The Story of our Trip- Part 1

I realized I never went back to write about our trip to Ethiopia.  Things just kind of took off around here and there wasn't any time to look backwards.  But since I'm awake at 4am (again) now seems like the time!

Friday, June 11-Saturday June 12:
Brian's parents drove us to the airport on Friday afternoon, we checked in for our flight, went through security,  then had 3 hours to sit around.  We had a nice dinner and tried to not be nervous.  We were on a 6:30pm flight out of Detroit to Frankfort and the plane was packed full of Muslim and Chaldean families traveling to the Middle East via Frankfort.  Many, many screaming babies and obnoxious little kids.  Not a great flight.  But Lufthansa is amazing!  They kept bringing us food and drinks and asking if there was anything else we wanted!  Astonishing.  The sun was rising as we flew over Europe and we saw the green hills of Ireland and the English Channel.  We landed in Frankfort at 8:30am local time.  We had to go through security again, but had plenty of time to get to our next flight from Frankfort to Addis Ababa.  This time the plane was half empty and we were able to spread out to empty seats and sleep.  When I woke up and looked out the window, we were flying over the Sahara desert.  Three hours later, we were still flying over the Sahara desert.  It's a whole lot of nothing but sand.  Then we saw the Nile River.  Very cool.  We landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 7pm local time, got our visas, went through immigration/customs, found our bags, went through security, found a shuttle to the Hilton, got checked in, ate a meal in the hotel restaurant, and were asleep in our bed by 10pm.  Everything went smoothly, no glitches, and we were really grateful for safe flights, good food, and a western hotel.

Sunday, June 13:
We were awake early (kind of a theme for the trip, our bodies had no idea what time it was and kept wanting to be awake or asleep at the wrong time) and enjoyed a beautiful morning.  We were on the 8th floor and our balcony overlooked the city, so we sat there watching the city come to life and trying to get our minds around the fact that we were on the other side of the world.  Addis is at 8,000 feet above sea level, so the temps are moderate.  It was always low 70s while we were there, cooler at night.  We really noticed the altitude:  one lap in the pool or one flight of stairs and we were winded.  We spent the day in the hotel just relaxing.  It was perfect.  We had a fantastic brunch buffet, took naps, walked around the hotel, and just enjoyed our last day alone.  We also left the hotel and went for a short walk around the city.  This was our first chance to really see Addis.  To my American eyes it was pretty awful.  People were everywhere, walking, standing, laying on the streets, sleeping under tarps, cooking food over open fires, begging, talking, just standing around.  In America, people are isolated by our cars and houses.  If you're outside on a street, you are going somewhere.  In Ethiopia, people were just spending their days on the street.  The air smelled strange to us too:  a spicy, smoky mix of people, fires, animals, and food.  And of course, complete poverty.  Two boys came up to us and said in English, "We are hungry, we don't have a family".  They walked along with us for a while, then gave up.  I was very overwhelmed by all of this and couldn't wait to get back the the hotel.  Brian was fascinated and would have walked around all day.  We went to bed early and tried to sleep, knowing that the next morning we'd go meet the kids.

Next post... Gotcha Day!