We made it! (well, 4 of us did)

Good morning from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!  Holy moly, was that a long day of travel.  I woke up at 5 am to head to the airport in Phoenix.  We arrived at our hotel in Addis about 31 hours later.  I was only able to take a few short naps on the flight, so I was crazy tired.  But so excited to be in Ethiopia!

The weirdest thing for me yesterday was on our flight to Amsterdam, watching the sun set spectacularly, then watching it rise again in only 3 hours.

Flying into Amsterdam, I spotted this wind farm in the water.

I’ve never been to Europe before and would have loved to explore a little bit, but we had to run our buns through the airport to make our connection. That seemed to be the theme of the trip yesterday. While I arrived in Atlanta 3 hours before our flight to Amsterdam, Kristen and Paige had to sprint through the airport just to make it on. Originally, we were all supposed to meet in Atlanta so we could fly together, but the poor Nashville crew was delayed, then delayed again, then rerouted. So they ended up staying the night in Ghana and won’t be in Addis until Thursday afternoon.

On our last leg of the trip, we made a stop in Sudan to let most of the passengers off.   On the way over, I had the opportunity to chat with a Sudanese woman who was about my age.  I don’t know about you, but when I think of Sudan, I think of everything that you see on the news, but have never really heard about the capitol city and life between the Blue and White Nile.  I enjoyed getting to hear a little bit about her story and her life as a chemical engineer in Khartoum.

Stepping off the plane in Ethiopia felt so wonderful.  Not only because my hips were in a permanently locked position from sitting for so long, but because we were here!  The adventure was now beginning!

But first, a nice long sleep…

This morning, I opened the window and took a deep breath.  It smells like winter here, damp, cool, with a wood fire burning somewhere close by.  So glad I packed my jeans at the last minute.

Today, the four of us that made it, Kristen, Emily, Paige and I, are going to drive down to Zeway.  This afternoon, we are scheduled to visit a school library and two child-headed households.  I can’t even say child-headed household without getting a lump in my throat, so it should be interesting.  Our photographer was part of the Nashville crew, so I’ll do my best to share Ethiopia with you through the lens of my iPhone until he gets here.

I’m looking forward to getting started and can’t wait for the rest of the crew to get here!