Sunday, August 19

I had a hard time sleeping through the night this first night, and really every night I was there. The calls to church started in the wee, wee hours of the morning, maybe 2am? and didn't finish until about 7am? Dogs barked, what sounded like gunshots were going off here and there. I brought Adah Deratru in my bed with me. She slept soundly all night.

I found I was getting weepy and emotional. I think the wear and tear of the trip, being dropped in the middle of Africa, then picking up two girls I didn't even know and didn't know me and I was totally responsible for their care, and then the primitiveness of the B&B just sent me into a tailspin. It was cold inside with tiled floors which seem to make to make it colder. Sarah and I both have colds now.
This was the light in my bedroom.
This was the kitchen. Five dollars a day if I wanted to use the stove.
Ceiling was nothing more than whatever that was. No insulation or anything.

I couldn't wait to call home and talk to Steve, but I had to wait until a reasonable hour to even call someone. I called the driver who had agreed to drive us for the week, but for some reason he didn't want to drive us (he said he would be there in a half hour and never showed up). That sent me even lower in my emotional state thinking I was stuck and couldn't go anywhere.


We got dressed thinking we were getting to go call home and go to the Hilton to check on sooner airflights out of Addis. Since our driver didn't show up we headed outside the door of our house and we were summoned into Yelamwork's home. We chatted and I broke down crying in front of her. She did not understand why I wanted to call home, I did just call home the day before, and why I was missing my family so much. We had coffee and then her son Alex showed up and offered to take us where we needed to go. YEAH!!!

We went to the international calling center and called home. I broke down crying when I was talking to Steve. Sarah took over the call for me since I couldn't seem to talk.

After the call we headed over to the Hilton Hotel to check on a sooner flight out of Addis. We were supposed to head out Sept. 1, but I knew I WOULD NOT LAST THAT LONG. I was done and ready to go home. I sat at the Ethiopian Airline desk for over an hour while the clerk helped me and tried to manuever us out. He told me that there was nothing available until the end of the month. NO!!!!!! I asked him about first class seating and that was a different story. He checked on that and there were tickets flying out of Addis Tuesday night, August 21, the same day as our embassy appt. All was good!!!!!

I had Sarah walk up to the front desk to see if any rooms were available for two nights. There were!!! After I finished up at the airlines I found Alex and told him I would be checking into the Hilton. Sarah and I were on the same page. Neither one of us wanted to continue at the B&B.

He took us back to get our bags and we were questioned as to why we were leaving. I told the father that the B&B was too isolated from everything. As two women with two babies we couldn't go anywhere or do anything unless someone was with us. We would have gotten lost if we left, and we didn't feel secure walking around with lots of money and our passports on our bodies.

As soon as we walked into our room we felt so much better. There was a tv, electricity, and carpet instead of tile. The electricity in the B&B didn't work in the bathroom early Sunday am. The pail that kept the water overflow from the toilet was full and overflowed onto the floor which go my pantlegs wet when I used the toilet. I couldn't see any of that happening though because it was dark.

Toilet and bucket at the B&B-notice how full the bucket is? This is about 11am when it was light enough to see.

At the Hilton we knew that Sarah could go down to the lobby without me or vice versa. We knew we could go souvenir shop without waiting for someone to take us somewhere. They had a restaurant so we could go eat. It wasn't very good, but at least it was more American food than the injera. By the way, I lost eight pounds in five days. That tells you how much I ate.

Here are some pictures from our hotel room at the Hilton.

Addis neigborhood

Ethiopian scaffolding