Retrospective 8: Monday in Ethiopia & Tuesday in Wisconsin

13 December 2010. Our last full day in Addis Ababa. Up early to join Dr. John Balikowski for breakfast and conversation. Did some packing, reading, and enjoying the morning. At about 10 a.m. Robin Thomas (missionary Bob Thomas' wife) arrived to pick us up for a day of souvenir shopping, conversation, lunch, and a lot of goodbyes!

Other than saying goodbye, it was a fun day. Of course to be able to spend a full day with missionaries is always a fun day! Shopping, bargain hunting, thinking of who might like what--plus wondering what I might like to keep! Purchased some pottery, scarves, Ethiopian coffee, and other items for Christmas gifts.

The four of us enjoyed an American meal at a local restaurant; the owners are from Seattle! While we were there we enjoyed a quick conversation with some other people from the States. The world is very small some times!

After saying goodbye to Rhonda, Bob brought us back to Dr. John's house. Bob downloaded all the pictures we took onto his laptop, hopefully there was some good ones.

After saying goodbye to Bob (who will be bringing us to the airport later) we went to pack some and rest some.

We were so surprised; the house staff gave us a going away gift...a beautiful, handcrafted, pottery coffee pot. So sweet! We then enjoyed a wonderful supper meal and more conversation with Dr. John...we won't be seeing him until January, if we can connect when we get to Florida.

After we finished packing we actually went to sleep for awhile. Our flight is at 4 a.m., but because it is an international flight we need to get there early (or late depending on how you say it). Bob picked us up about midnight to take us to the airport, which was very nice of him! Customs and immigration went very smoothly...it was really suprising to see all of the other people flying out at that same hour.

14 December 2010. So began our long journey home. It is so hard to imagine being in Ethiopia one day and at the end of the same day being home in southeastern WI! We flew from Addis Ababa to Jordan; then to London for the longer flight. We arrived in Chicago about 5:30 pm (if it was still Tuesday I would be surprised). We went through immigration, customs and baggage claim in time to catch the bus to our car in Janesville, WI.

Remember it's December! Yup...our car was covered in snow and ice. It took Bill some time to get it all off, but finally we were home by 9:30 p.m. Did very little after arriving home except go to sleep. I did make a couples of phone calls to let the family know we were home safe.

This ends my remembrance of our missions trip to Ethiopia...hope you enjoyed it.

Soon we'll be planning and going on our next overseas missions trip to Cebu City, Philippines. That will be exciting, too.

Retroactive

Today's blog will be on our trip to Ethiopia, Africa. Yes, we were there in December 2010, but I thought today would be a good day to write about it! And besides, I keep a short daily diary of what we do every day (well, not everything but you know what I mean); it helps me remember what we did.

1 December 2010: Day One.

This is the day we fly to Ethiopia, Africa. Can you believe it? Our missionary friend from Florida, Dr. John as we affectionately call him, helped arrange this trip. We'll be ministering with our soon to be friends Bob & Rhonda Thomas. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to Africa as a missionary; maybe because of the stories I heard when missionaries would visit our church. Trust me, day one was a full, busy day.

Actually, it was pretty normal to begin with. Got ready for the day, sent out our weekly ministry update, went to work...did normal stuff; made sure my Facebook page was updated and packed my carryon bag. We ate a little bit, relaxed some; then jumped in the car to drive to the local bus terminal for our 2 1/2 hr ride to O'Hare airport in Chicago.

Everything went very smoothly at check-in, security, and the gate...we finally boarded by 8:30 pm (CST). While on board we ate some, rested some, and occupied our time with reading and watching the inflight movie. It was a pretty good flight!

We arrived in London 6 hrs later (by my watch), about 11 am local time but couldn't check in until 6 pm! To make the time go faster we walked a lot, read, and watched people. Finally, we are able to check-in for the next leg of our journey. After check-in, we went to eat at a TGIF restaurant. Unaware that the exchange rate is not good for the US dollar we ate a hamburger and a soda at a cost of $40. Needless to say we were shocked at the cost, but it is a memory!

We finally board the plane at 9 pm (Thursday, Dec. 2) and fly over Europe and North Africa. We arrived safely at 7:15 am; got our visa, immigration stamps, and our luggage. Dr. John & Missionary Bob Thomas met us at the airport and brought us to Dr. John's house. We unpacked, visited, and had something to eat. I was so excited, too, because I got to brush my teeth for the first time in three days (well, it seemed like it anyway).

There is the first installment of a two week adventure in Africa. There are very exciting days ahead in this story, including: having the electric and water go out, eating new foods, and meeting the warm, friendly people of Ethiopia.