africa day 1 – getting to africa

Day 1

 

 

While traveling is an honor and a privilege and especially doing the work that we are doing it is incredibly compelling – that being said international travel has gotten more difficult. Between TSA, international laws and micro chipping everything it is not easy. But we made it out of the New York and into JFK: six bags, two women, one sewing machine cutter and a ton of feelings of excitement, hope and anticipation.

 

 

An uneventful first flight that was mostly made up of research, reading and a wee bit of sleep we arrived in London Heathrow airport. Now I am not sure if I am the only one but Heathrow is one of the most thorough airport checks that I have ever had. My chapstick, 0.3oz of cuticle oil and lip gloss were segregated and I think interrogated in a separate room – after which they were returned to me in a small plastic sealed container.

 

 

On the next flight the mission was clear – sleep as much as you can! We wanted to land and hit the ground running. The best of intentions. That is what I feel about international travel. I will let you in on a little secret – I am horrible at time zones. I always have been. I have a clock on my computer people think it is easy but really really I cannot get it. I am great at many things time zones are not one of them. All this lead up to say, I messed up. I thought we landed in Nairobi on the 9th of September- it was the 10th. Our flight for Addis Ababa was for the 9th. We missed it by a day.

 

 

To add insult to injury, the 10th of September is Ethiopian New Years and EVERYONE wants to be there.

 

 

Thank goodness for great friends and small miracles! My dear friends were landing in Nairobi one hour in advance of us and I had transported her camera to hand off to her and they knew a place and helped us with rebooking our flight. What could have been a terrible catastrophe became an embarrassing way lay of one day and a super short night’s sleep (again sleep – get it while you can).

 

 

We caught the 6am flight to Addis Ababa. Yes, that meant 4am wake up and baggage and taxis and lots of sleeping people at that airport. We arrived in Addis to the throngs of questions – wait weren’t you supposed to be here yesterday. The answer: yes. Moving on…..