On the 16th day of the ninth month in the year 2001 of the Ethiopia calendar, we arrived in Addis Ababa.
But I will start at the beginning. Airplanes, as all things mechanized, break down. It just happens. But when one is waiting for a plane and within the four gates, three out of three aircraft are delayed because of mechanical failure, it is something like the alignment of the stars indicating a great portent. My plane originated in Denver failed its first test spin, so it was back in the shop. They weren't even going to decide what to do until 1:00…but a plane finally did arrive and I departed Kansas City at about 3:30.
Betsy, coming from Denver had her first flight cancelled. There was a lot of phone conversation…instead of, "can you hear me now," became, "where are you now?" John and the group from Minneapolis was the first group to arrive at O'Hare at about 1:00. David and the group from Chicago reached the airport at 3:00. Betsy made it from Denver a little after four. And I got to the gate as they were boarding at 5:20. I was reasonably sure my luggage would not be so lucky.
The fifteen of us were London bound. Our 6:05 departure netted us dinner, which was pretty much the first thing we did. Some people actually had a choice between chicken or cheese pasta. The cheese pasta must have been a heavy seller, so some people just had chicken thrust on them. But it was a full flight and will all the anticipation, few in the group slept. An hour before arrival in London we were delivered a breakfast of yogurt and a sweet roll of sorts. Hot towels would have been nice, but we were in economy. The god of wind was with us and pushed us to an hour early arrival in Heathrow.
For Heathrow, everything went very smoothly. London was clear and 54 degrees when we arrived. We flew right of the center of the city giving those with window seats an unparalleled view of the tower of London, Buckingham Palace and the rest of the sites in the historic city center. We arrived and departed out of terminal one. There was virtually no line at either security or re-ticketing. We had plenty of time for window shopping all the duty free shops, eating, and a brief orientation (since that didn't happen in Chicago). A little irony, they were out of English muffins at the place the teachers decided to eat, no kidding. A hint to future travelers, if you can get to gate 36 on a layover…it has recliners! Between the six hour time difference and the now almost 7 hour layover, thanks to the early arrival, everyone was fairly exhausted.
The flight to Amman, Jordan was also full. The airline was bmi, I only know that is British Midland because I looked it up. It is a cheeky little airline where the stewardesses wear beef-eater hats. Lots of little kids, including several toddlers who plagued the back half of the plane for most of the flight by running up and down the aisles, even venturing into the forbidden territories of business class. We were all sitting together in five rows pretty much over the wing. The lunch was, you guessed it: chicken. The students played, "guess the vegetable". For us in the know, it was diced turnips, parsnips and rutabaga. I think not too many of the vegetables were consumed. It was about six hour flight and an incredible lesson in geography. As the pilot described our route, I tried for a mental picture…and failed. Basically we flew diagonally across Europe to Turkey, took a sharp right at Cypress, crossed Lebanon and landed in Amman. You have to have a map with names on it. That may be a little out of order, as I said, I was lost! Add two more hours to the time difference…we are now up to eight.
Fortunately, most of the plane emptied at Amman. We were rewarded with a new flight crew of 5 and only three new passengers. We were left with 3 people in business class (with their two stewardesses) and no more than 15 or 20 people in economy besides us. Each one of us had a row unto ourselves. Alleluia, alleluia! After a snack of a tiny pizza with a sausage and, yes, chicken kabob, everyone slept for the duration of the four hour flight to Addis.
We arrived in Addis a little after two in the morning. Same time zone as Amman. Immigration was painless. Betsy and I still needed our visas, again, painless. My bags were there. Again, Alleluia. However, there were 3 or 4 bags missing—all from Minneapolis. A search was launched. After the initial…they are still in Chicago, there were discovered on the curb in the Addis airport…they never were put on the luggage belt! That was a bit of a delay, but Brothers Betre, Kassau and Taddele were patiently waiting for us. They had a pick-up for our luggage, which we filled. They did ask us if this was a permanent move we had so much stuff. We arrived at the diocesan guest house about 5 a.m. to the sound of the Orthodox Churches beginning the chants that signal the beginning of their 3 hour liturgy. The sites and sounds of the city are amazing. The students are paired up in rooms. And us old folk each have our own. They are self contained and pretty nice. Someone said there were bells…I heard nothing!
