Arrival in Addis

So, when the plane landed after the 13 hour non-stop flight, I went through immigration and customs rather quickly.  Then I walked toward the huge crowd of people waiting for arrivals and thought, “Oh man.  There is no way that I’m ever going to find whoever came to pick me up (if any came at all..).  But, surely enough, Sarah, who I’ve never seen in person before, and Mole, one of Millennium’s drivers, were waiting for me in that crowd.  They greeted me with a hug and a bottle of water before we made our way to the car.  So great.  Sarah is super awesome and a super woman.   She totally took care of me.  We got to the house, I unpacked and chatted with Sarah for about an hour or so, and then I crashed.  I slept for maybe 2 hours and then woke up again.  I moseyed to the living room and began to read and then fell asleep again for another hour.  I also slept the entire night as well.  Jet lag really sank its teeth in and kept them in for about 3 days. 

My plane actually landed on Friday morning, so I had three days to get my life started here.  I ended up dedicating Friday to sleep.  On Saturday, Sarah took me to get set up with my internet and cell phone.   Getting the internet here is another long and tedious process.  You have to go through like 3 or 4 people and 3 or 4 photo ID’s just to get a wireless card and a cell phone.  Why they need copies of my passport and 2 photos is beyond me.  These services are pay-as-you-go, so when your sim card runs out on either of them you have to buy these little green plastic card strips that have a pin number on the back that you punch in to add money to your cards.  Not my favorite process, but this is how it goes…

On Sunday, Sarah and I went to the Ethiopian National Museum and saw Lucy (second picture below), the Australopithicus skeleton that was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974.  She’s named “Lucy” because when the archaeologists found her, they were listening to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”  She was found in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia.  Apparently, 11 of the 12 pre-human “ancestral” skeletons have been found in Ethiopia, most if not all in the Rift Valley.  We then ate at an Ethiopian restaurant next to the museum called "Lucy Fast Food" where we had some very spicy traditional food.  While we were there, we both had our pictures taken with the artificial donkey and goat that were in the restaurant (last picture).  Seems normal, right?  It’s not like there aren’t enough of those animals crossing the street every 100 feet or anything… 

Later, we ended up finding my favorite nuns, the Missionaries of Charity.  They have a couple houses in Addis, but we found one that houses every type of poor person imaginable.  The complex is so big that they have two separate units on each side of a street.  One side of the street housed women with newborns and infants, abandoned children, children with mental and physical disabilities and women with mental illnesses and kids.  The other side of the street housed men and women with physical and mental disabilities.  There were separate rooms with residents with TB as well.  While Sarah and I were there, one of the men in their very sick unit actually died.  God love him and bring him Home.  I’m sure he suffered long and hard.  This is the reality of life in places like this that we in the "developed world" somehow are able to ignore.

Visiting this house really reminded me of my time in Calcutta where I worked with these Sisters in an orphanage and in a home for the dying.  These women dedicate their lives to serving the poorest of the poor in all corners and gutters of the world.  They live in some of the most lackluster locations that one can imagine, but they have such joy in doing the work that they do every day.  It’s staggering to see how much they do for so many people throughout the world.  They do it selflessly and they do it happily.

Then we went home and fought with the internet some more.  This is a constant battle that we’ll have to build some endurance against.  One minute it works, the next two hours it doesn’t.  Again.  Ethiopia has the 4^th worst internet in the world.  This is why my blog entries are usually late and overdue…  Please be patient with me.