Well I've finally got around to posting the details of our trip.
We left Pittsburgh for D.C. at 4:30pm Saturday, May 10th. I was so happy to land in D.C. The flight from Pittsburgh to D.C. went off without a hitch but I was extremely nervous that our flight would be delayed and we would miss the flight to Ethiopia. It didn't help that when we got to the airport we would told that the flight was running an hour behind, luckily that was the wrong flight and we left right on time. When we landed in D.C., we had to walk to the other side of the terminal (which I believe took longer than the flight from Pittsburgh) and then stand in line for our boarding pass. There we met 4 of the families we would be tr
aveling with. The plane boarded on time but it took off about 45 minutes late(We would learn that in Ethiopia noone is any a hurry to get anywhere.) Then we settled in for tyhe LOOONG flight across the Atlantic. Now anyone who knows me well knows I HATE to fly but here I was on a plane for 17 hours. Surprisingly it went well. I slept some and tried to watch a movie. On Ethiopian Airlines the movies start whenever they want to so you have to try to guess when the next one will start. I have to say I have watched P.S. I LOve You three times but have yet to see the beginning. We finally landed in Ethiopia the evening of May 11th. We stood in line for customs and chat ed with our travel buddies. We went through security to get OUT of the airport and then we saw the long awaited sign "Welcome to AGCI." We finally had the privaledge to meet Danny and Yohannes our drivers and the last two families in our travel group. We then walked to the vans with all of our luggage. It was a beautiful, breezy night in Ethiopia and I was so glad to breath fresh air. Danny and Yohannes had the task of loading all of our luggage into two vans and still leaving enough room for all of us. As you see, they did a great job (honestly I have no idea how all it all stayed up there but it did. We then all piled into the vans and started out for the hotel.
We were all taking in the sights and sounds of our children's birth country when we stopped one of the few stop lights in Ethiopia. We were immediately met by a group of boys about 10 years old saying "no mamma, no pappa, food please" It was heart breaking. The entire van was silent. It was a shocking introduction into the reality of life in Ethiopia. Minutes later we finaly arrived at the Union Hotel Apartments. We checked in, took a "Ethiopian shower" (shower head with no shower curtain, but at least we had hot water) and went right to bed. I was exhasuted but could barely sleep because the next morning we were going to meet our son!!
aveling with. The plane boarded on time but it took off about 45 minutes late(We would learn that in Ethiopia noone is any a hurry to get anywhere.) Then we settled in for tyhe LOOONG flight across the Atlantic. Now anyone who knows me well knows I HATE to fly but here I was on a plane for 17 hours. Surprisingly it went well. I slept some and tried to watch a movie. On Ethiopian Airlines the movies start whenever they want to so you have to try to guess when the next one will start. I have to say I have watched P.S. I LOve You three times but have yet to see the beginning. We finally landed in Ethiopia the evening of May 11th. We stood in line for customs and chat ed with our travel buddies. We went through security to get OUT of the airport and then we saw the long awaited sign "Welcome to AGCI." We finally had the privaledge to meet Danny and Yohannes our drivers and the last two families in our travel group. We then walked to the vans with all of our luggage. It was a beautiful, breezy night in Ethiopia and I was so glad to breath fresh air. Danny and Yohannes had the task of loading all of our luggage into two vans and still leaving enough room for all of us. As you see, they did a great job (honestly I have no idea how all it all stayed up there but it did. We then all piled into the vans and started out for the hotel.We were all taking in the sights and sounds of our children's birth country when we stopped one of the few stop lights in Ethiopia. We were immediately met by a group of boys about 10 years old saying "no mamma, no pappa, food please" It was heart breaking. The entire van was silent. It was a shocking introduction into the reality of life in Ethiopia. Minutes later we finaly arrived at the Union Hotel Apartments. We checked in, took a "Ethiopian shower" (shower head with no shower curtain, but at least we had hot water) and went right to bed. I was exhasuted but could barely sleep because the next morning we were going to meet our son!!
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