After a very long flight with crazy meal times (11.30pm and 4am) I arrived in Addis Ababa to stand in the longest immigration queue I've seen to date. I felt a little faint after the lack of sleep with sudden heat and although no-one spoke any English, a kind man gave me a bottle of water to get me through!
Once outside I met Stephanie and Dawit for the first time and was introduced to the Ethiopian greeting of three cheek kisses. We proceeded to go for breakfast and I enjoyed my first Ethiopian omelet whilst passers by chanted and waved bunches of flowers to celebrate the finding of the True Cross - Meskel - trust me to arrive on a public holiday and celebration! I'm so glad I did, as then on we went to Dawit's sisters' house to share in the family celebrations. After a short prayer I ate my first Injera (sour bread pancake) with Gomen (minced spinach) followed by a lovely slice of cake! I also tried another bread made from part of a non-fruiting banana tree but declined the Tera Sega (raw mince meat) and malt drink on this occasion. Dawit has a lovely family and I enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere of children playing and adults laughing, joking and sharing food.
It was quite cool in the city but when we left for the house in Nazret, I fell asleep in the hot car (damn jet lag) and awoke as we neared the town to see baboons walking across the road and beautiful scenes of green and brown plains with odd shaped trees on the horizon.
I crashed on the children's bunk beds (they stayed in Addis to carry on celebrating with their family) at Stephanie and Dawit's place that night and hoped to sort out my accommodation the next day..
Lovely people, top day, what a start!
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Every dish in Ethiopia has onion and garlic in it.
There is a toothbrush tree (which I must investigate further for emergency teeth brushing situations)
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