Arrival in Addis

I thought that I would arrive in Addis Ababa and immediately pass out. However, even after almost 24 hours of travel and some restless naps on the planes, I am still on Eastern Standard Time. But I am here. Finally.

The past month was probably the busiest of my life – moving out my apartment in the city, living at home and commuting, completing applications, packing and preparing for the trip, having multiple doctor appointments each week, and saying my goodbyes. I was running errands and packing until the second I left my house for the airport Sunday night.

The first leg of the trip was pretty painless, except for the requisite crying baby. Once I arrived in Istanbul, I lingered in Duty Free tasting the hundreds of samples of Turkish Delights. I probably tried eight different types before I realized that I would never be able to eat a whole box of theses. The saccharine taste just overwhelms your mouth.

When I arrived at the gate for the flight to Addis, I was very surprised at the composition of the flight.  I had assumed the majority of passengers were going to be Ethiopians. However, the flight was full of older, white European couples! I must have been on the same flight as a tour. I was shocked. One tiny woman was dressed like she was about to trek Mount Kilimanjaro.  She reminded me of the “sinewy sunburnt gophers” mentioned in Roald Dahl’s autobiography Going Solo.

There were a handful of Ethiopians, including one family with two children and a baby (no international flight is complete without a crying baby), two or three older woman wearing beautiful headscarves, and a handful of middle-aged men in Western attire. The only peer I spotted on the plane was attending a UN conference on roads. He was Indian, born in Zambia, raised in Switzerland, attended college in Canada, and very well traveled.

Customs was easy. Most of the plane had to purchase visas upon arrival, but since I picked up my business visa in New York I was able to bypass the line. Ari, my co-fellow, was waiting for me right outside Customs. I was expecting a nondescript Ethiopian man with my name on a placard so seeing a familiar face after a long journey was certainly a welcome surprise. We took a shuttle back to our hotel, where we will be staying for a couple days until we leave for Gonder.

This morning we returned to the airport to see seven Ethiopian children off to Ghana for spinal surgery. The group will be traveling without their families. One adult JDC staff member will accompany them. They will have surgery in the next week and then remain in Ghana to recover for two or three months. The youngest in the group is five-years old! These kids have never left Addis, never flown on an airplane before. Can you imagine leaving behind your family and everything you know to undergo an invasive surgery in a foreign land?

The group outside the airport

Once the children went through security at the airport, we headed off to lunch. We took cabs through the city. The roads here are crazy; there are no stop signs, no traffic lights, no rules. There is one large road that is twelve lanes! Lots of Ethiopians were out and about, walking through the city or hopping on and off minibuses. The city has many high rises interspersed among smaller buildings and corrugated metal shacks. The cabs do not have meters. You have to barter with the drivers before getting in the car.  

We had lunch at hidden restaurant, off one of the main roads. It was a large house with multiple rooms, each set up with spacious wooden tables and comfortable lounge chairs. We ate at a large table in the library, which had bookshelves, a comfortable couch, and English books from Twilight to the Audacity of Hope strewn across a coffee table. The patrons seemed to be white visitors, ex pats, and business men looking for a piece of home. The staff spoke English with ease, and the menu consisted of burgers and sandwiches.  

After lunch, we went to the JDC office to meet the employees and pick up my local cell phone.  It's an old Nokia, pre-flip-phone days. I need to get used to texting on it, the iPhone has certainly spoiled me. Tomorrow Ari and I are going shopping in the local market with a JDC staffer to pick up linens and other houseware for our place in Gonder. Hoping that I will get to see more of the city tomorrow and get a better feel for my surroundings!