May 25-26, 2014

Arrival and first day in Ethiopia

Despite some nervousness over having to be in an airplane for almost 13 hours (my longest flight ever by 3 hours), the flight from Washington to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines was decent. It was aggravating when shortly after heading out over the Atlantic Ocean the plane’s map system stopped functioning so I couldn’t follow the flight’s progress as we flew over the ocean, onto the African continent somewhere around Casablanca, Morocco, proceeded across Algeria and Libya, Sudan and finally into Ethiopian airspace.

Nonetheless, arriving and deplaning provided us with some great views of the area around Bole International Airport which lies a few kilometers south of the center of the city. After two hours in immigration, customs and currency exchange, we were finally able to leave the airport to board our van that was to take us to the DebreDamo Hotel, our home for the next two days. A few quick hours rest was broken up by our afternoon activities which started with lunch at Lucy Restaurant which is next door to the Ethiopian National Museum. A smaller building than I would have imagined, the contents of the museum are well organized and enlightening. The highlight was the opportunity to see the famous “Lucy” skeleton. This is the oldest skeleton found of a hominid that walked on two legs. Discovered in the Rift Valley not too far from Addis Ababa, Lucy has been dated to about 3.2 million years ago. I had seen pictures in books before, but it was neat to see her up close. Including a replica that was in a standing position gives one the true stature of this famous archeological find. She stood at about 1.1 meters (3 ft 7 inches).

In addition, there were a number of artifacts from Ethiopia’s storied history of emperors, kings, and even the communist period from the mid 1970’s to the early 1990’s. There was a floor dedicated to artwork which is largely religious in theme, especially due to the Eastern Orthodox traditions and the Ethiopian Orthodox church and its somewhat shared history with the Coptic church.

We were supposed to visit St. George’s cathedral, but we opted to head back to the hotel as a number of us were so tired we couldn’t think straight, so we will head back to the cathedral tomorrow morning.

I look forward to spending all day tomorrow exploring this amazing city, the “Capital of Africa” as it is the home to the African Union as well as other important institutions of the African Continent.

As for now, I am exhausted and looking forward to a few hours rest.