the cell phone that the Ethiopia Guest Home gave us. We set up an account back home (direction on the EGH website), and we had prearranged times that my husband would call me. It worked fine. It was incredibly expensive for me to call the US, even using the Ethiopian cell phone."

• "I researched getting a loaner/global phone for my Verizon account, but it was also VERY expensive. I think others did that successfully and the service worked pretty well."

• "I had my phone turned on so that I could call and receive calls on my regular cell phone. It was absurdly expensive but I wanted it in case of an emergency. I recommend doing that just in case. You just call your carrier and let them know where you are going and when."

• "Once I was there I used a cell phone that Mittin (Abebe's assistant) provided me - the guesthouse helped me get calling cards. Although what was cheapest was for my family to call me. They got calling cards (from http://www.afrikacard.com/) and called the guesthouse - this way we were only paying one way."

• " We were able to email and skype our family at home. (when the power was not out. -that really only happened our last few days-Addis is on a rotating outage, meaning that it rotates who will be without power) We also called a couple of times on skype just for a few minutes, I can't remember how much it cost for the skype phone call-the video skype is free. We had never skyped before, but it was very easy! When the power was out, we were able to use a cell phone from the front desk at the Yebsabi to make local calls."

• "We took our daughter with us, so the only people we contacted back home was our parents, and we did this through email and texting. We found out that it was VERY expensive to call on our cell phones, but texting was only .50 for outgoing and incoming is free if you have texting on your plan. It worked very well for us!!"

Regarding using a computer:

• "I brought my laptop. I brought a converter. I used the internet at the guesthouse on the guesthouse computer though."

• "WE WERE UNABLE TO USE OUR LAPTOP FOR EMAIL, BUT DID USE IT TO DOWNLOAD PICTURES. WE DID NEED A CONVERTER. WE USED THE GUEST HOUSE COMPUTER AND IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH."

• "We did take our laptop and converter/adapter. It worked well in our room and we were glad we had it to download our pictures and videos to as a back up. The computer in the lobby at the Yebsabi works well too."

• "We took our laptop but was unable to use it at The Yeka. You will need a converter though, if you plan to use it for anything else.

  The computer at The Yeka was sufficient, however there is only one for the entire guest house, so it may not always be available."

Regarding updating blogs:

• "I was able to load blogger without a problem. I updated my blog from there several times. I did set up the email function beforehand because I had heard I would not be able to get into blogger but I never had a single problem."

• "I did set up the publish from email to be able to post on my blog. I just attached pictures to my email and it worked! You can only post one or 2 pictures on each blogpost when you are doing it from email."

• "WE SET UP PUBLISH FROM EMAIL AND IT WORKED GREAT. WE DID NOT SEND PHOTOS UNTIL WE GOT HOME."

If you have any other suggestions or tips feel free to leave them in the comments section. Thank you!