I posted this message to the git email list asking about the Eclipse workspace/.metadata directory. Shawn Pearse repsonded and indicated that .metadata should be added to .git/info/exclude. I did so then removed it from my repo and and restarted Eclipse. Not expectedly, with .metadata gone Eclipse kind of forget things, such as the Projects and in my setup the location of the Android SDK.
It boots up into is fresh start screen, the first thing to do before “importing” the projects is to set the Android SDK Location in the menu “Windows/Preferences/Android/SDK Location”.
After doing that use menu “File/import/Existing Projects into Workspace”. Browse to “Select root directory” and add the appropriate projects. That seems to be enough.