We woke about nine for breakfast (realize this is still all on Sunday) not the next day. We are trying to rapidly acclimate to the 8 hour time difference. Breakfast was bread and crepes with honey. The Brother picked us up and took us on a city tour. Addis is home to almost 7 million people. The official number is more like 5 million, but I believe the 7. It is modern and clean. It is surrounded by mountains and is lush with vegetation. The Pepsi and Coke signs speak of a small world, although their labels sport Amheric. "Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore!" We passed many embassies, including the new one under construction for the U.S. We also passed the millennium hall. Ethiopia celebrated is two-thousandth year as a country in 2007. There is an unbelievable history.
Our first stop was at the Church of the Holy Trinity, built by the King Haile Selassie, his name actually means "Power of the Trinity." He was born Tafari (I probably didn't spell that correctly) but it is the root of the Rastafarians, Ras (meaning head) and his last name…get it? The church is Orthodox. We removed our shoes, as is the custom as we were allowed special entrance for a private tour. The tour began by the men sitting on the left and the women on the right…our first lesson. The church has two banks of stained glass, on the left, the old testament; on the right, the new testament. The window closest to the sanctuary depicts the Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon, their son was Minilik, the first king of Ethiopia in about 1000 BC. The church is a memorial to the patriots who died liberating Ethiopia from the Italians, they are buried under the church. Haile Selassie and his queen are buried near the sanctuary. Also on display in the cathedral are the chairs used by the king and queen. After the church we received a tour of a small museum, housing many of the treasures of the cathedral. There were many incredible hand lettered illustrated manuscripts dating back 500 years. There were beautifully embroidered vestments, intricate chalices and crosses and other paraphernalia mostly donated by the last two kings.
We then we up Intoto mountain, past the church of St. Mary, which was really where Addis Ababa (meaning, beautiful flower) began. The view over Addis was really nice. There was another group of tourists, mostly from England enjoying the view. And there were kids, lots of kids.
The Children surrounded us while we were on the mountain, allowing us to talk to them and explaining what some of the significance of the surrounding area and telling us about their lives. However. Each child was truly hoping for gifts or money. Explaining several major land marks and how difficult their life and struggle to get too school. Ali, one of the students from Minnesota, gave out some gum to the kids. She was swarmed by them and some of the children began to fight over the pieces. the gum eventually ran out and many children were left with nothing. Several teenage children talked to me and each one seemed to have the same rehearsed story. When we began to leave the children started asking for money and begging for money. It was one of the most awkward moments of my life. I had some money but they were all rather large bills and nowhere near enough for the several dozen children. On the way down from the mountain our van was swarmed by children and several kids jumped on to the back of it yelling and begging for money. Other ran along the side of the van holding onto our open windows and asking, begging for anything. That was the most disturbing experiences of my life.
The tallest building in the city is only 25 stories. From there we went to the Brothers house for lunch…pizza! After lunch we went to the Lion Park. The lions on display were for the most part black maned males in their prime. They were magnificent, although their surrounding were less so.
We were back to the Brother's house, which shares a compound with the postulancy (the Brother's house of formation for young Brothers). We had left-over pizza and played cards as we talked with the Brothers. The most important activity on this day was to stay awake! So many of us wanted to crawl into bed, but in order to acclimate our bodies to the new time zone, we had to keep busy and then get good rest on Sunday night. We arrived back at the guest house about 9:00 pm. That would be 3:00, Ethiopian time where the morning begins at 7:00 am, being 1:00 and ending at seven, which is also 1:00…there is day and night and that is that.
We spend tomorrow at St. Joseph's school in Addis where we will attend classes and meet with students…and have a friendly international game of basketball in the afternoon. Tuesday we are scheduled to work at a shelter run by Mother Teresa's sisters and visit the National Museum. Wednesday we are doing some work around the compound of the moving dirt nature followed by another service project at yet another orphanage in the afternoon.
The following day we are visiting a CRS (Catholic Relief Services) project, but we are still working on the specifics of that.
The at the end of the week we will be off to Arbaminch if you are following our travels on a map, it lies to the south of Addis.
We are all well, just really tired.
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