Arriving Ethiopia, Thursday, August 6

We arrived in Addis Ababa on time. After our flight landed, we went through the line to get our Visas, and the lines for immigration & customs. The wait for the Visas and immigration were quite long -- about an hour & a half. Ato (Mister) Girma met us outside of customs & we waited briefly for the other family that was on our flight. Whe they joined us, Ato Girma led us all to the CHS "magic" bus. After load our luggage in the CHS van, we boarded the bus and were on our way to the guest house.

We arrived at the Guest House around 11 pm. Ato Girma pointed us in the general direction of our assigned rooms, and the families all headed off to get settled in. We went to our assigned room, A6. The room is tan, and dimly lit. Outside is cool and damp, and so is our room. There are thick, warm blankets on the bed, as well as a traditional looking Ethiopian bedspread. The following description of the room is primarily for the benefit of future travellers. This room has a private entry. There are slide on shoes provided in the room. It is a large room with a double bed (what we would call a queen bed in the US), a single bed, and a crib in the corner. There are 3 locking cabinets. There is plenty of space to lay out all of your suitcases. There is a private bathroom. The floor is pretty much always damp feeling in the rainy season. The shower has an on demand water heater, there is no hot water for the sink. Also, there is no shower curtain--there is a hand held sprayer, so you can hold it and spray yourself (helps to keep the water from getting all over the bathroom). Sleeping was difficult the first night, and we had to get up at 6 am on Friday morning.