Flying to Addis Ababa

I have just returned from an unforgettable trip to Ethiopia where I visited some of our current partner projects (and some potential new ones!). I would like to update you on our work in Ethiopia and news from our project leaders. I hope that you will find this of interest and will encourage you to do whatever you can to help Ethiopiaid in its fight to make Ethiopia a better place to live.

Wednesday 1st October

I felt a little apprehensive sitting on the Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa. As we were taking off the air hostess realised her seatbelt was jammed so she just held on tight! I was a little surprised that the safety video warned us not to attach a printer to any equipment whilst airborne. The thought had never crossed my mind, but someone must have tried it for them to prohibit it.

My flight was meant to go via Rome - either I was very sleepy and didn't notice it stopping, or it didn't stop there at all. Who knows? I was rather disappointed that my travel pillow burst, my neck certainly felt the strain. I spent an hour or so watching an awful US drama featuring Holly Valance in an attempt to drown out the noise of an arrogant Dutch NGO worker who spent the entire duration of the flight making sarcastic comments to anyone who was willing to listen.

I arrived at 7.20am local time on Thursday 2nd October and was met by Zenebe from one of the projects we support, Hope Enterprises. He explained that the clock starts from 6 o'clock in Ethiopia, so they refer to 7.20am as 1.20am. He also explained that they use the old Coptic calendar, meaning they are 7 years behind our Gregorian calendar. So I actually arrived on 22 September 2001!