The Last Day in Ethiopia: Saturday in Addis and the Long Trip Home

This was our last day in Ethiopia. While I was very anxious to get back to my family and my friends in the US, it was also a sad day. There were people here I hated to leave...we were just getting to know each other. I had more places I wanted to see. I wanted to learn more about the country, its people, its history. I wanted to see more artists’ work. I wanted to learn about the music. I wanted to see more animals, identify more birds, look for native stones. I was also already missing the team, just knowing that we would not be spending much time together after our return home.

I noticed the quiet in the rest of the group too....the pensive looks, the deep genuine smiles. We had some time today to see a bit more of the city before we left. Our flight out didn’t board until about 10 pm, so we had already planned to store all our already-packed luggage in a room at our hotel, check out, and spend a leisurely day together. Before we left, I went out front and snapped a few shots of our hotel. I realized that every shot I’d taken thus far had been of the alleyway and the rear entrance. While out there, I posed two of the girls with one of our doormen, and took a few shots of them. There he stood, gleaming white smile, between two beautiful young women! He was really enjoying this!

Since we had been enjoying great Ethiopian buna (coffee) all week, we all wanted to purchase some coffee to take home with us. First stop on our outing today was the coffee market...a small storefront, absolutely packed full of people all waiting in line to do the same thing...buy multiple bags of coffee. It was a good thing Mesfin was with us too, because, despite there being quite an international clientele in the place this morning, it was obvious that the three or four salespeople didn’t speak much English. So, it was simply a matter of holding up fingers to indicate how many bags you wanted, and saying either ‘thirty-four’ or ‘sixty-eight’ to indicate whether you wanted a small or a large bag. Just outside on the street, a vendor was also selling the traditional coffee pots that are used in the coffee ceremony. A few of our group specifically wanted to take back one of these, so Mesfin did the bartering on their behalf and got them some pretty good deals! Once we all had coffee and pots, we made our way to the van past a few people begging, some people trying to sell simple things like tooth straws and CDs, books and gum. We had, by this time, learned to make as little eye contact as possible to keep from giving someone ANY idea that we wanted to buy something!

Our next visit was back at a restaurant called Fin-Fin. It was a part of a large old hotel and spa built around some hot springs. We didn’t see the springs, but we did have a great last traditional Ethiopian fare buffet. SInce the Ethiopians live by another calendar, and they were already into Lent, all of the buffet was ‘fasting-friendly,’ meaning no meat or dairy. It was still very good, spicy, and robust!

Next, we visited the Sheraton Hotel one last time. We took part in a coffee ceremony, where a beautiful lady ritually made the coffee on an open fire while burning incense. The coffee, as always, was amazing. We spent the afternoon browsing the small shops there for some last-minute gifts, and also to use up our bir. We took photos. We had a beer or two in the bar. We actually met a gentleman who used to be one of the students at the International School when Des worked there, and this guy was an engineer, and a graduate of Virginia Tech!! Des even bragged when introducing him that he was an MVP on Tech’s winning soccer team when he was in school there. We had a nice conversation with this gentleman, and one of our team, also a Tech graduate, struck up a great new friendship with the guy! I am pretty sure I have used the phrase “it’s a small world” WAY too much in the past few days! At an appointed time, we all congregated and went out back onto a stretch of lawn and sat down to again reflect on our week. Presentations were made by the group of gifts to Des and Mesfin in gratitude for all they had done to make our week so fulfilling. Anne and Jean, two of our faculty and staff leaders, took this opportunity to do some fun presentations of special little gifts to some of our group in appreciation of each one sharing his or her own gifts through the week. Our sharing of feelings and experiences was beautiful, and even emotional, especially for me. It was actually hard for me to talk when it came my turn, but I managed to choke through my thanks to everyone for such passion, compassion, charity, sharing, and friendship. They truly are a special group. 

We then took a few final group shots with Mesfin and Des showing off their new gifts. After our time at the Sheraton, we returned to the hotel to gather our belongings, all our bags, our souvenirs, etc. and we set out for a restaurant that Mesfin suggested for dinner. It was way up in the hills, and it was an open pavilion overlooking some really beautiful views of the sunset over the city. There was a group of germans in the same pavilion with us having a wine-tasting kind of event. We all shared the space along the open windows, however, when the sun began to go down, cameras poised and snapping. It was  a warm and beautiful evening. Dinner was quiet, pensive.

From the restaurant, we went to the airport to begin our passage through customs, baggage, check, etc. Mesfin once again somehow expedited that process, and we managed to get through all the checkpoints in what I supposed to be record time! We said our somber goodbyes to Mesfin once we were through security, and sadly he was gone. We picked up some bottles of water, passed through a final security to get to our gate area, and settled to seats and the floor to wait. Several of us weren’t really feeling very well, including me. I was having an allergy attack, primarily because every place we went, people were smoking, and the smoke finally took its toll on me. Some of us tried finally to get online using the airport’s wireless connection, and, although it was very slow, it was accessible. I managed to open Facebook, and send one message through, saying that I was at the airport waiting for our plane. After that, everything froze up again. That was ok, though, because they also called us to board the plane. As anxious as I then was to get  home to my family, the thought of spending even MORE time in flight on the way home than we did on the way out there was fairly daunting. It was supposed to be about  a 17-hour flight with one re-fueling stop in Rome. UGH!

I had some reflection and cogitation during this long flight back...about the vastness, the majesty, the mystery of this land; about the people I had seen and met, their bravery and resilience, their bright smiles and their acceptance of us. I thought about the children....those at the school who seemingly have their whole lives ahead of them, and those at the orphanage, whose lives may not be so easy, may not be as long. I thought a great deal about how I was going to share all I’d seen, smelled, heard, touched, and experienced when I got back home. Words, video, even pictures cannot possibly convey the feeling of the Ethiopia we’d just been a part of. I worried that I won’t be able to make people understand about how we came to look beyond the abject poverty, beyond the stench, beyond the squalor, to feel the warmth and the wonder that is Ethiopia. I hope this blog somehow begins to tell that story. I hope that my art, my music, and my presentations in my community can somehow continue the story.