Ethiopian Airlines is the largest air carrier in all of Africa. To our great pleasure, Jean, Brad and I boarded the maiden Boeing 777 in the fleet and flew non-stop all the way from Dulles International in Washington to Bole International in Addis Ababa. We disembarked 12 ½ hours later after an uneventful flight, very tired, but happy to be at our destination and prepared to meet our hosts for the next week plus.
Once we got through customs and retrieved our baggage, all eight large and heavy suitcases full, we moved out into the main terminal lobby where, in no time at all, we had lovely warm greetings all around. Four of the Moria’h House staff, Jerry, Wanna, Ady and Mike (pronounced Mickey), were on hand to offer big hugs, and three of the youngest residents of Moria’h House shyly presented each of us with yellow and red roses.
We quickly loaded a couple of vehicles and came to the Yeka Guest House where we are staying, and settled into our rooms. Jean had prepared beautiful wedding photo albums as a gift for Jerry, our good friend who had gotten married just a few months ago, so they took time to look at them together. Then, the three women donned “magic bubble” shirts Karen had supplied for a very colorful picture.
Jerry, Wanna, and the entire Moria’h House staff realized that we would be very fatigued from a long flight and an eight hour time difference, so no activities were planned for us on this first day. We went by taxi, which in Addis Ababa means one of the hundreds of small blue and white vans that traverse the city streets, to a local restaurant frequented by ferengis (white foreigners), had a tasty Italian lunch, and then returned to our rooms to relax, sleep and re-energize ourselves so we could be ready to get rolling with our mission efforts on Monday.
At the end of our travel day, we indeed felt as though we’d been going non-stop (well, we actually HAD been) for about 28 hours. But it was all good and we are very glad to be here.
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