The Trip to Havilah

The morning of August 18, 2010 was when my journey started. It began when I left my house early in the morning to drive to the Tulsa airport, about an hour and a half drive from my house. I boarded the plane at around 11 am and arrived past noon at Chicago. At Chicago was were my nerves were tried, I was supposed to unboard the airplane and board the other airplane in about 45 min. Needless to say I was not early, on the contrary I got to the gate after all of the other passengers had boarded. If it hadn’t been for a man that I meet while unboarding I probably would have missed my plane. The plane had

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

landed on one side of the airport and we boarded on the other side, I am not kidding. I was so relieved when I was on the plane and on my way to Washington. Thank God for the kind man that showed me the way to my gate. He was going to Addis Abba which were I was going to spend the night. I looked for him later but I never did see him after that. When I arrived to Washington I looked for Ethiopian Airlines. Keep in mind that I have never flown alone, so I know very little of how airports work. And add to that the fact that I always get lost. So I think I wandered around the Washington airport for about 30 minutes before I found someone who could help me find Ethiopian Airlines. You see the flights in the USA were through United Airlines but United was not going to take me to Africa. They only gave me the boarding tickets for my US flights. To get my International boarding tickets I had to find Ethiopian Airlines. It turned out that I had been walking in the opposite direction. Ethiopian Airlines was really close to the gate where I had dishoarded, I felt so sheepish. :l I spent the rest of my Wednesday afternoon there and I spent it frustrated because the airline charged me $60 because my carryon weighed more than 15 pounds. Who in the world weighs a carry-on? Apparently Ethiopian airlines does and they charge big bucks. Okay so maybe sixty dollars is not that much but for a Student Missionary who had a set amount that is supposed to last her for a whole year, it felt like a thousand bucks. I wish somebody would have told me I would have packed lighter. Besides charging me for my carry-on this airline was pretty cool. They feed me and gave me a blanket, socks, mask, and a tooth-brush which came in handy because I forgot my toothbrush in my carry-on. I woke up when the airplane landed and I thought we had arrived at Addis but it turned out that we had landed in Rome! I was so excited but the excitement faded away when I realized that we had to stay in the plane. So I can sadly say that all I have done in Rome is watch someone clean up and fuel an airplane. It was a long flight about 16 hours long. I think flight that long should be illegal I had a headache when I finally arrived to Addis. I arrived to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia the next day and boy was I confused. I got in the wrong line and when I was in the right line I understood very little of what went on. I finally understood that they were setting me up with a hotel. It was at Ethiopia where I got my first visa stamp. I was so excited! I slept very little that night, I asked for a wake-up call but I was so paranoid that maybe they didn’t know my room number or would forget me. Nothing like that happened. They feed us layover people dinner and breakfast and I discovered that I love Ethiopian food. It has a little spice to it which to a Mexican is delicious. So you know how I got kind of lost in the Washington airport well it was worse in Addis Abbaba, because I did not understand what people were saying and the signs were in their language. I found my way. We had a stop in Nairobi, Kenya but then we landed in Kilimanjaro Airport. By this time I was so relieved that all my airplane traveling was over. I was finally in Tanzania and I could not wait to meet my kids.