Journal Entry 9-13 to 9-14

Thursday, September 13th –

We are Off!

We woke up around 6AM but stayed in bed until 7AM. I got the computer out and used the wireless internet to e-mail from bed. We got up and ate breakfast with Michele’s parents and did stuff around the house to get ready to go. Michele’s parents were leaving for vacation in Colorado and their ride showed up at 9:15. I ran to K-Mart to pick up a couple of last minute supplies and my parents showed up right at noon to take up to the airport.


We drove to the airport, almost hitting a truck with huge logs on it, went to the wrong terminal, had a hard time getting Michele checked in for our flight and our waitress at Chili’s in the terminal almost lost our lunch ticket. But all turned out well and we made our flight after a good lunch. We sat in row 43 on a 747 on Lufthansa. We sat in a row where baby bassinettes are used, so we had some extra leg room. We sat next to a nice German man, Maik, who has traveled the world. Michele and I thought he might be an air marshal and his foundry job was a cover, but there were some faults in this argument that we could not get around.

There was a nice couple who sat on the other side of the aisle who had a nine month old girl, who was very good on the flight. There were two movies on the flight but we did not watch either of them. We read and played soduku puzzles and listened to music. We had two meals on the flight (Michele just had one), dinner (the vegetarian meal because the regular meals fell off the cart right before they got to us) which includes rice, potatoes, yogurt, falafel. Breakfast was small but good with a granola bar, fruit and bread.

Friday, September 14th –

After we got off the plane around 6:30 AM local time and said bye to our travel companion, Maik, who gave us a great lesson in German culture and sports, Michele and I went to the ticket transfer line to get our boarding pass for our next flight. We got through the line quickly, we got there just in time before lots of other flights arrived and the line ballooned behind us. We soon found a small restaurant overlooking the airport runway area. We enjoyed a German style breakfast with meat, cheese, breads and coffee. It certainly hit the spot.

We then walked around the airport for a bit and found somewhere else to sit down. We walked around some shops and finally were able to get to our gate and wait to board our plane. We board around 11:30AM and after a bit, we finally took off from Germany. I was surprised to see so many trees and forest area that is still in tact in Germany. Michele and I traded turns sleeping on this flight, each getting about 1-1/2 -2 hours each of sleep. We enjoyed a nice lunch with wine and beer and I had a Bailey’s to boot! The service on the plane was great. The scenery was neat to see, we flew over the Mediterranean Sea, mountains, the Nile River and a huge desert. We flew for an hour and all you saw was sand, not one thing living, It was amazing.

We landed in Khartoum, Sudan to refuel and drop passengers. We saw no traces of humans for over two hours until right outside the city. The houses on the outskirts has walls going around the properties and none of the properties were up against each other. We could tell we were getting close when we saw green land. The city was much larger than I thought it would be and I am glad we got to fly in during the day.

We stopped in Khartoum for an hour, so we took time to explore the plane and sit in the business class seats, which the section was totally empty. Soon we were off to Addis Ababa. The guy in front of us on the plane is front Wheaton, Illinois, the suburb next to Glen Ellyn, where I grew up. He flies planes for a missionary group in Ethiopia and grew up in the country. They just moved to Wheaton a couple of years ago and will be in Ethiopia for a month.
11:30 PM – 9/14/07

Well we have made it to the guest house! The last flight went smoothly, we had fun with the custom agents at the airport, changed some money to birr and got our luggage. The guy in front of us in the plane was a big help with us getting through the airport. He introduced us to his friend in Ethiopia, who seemed like a nice guy. We got our bags and looked for the CHSFS sign but we did not see it. So we waited for a bit but no one showed up. So we flagged down our friend from the flight and as we worked to figure out how to contact CHSFS, the guy showed up. So off we went with him in a van that had no seats, except for two in the way back and the driver seat. Our driver did not speak any English. However it was nice to be out in the fresh Ethiopian air. The airport was fun because there were many people there waiting for people to get off planes and we got some interesting looks.

The ride to the guest house took about 25 minutes. We got to see many different things along the way, but nothing too surprising. But we did see how bad the roads could be and how they drive in this country. We also did see all the lights for their new millennium, which they celebrated on September 11th. We got into the guest house, moved into our room, got unpacked, did not meet anyone else in the house and got ready for bed.

I accidentally made two mistakes while getting ready for bed. First, I brushed my teeth with tap water and second, I used hemorrhoid medicine instead of toothpaste. A good start to our stay! I had to rinse my mouth out with mouthwash a couple of times after that debacle. Soon we got tired and went to sleep.