Hello Ethiopia!
on New Adventures in Ethiopia (Ethiopia), 06/Feb/2009 09:02, 34 days ago
Hello Ethiopia!Well, after a very very very long journey, I arrived in Addis Ababa at 2am, Ethiopian time. I believe my total travel time must have been about 24 hours but I really don’t know exactly because I crossed so many time zones. Nonetheless, I stopped over in London and was not able to come out of customs to see my sister so I rushed to my gate and made it on my flight. The journey was long to say the least and the food was ok. We stopped in Damascus, Syria for refueling - I wasn’t expecting that.I was the last to leave baggage claim…why you ask? Well…because I waited and waited for my luggage and out of 17 other VSO volunteers arriving on the same flight, my luggage did not come…so I am left with what is in my hand luggage. That’s not much. I have pyjamas, a toothbrush, a hairbrush…no shampoo…no clothes…So finally when I came out after filing a baggage claim with a very typically Ethiopian young guy who oozed naïveté and was genuinely interested in why I was here, the two facilitators of the one-week long in-country training met me and assured me that my baggage would come. I hope they are right…so we walked to the bus together and I suppose the first thing I noticed was the 20-30 men standing around desperate to help with luggage, the dotted homeless airport dwellers and as I walked to the pretty rickety and quintessentially African looking bus holding the other volunteers, I noticed the silence. The air is peaceful here. It’s calm. We don’t realize how much background noise we have in LA constantly. It feels like the serene kind of silence that you experience if you go camping or into the wilderness.[As an aside, I told the baggage claim guy my information and he asked why I was here and I told him I work for an NGO. He started telling me about this new government policy that pertains to sustainable development in Ethiopia and questioned me on how it may affect my work here…I thought to myself…wow…are baggage claim people in the US well informed and interested like this? I’m not sure...] Africans are so short-changed…in my first moments that belief I’ve held for quite sometime was a little confirmed thanks to lost luggage.Since it’s dark, the bus ride was interesting…I was trying to make out my surroundings and on first impressions I’d say that poverty is an abstract term in Western society until you see African infrastructure and the context of poverty here…corrugated iron stands, home made signs, wooden tarp covered food vending spots, masses of waste materials and the worst potholes you’ve ever seen… there is a significant lack of street lighting and sporadically you’ll see a bunch of 4 or 5 men or adolescent boys standing around chatting in the dead and dark of night. Having said this, I am seeing Addis at 3am so I’m sure its bustling during the day and the vibe is very very different.I was brought to a large compound that houses the Red Cross building and I was given my room number. Everything feels basic here but I have two beds in here, a TV a desk and a shower and flushing toilet. While I type this, I turned the boiler on and am waiting for the water to warm up so that I can shower. There are some older ladies in the room adjacent who came out and offered to give me things to get me by like underwear and shampoo and toothpaste. That was really sweet of them. I’m going to go and knock and see what I can get…In the meanwhile, I will try to post this online tomorrow morning on my blog so that all of my loved ones can read up on my first night here…there are lots of minor details that I may have omitted but its not intentional...Im just writing what comes to my mind at this time. I’m in Africa! And it feels and looks like Africa and it makes me happy somehow…don’t ask me why. I feel happy to be here. Even the very miniscule little bit that I’ve seen now is so so interesting that I want the people I love a lot like my mom and my siblings and my dad and my pandi to experience with their own eyes. Its truly a different world out here and in coming months I’ll write more.I have an orientation pack to read and breakfast is tomorrow at 9am…I am going to try and wake up and figure out my head from my… yeah…Until next time…love from a happy and fulfilled and at peace Arin JCurrent thoughts:- Hope my luggage comes tomorrow- I wonder when this high is going to subside and go into a melancholy of‘woah Im in a new place and everything is frustrating’- I want to learn Amharic- Damn that was a long flight- I wish I had wireless and the ability to make a phone call- Ill be cool…I need to shower and sleep- Lesson learnt…always have survival basics like shampoo and underwear and socks and toothpaste in your hand luggage just in case your checked bag does not come in time.Update: I just took a shower– it was a trickle…no power shower here…and the nice lady across the corridor gave me shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and a new pair of undies… Im happy…