In Addis Abeba

March 7, 2012

Addis Abeba: we had an uneventful flight from Chad: the plane left on time, no unexpected detours and best of all - with us aboard.

We got our luggage and visitors’ visa very quickly and thankfully Margreet had our Yellow Fever cards in her backpack as we had to show them.

Trying to find the couple (Mike and Gretchen Heaton) that was collecting us from the airport was a different story! One doesn’t just leave the terminal because you have to pay to get back in and go through security as well. Henk is inside with the luggage and Margreet is outside not being able to get back in! Finally we are able through an airport employee to use his cellphone and establish contact.

Cars can only be parked in the car park, where it is mayhem with tens of taxis, minibuses and hundreds of people waiting in line to be able to get into the terminal to greet arriving relatives. It took almost half an hour but meeting up we did!

Addis is definitely cooler than N D’Jamena. Thankfully we did have our ‘hoodies’ in our backpacks for instant use and for the first time in seven weeks we even needed a blanket! We had a restful night and in the morning our first WARM water shower since leaving home in January.

Mike, our host, is the Wycliffe Associates representative here and is supervising the construction of the new office building for the SIL/Wycliffe translators. He showed us around the building site and we are impressed by the quality of work that the Ethiopian workers deliver. After that we visited the existing offices and, yup, they sure could use a whole lot more space!

Ethiopian Workers at Wycliffe Building under Construction

Wycliffe Building Being Built in Addis Abeba