Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Finally, We Arrive

We get up at 5am. We go to the airport at 6a. We are supposed to board at 630am. We don't board until a little after 7am. They start the engines. They stop the engines. Mechanical problems. We get off of the plane. It's pouring. We hang out in the airport for an hour. They change the gate. We get back on the plane. We finally take off. This supposed hour long plane ride to Gondar took us almost five. Our new friend Yosi summed it up perfectly, "Welcome to Ethiopia".

But no worry, we are here and everything is perfect. We were finally able to unpack and we are HOME for the next year. It feels good to say that. The house is absolutely beautiful. Our room has an amazing view of the mountains. Even with torrential downpours every day Gondar is beautiful. We now have two dogs. Sophie and Lilly. No clue what breed or how old but they are fun. Last year's fellows left flea meds for us to give them....but I've never operated a syringe before...

We have more new friends. Assefa, Asmaru and Zalalem are great. All have been very helpful. We are learning our way around the city quickly. It's amazing being thrown into an environment where most people don't speak your language. We are forced to learn Amharic to communicate and that's the best way to learn. Full emersion.

We went to bed relatively early last night after a long day. In the middle of the night I was awoken by Sophie howling and barking or a mix of the two. It seemed as though every dog in the neighborhood was barking. Responding to one another in concert. It went on for about 30-45 minutes. Right before I was about to go downstairs and ask Sophie to be quiet she stopped. Thinking that it had to be around 5am I rolled over to look at my watch. 115am. Tonight is going to be a long night.....

I woke up this morning, Sept. 4 (29 Nashi, 2004 on Ethiopian calendar) surprisingly fresh. I can pinpoint why.....FREEZING COLD SHOWER!!!. It helped me shake the cobwebs. Another amazing day. We went to see the JDC Clinic in Gondar and it brought back old memories.

Liz and me at the Pool of Fasilides 
We met the principle of the school where we are working. His name is Ayele and he is a nice man. I look forward to working with him. Today was registration so there were tons of students around. He made us aware that they lost two classrooms so the class size increased.....to 62 students. Wow. School doesn't start for almost another two weeks so we will meet again at the end of next week with the teachers to discuss me and Liz's role. I'm very excited for the unknown.

We toured Fasilides Castle complex this afternoon. There are six castles on the complex. It's magical. We also visited the Debre Birhan Selassie Church. No flash cameras so my pictures aren't great but it was beautiful inside. There's a great story behind everything here; from people's names to ancient temples. The history is great.

I am sitting at a hotel. With a small but great view of the pink sky. I must go now and feed myself.....yes you guessed it....TIBS FOR DINNER!!!

Good Evening All


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