Getting Abera - Starting the Trip by Michael

Thanks to Michael who served the role as journal writer and videographer (once again!) during our travels.  Here are his journal entries for the first two days of our trip... encompassing leaving Milwaukee to putting our head onto the pillow some 30 hours later.  The videos will come soon!!!

Friday

We got up early, around 6AM and I went to work because we were so busy that I wanted to get some invoicing done.  I stayed until 8 and went home to help Michele pack and finish getting ready for our trip.  Mehandis played with Ella, Young and Tom outside while we packed.  We planned to get out by 10 but were running a bit behind.  After a quick family picture, we were on our way by 10:20. 

We drove to McDonald's in Kenosha and meet Erin and my parents.  We met my parents because they were taking Mehandis the first part of the week that we were gone.  Erin is now full term with her pregnancy and looks great.  We ate a quick meal and drove next door to the Brat Shop where Michele and I were taking the bus down to O'Hare.  We said our goodbyes as the bus drove up and soon we were off on our own, starting our trip to bring home Abera.  The bus ride worked out great, going straight down to O'Hare and we got to the international terminal by 1PM. 

We checked in for our flights and found a food court with food and drink.  We both had bloody mary's and enjoyed simple sandwiches.  I remembered the last time we were in this terminal we were flying to Ireland with my family and was at the same bar (I watched Marquette play Louisville in the conference tournament waiting for our flight, MU won... I remember this stuff but not what Michele said to me five minutes ago).  After our rest stop, we went through security and we still had plenty of time, so we walked the entire length of the terminal, from the Italians on the north end to the French on the south side (maybe a smart idea to keep them on different ends).

Below is a video of Michael and Michele waiting to leave Chicago at the bar. 

We started to board around 3:30 and got out on time at 4:20.  As we walked up to our seats we realized that we had bulk head seats, so good leg room.  But while Michele was saying how great this was, she did not see the toddler that we would be sitting next to.  However the kid was a good traveler and was pretty quiet during the flight.  All the seats had their own televisions, so we tried to coordinate watching movies and TV shows together.  The flight went smoothly but we both barely slept, maybe getting 30 minutes at the most.

We landed in Amsterdam around 6:45 local time and found a nice cafe for breakfast.  I like landing in Europe in the morning, especially being one of the early flights to get in.  The airport has so much energy because there are so many international flights getting in around the same time.  I had a fun Dutch pancake for breakfast that was really good.  I had a headache, so instead of coffee, to hydrate, I had Diet Coke, and it really did the trick to make me feel better.

Click on the picture below for a video of us in Amsterdam. 

After breakfast we ran into Patrick and Danielle, a couple that Michele had traveled with back in July that we were looking forward to seeing.  We knew we would be on the same flight to Ethiopia together, so we were looking for them.  They were just finishing up at the same cafe that we were at and we found some couches to go relax at and wait for our next flight.

Soon enough it was time to board our flight and we took off around 10:30AM.  We were more towards the back of the plane and Danielle and Patrick were further up, so we did not see them much during the flight.  The flight went smoothly but was long with the stop-over in Khartoum, Sudan.  I like landing in Khartoum because before then all you see in sand for so long it is amazing.  Then all of a sudden small villages start sprouting up and then a huge city is beneath you.  The Nile flows through the city and after seeing such desolate landscape, it was amazing to see that the city looked like it was actually flooded. 


Khartoum, Sudan aerial view

The couple that was sitting behind us was from Denver (same as Patrick and Danielle) and were adopting as well (their second adoption from Ethiopia as well!).  We had a good conversation with them while waiting for the plane to be cleaned and fueled.  The guy across from me was from Ethiopia (looked like a Bob Marley type) but lived and went to school in Norway.  He was coming home to see family for a month.  I played him some Bole to Harlem on my ipod and he really liked and appreciated it.  Michele did point out to me that he did suck his finger like Mehandis when he was sleeping, deepening my worry that our son will never get over this.
We made the final 1:20 leg to Ethiopia and we hardly slept a wink the entire way there.  I did fall asleep on this leg for maybe ten minutes, but we really just could not sleep.  I got to read a lot of my David Plouffe book on running the Obama presidential run.  I remembered that last time we were in Ethiopia I talked with our driver to Hosanna about Obama running and him saying that it was too early and he would not win.  So it was neat to reflect on that conversation and how much has changed since last time we were there.

We went throughout the normal slow customs and visa approval process, exchanged some money, found our luggage (!) and walked through the exit of the airport into Ethiopia.  Both times we have arrived in Ethiopia a huge crowd is waiting for people to come off the planes, which is neat to see.  Luckily this time our contact from CHSFS was there waiting for us.



You won't see anyone you know in this picture, as it is a stock photo... but shows the Arrival Area at the Airport

 We walked outside, got our breath of fresh air and the smells of the city.  It has just rained and was in the 60's.

Bole International Airport in Addis... night view from parking lot



Addis Ababa at dusk/dawn



We got to the CHSFS bus and drove to the guest house.  The city looked the same at night as I remembered.  The drive was about 20 minutes to the guest house, which was the orphanage when we were last here.  We stayed one floor above where Mehandis stayed in the house and got settled in.  We unpacked and then packed for our trip to Hosanna in the morning (6AM leave time and it was now around 11PM!).  We found that a bottle of sanitizer has broken in transport and sanitized everything in the bag.  Luckily nothing too important was in there, including no clothes.  So we washed it out and took care of it (not what we wanted to be doing after our long travels but could be worse).  My shaver did break as well but amazingly I was able to put it back together.  Around midnight we finally settled in for some sleep.