Guest House recommendation New Flower Guest House

Guest House Recommendation:
We stayed at the New Flower Guest House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while we were there for the adoption. The New Flower is run by Helen and her very capable staff. It is a great place to be. This new house is really a great place. It has a large courtyard for kids to play in. While it is centrally located and very convenient to the city in general it is in a very safe neighborhood and feels secluded. While the guests are not limited to adoptive families it is frequented by such. It is really nice to be with other families who are adopting. It is also great to have someone who can translate for you what your child is saying, if you are adopting an older child. It is also really handy that they will also tell your child to listen to you, Mom and Dad. For translation they are always helpful and we felt they were not intrusive.

A word on bathroom accommodations in Ethiopia in general: Hot water is not often plumbed in like it is here. Nicer accommodations like the New Flower have installed hot water heaters in each shower. It take some practice but is a definite luxury in Ethiopia. Most of the rooms have showers but larger plastic tubs are available to wash your baby or toddler in.

The New Flower recently got a dryer! This is a huge perk and luxury. When you have your laundry done it is done MUCH faster and this is especially good in the winter when nothing every drys.

You can expect to be treated well and you will find yourself in good and helpful hands with Helen and her staff at the New Flower Guest House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Please check out their web site by clicking on New Flower.

A dad from our agency recently stayed at the New Flower and this is what he has to say about it:
The New Flower is maybe a 4 minute drive from the airport, really close. (New Flower will have someone pick you up if you need it). The New Flower was really nice, but the people who worked there made it an even better experience. Yonathon, the main man, was awesome. The two drivers, Ayela and Alozar, were great as well.
For the first week we stayed at the New Flower with only one of us leaving at a time as to not ruffle any feathers. However, once you start venturing out you begin to see something that you didn't expect. Families from all over the world with their Ethiopian children in the middle of the grocery store, a cafe, a museum, etc... You also find others that may have said you were wrong in wanting to venture out, out with their children as well. Hmmmm. :) I will say that the New Flower Guest House is located in the middle of a nice district/area and that the people here might be more accepting than some of the other Guest House locations. The NF was approximately 1/4 mile from the Friendship Mall, which was a 4 story building that housed a grocery store, internet cafe, a place called Kaldi's (looked exactly like Starbucks). It's located about 1/2 mile from a really nice cafe called Limetree that has WiFi where some families have been able to Skype with video. It's about 3/4 mile from a pharmacy where you can get antibiotics, cough medicine, etc.. over the counter without prescription. The (IAN) Care Center and Sele Enat are about a 10 minute drive. All in all, the New Flower is in a awesome location.  If you need to buy something and you think your getting ripped off have someone at your guest house who is Ethiopian buy it for you. I needed a 4GB USB Flash Drive and they were quoting be 1500 Birr ($120). I knew that was ridiculous. Yonathon went up there and got it for 450 Birr ($35).

Thanks Matt for letting me post this for other families!