Thursday 8th August- Amy and Meghan

Thursday 8^th August- Amy and Meghan

Amy:

Today was the day we traveled to Gonder to begin the project which was bound to be an interesting and eventful day! It all began at 3:30am when Rosemarie woke us all up in preparation for a long day of travelling. Tired and exhausted we attempted to finish packing our belongings, with difficulty as all of our project stuff consumed so much space. It was a total nightmare!

This is when the interesting task came about of getting 30kg suitcases down two flights of marble stairs quietly at four in the morning. Several girls had theirs carried on a porters back which was incredibly lucky however most of us had to endure the stress of getting our cases out of the hotel. This was then followed with my padlock dilemma in which I had changed the code without realising so Catherine and I had to attempt to open my case over our breakfast of croissants and biscuits!   

The fun all began however when we got on the coach. A slightly bigger one than usual however this made no difference when attempting to fit 18 suitcases in as well as 18 people. Darwit (our guide) and the driver as well as some of the hotel staff began to lift the cases on top of the bus and placed them on the roof. Bearing in mind they were not attached to anything this still became a slight problem and a cause for concern for all of us at this early hour. It was very amusing though!

It then became my job to sit at the back of the bus and ensure that the cases did not fall into the road at this early hour and on the bumpy roads of Addis Ababa this was a precarious job. After 15 minutes we arrived at the airport ready for another part of our adventure to begin, but Megan experienced some obstacles along the way!!

Amy

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Meghan:

Megan’s Mystery Item:

The day started off like any other experience I’ve had at an airport, the security was a bit tight (understandable) and we were all anxious that our luggage would arrive with us (even more understandable). As a group we checked in fine, everything seemed hunky dory as we moved past the first set of airport scanners; some of us even had a spot of tea! But it was at the second set of scanners that I ran into some difficulty!

I placed my jumper, handbag, shoes and backpack all on the scanner ready to simply walk through, collect my things and be on my way. However one of the airport staff asked me about my rucksack mentioning “cutting things”. Apart from a stray sharpener I’d forgotten about I wasn’t aware that my rucksack contained any, so I let the men empty out my bag and get on with their job. After the rucksack was placed through the scanners again the man proceeded to take even more things out of my backpack. At this point I was on the floor retying my shoelaces and I saw the man take out a case and I finally recognised my mystery object as my Dad’s multi-tool! The rucksack I’d taken on the trip was his as well and it must have laid hidden in amongst the colour of my project work like a ninja ready to jump.

What surprised me the most about this experience was the fact that this mystery item, again like a ninja, managed to pass through British security! So hats off to Ethiopia airport security, you’re doing your job well!

And if you’re wondering Dad, no your multi-tool is not in the house, or the loft, or the garage it’s sat in an Ethiopian airport!

After that experience the rest of the day was quite uneventful as we rested in our new hotel to acclimatise to the high altitude ready for a busy day tomorrow meeting the children of the school we are going to help and I can’t wait!

Megan