After approximately 18 hours in the air and 34 hours of total travel time, we arrived safely in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 9:15pm local time (8 hours ahead of Central time) on March 14, 2011.
We had a lot of anxiety about how our trip, and specifically our entry into Ethiopia, would go. Our anxiety mainly stemmed from the fact that we are not world travelers, we have never traveled to a third-world country, we were bringing a lot of donation items with us, we were traveling because of our adoption (and you’re never really sure how a country feels about an American family adopting one of their orphans), etc., etc.
Well, as He has proven to us time and time again, God was protecting us—and our luggage! We seriously felt your prayers! That might sound weird, but it’s true—we really knew that a lot of people were praying for us and we felt a lot of peace because of that. So, THANK YOU!
And now for the details (for those who want them)…
4:30am on 3/13/2011 – Mike & Dela (Eden’s Grandpa and Grandma) picked us up to take us to IAH
2 ½ hour Continental flight from Houston to Chicago (looking fresh and clean and ready to go!)
6 ½ hour layover in Chicago – used the time to put a huge dent in the thank you notes (we LOVE having the “problem” of having lots of thank you notes to write!) and make phone calls
Ben’s first ride on a “double-decker” plane…
8 hour Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Fankfurt (still looking fairly fresh and clean…)
4 hour layover in Frankfurt – stretched out and rested/slept a lot (it was SO hot in that airport!)
Ben’s first time riding a bus to the airplane and loading using the portable stairway…
7 hour Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Addis (definitely NOT looking fresh and clean anymore!)
We arrived safely in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 9:15pm local time (8 hours ahead of Central time) on 3/14/2011. We went straight to the line to obtain our travel Visa and we were then shuffled through customs. The line went surprisingly fast and we were not asked ANY questions—they simply did their required paperwork, got what they needed from our passports, then gave everything to us and sent us on our way!
As we walked out of the customs area, we immediately saw our luggage—ALL 7 bags—sitting there waiting for us! Because of a good friend who booked our flights using airline mileage, we were considered “Elite” and therefore our bags had special tags on them and had already been taken off of the carousel and put in a neat little row for us!
We got help with our luggage from two very friendly porters (that may be too formal of a title—they were Ethiopian men who work for the airport and help people with their luggage—presumably only on the tips they receive). They did all of the heavy lifting as we then had to send all of our luggage through a security scanner. Out of all 7 bags and our carry-ons, only one of our bags got selected to be opened and checked. It was one of Patty’s bags and it contained the food processor that we were donating to CFI, so we were nervous that they wouldn’t like that. Turns out all they cared about was whether or not the bag contained any medicine (which it didn’t), so they sent us on our way!
As we walked out of the airport, we immediately saw a man in a suit holding a sign that said “Benjamin & Lauren Huss.” Wow—another moment of total relief! We greeted him and he invited us and our porters to follow him to the car. As we walked down the winding ramp, we noticed how nice the weather was. It was very pleasant to have some cool air blow on our faces after so many hours in airports and planes!
The nice men loaded up the van and I (Lauren) asked them to take a picture with us (Ben rolls his eyes at me, but then he appreciates that we have photos like that).
We tipped the porters (standard of $3-4 USD per bag), hopped in the van, and headed to our hotel! At that point, it was about 10:15pm (only an hour to do all of the Visa, customs, luggage, etc.). It was dark, so we didn’t get to see much of Addis from the van, but we did have a couple of times when our driver “played chicken” with an oncoming vehicle. Thank goodness we won both times!
After about a 15-minute ride, we arrived at our hotel and got our rooms. Our room was just outside the elevator on the 4th floor and Patty’s room was just down the hall from ours, so it was very convenient. We were pleasantly surprised at the size of our rooms! The sitting area with leather chairs and a love seat was just below the windows, so we kept a window open and enjoyed the sounds of Addis.
We spent about an hour sorting through our luggage so we could combine all of the donation items (we had spread everything out among the bags for travel). After we had everything sorted and organized, we got settled in for the night. It was nice to stretch out in a real bed after so many hours on airplanes and in airports sitting up to sleep!
Peter from CFI coming to pick up the donation items…
From the entrance to our room…
Our bed (we think the crooked picture hanging on the wall adds a lot of character to the room!)
Our bathroom (interesting tidbit: everything is very “fancy” and we have our own hot water heater, yet instead of a shower curtain, there is a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor—so water just goes everywhere)
The view from our hotel window…
