Hello, Ethiopia!

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It may be midnight to you, but here in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, it is 7:00 a.m. I am NOT bright eyed and bushy tailed! Our flight from Dulles was almost 13 hours long, but I dozed off for only a few minutes at a time...zzzzzzz...oops! Did I just do it again? Anyway our large jet was less than half full, so I had a window seat, Karen had the aisle seat, and there was an empty one between us. In fact there were numerous rows of three empty seats in a row, so Karen moved to one of them to try stretching out to sleep while I did the same across our row. Not much luck: the ride got very bumpy, which caused several kids to cry, and no nap...

We were fed several times; I tried guesstimating what meal it might be the appropriate time for so I could get my meds in. Nothing very exotic, but Ethiopian coffee is quite eye opening! The jet was definitely old: no wi-fi, the speaker at my seat didn't work so I had to plug in to the empty seat to listen to music and watch Monster University. I tried their Sudoku game, but the screen kept freezing up, so I couldn't dazzle anyone with my fabulous expertise. Wah, wah, wah; I should focus on the positive, like the empty seats, no long lines for the restroom and the yummy spice cake for dessert....

We have a 5 hour layover (I almost said layaway; must have Christmas shopping on my mind) before our third flight, the one to Juba. Ellen Cummings, the third Musketeers, has already left Terekeka to meet us at the airport. On US roads, that would probably take about an hour at the most, but she left early this morning to meet us at 1:30...she did warn us it would be a LNG, bumpy ride. I am looking forward to lunch in a Juba restaurant that Ellen picked out because it has that precious amenity, a flush toilet!

Blessings to all; hope someone gets to read this!

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