Atlantic first (Ethiopia: Day One)

We just got settled into our hotel rooms here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The trip was incredibly long, but it wasn't terrible. Checking-in had some obstacles, like my hand carries being too heavy (one video camera bag roller bag, and one still camera shoulder bag). I had to explain to the lady that I was carrying thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment, but I still had to move some stuff into my check-in bag. She barely even let me take the shoulder bag as a carry on (you're only allowed one apparently), but she was nice. The flight from San Francisco to London felt really short considering we were flying half way around the world. I watched a couple movies, played some Nintendo DS, and read a little too. Sleeping was also an activity I did a lot.

Of course, our flight was delayed a little, so we had to race to our connecting flight to Addis Ababa. We made it with a half hour to spare. The kind gesture from the nice lady who checked me in from San Francisco backfired in London because they DEFINITELY wouldn't let us take two bags. So we had to check-in one more bag, which was such a hassle. The flight from London wasn't as pleasant as the one from San Francisco. In fact, I didn't enjoy it at all. I sat in between these two nice-looking African people who knew each other and, I think, were traveling together. But they felt it wasn't rude at all to talk to each other at a loud audible in their own language because for about four hours I had to endure non-stop conversations that I couldn't understand at all...and one of them definitely needed a breath mint. I was really peeved about the whole thing, but I didn't want to make things weird and tell them to shut up or to switch seats with me. I can usually just turn music on and sleep through it, but the bad breath was so awful that it would keep me from fully dozing off. Ugh...flight etiquette, people! Flight etiquette!

Anyway, I was very thankful that we had to refuel at Alexandria, Egypt because people actually were stopping there and left their seats open. Needless to say, I moved somewhere else for the rest of the trip. At the end of the flight, I looked over to where they were...still yapping away in their loud, bad breath ways. Tsk tsk...

Customs was short, but baggage claim was anything but short. One of Carol's and my bags did not make it from London to Addis, so we had to report the bags. Hopefully, it will be here by Tuesday morning, but it was pretty much not the way I wanted to end a 20-hour trip. Oh, well. I'll just have to where the same clothes for two days. Oh wait, I already do that.

Once we finally got out of baggage claim, we were met by Bob and Will. Two people with an organization that helps give food and water to the people of Africa, and its in good relations with our organization. They took us to our hotel room where we are now.

Now that is all done, I'm heading to bed with only an estimate of what time it is. There's church in the morning, so hopefully we can wake up for that.