We saw these cute boys near the House of Hope
Cattle in Addis Ababa Our driver, Ephrim
Day 3
Tuesday Dec. 16
As we fly into Addis Ababa we are able to look out the window and get our first glimpse of Ethiopia. It is beautiful. It is very mountainous, which I didn't anticipate. It reminded us a lot of when we fly out west. We were also able to see the Nile River. Sometime in the late morning we land in Addis Ababa. Wow! What a good feeling to be on the ground again. Although we are exhausted and a little homesick, we are filled with anticipation, because Meron is somewhere in this city! We just want to hurry up and go meet her, but we have to go through other steps first. After we get off the plane we make our way to the Visa office too get our temporary travel visas. This went relatively quickly, then we were off to exchange money. The lady who helped us was none too friendly or helpful, which didn't help, since we were already starting to feel a little overwhelmed and out of our element. Then we found our way to baggage claim, and much to our surprise and delight, all of our luggage was there. I forgot to mention that in D.C. we had to check all of our luggage, because Ethiopian air has tighter regulations on the size and weight of a carry-on than the other airlines. A couple who traveled a few weeks before us lost ALL of their luggage and spent their entire trip with just the clothes they were wearing. After we gathered our luggage we were shuffled toward the door. By now the language barrier is very evident and we were exhausted and feeling very overwhelmed and homesick, and that's when we saw a man with a bright beaming smile holding a picture of us. It was Ephrim, our driver, and who also ended up being our link to Ethiopia for the rest of the week. Immediately, we felt at ease with him. He had such a great spirit and was just so much fun to talk with. He shared with us a lot about Ethiopia while we drove through Addis Ababa on our way to the House of Hope where Meron was.
