My squad left our hostel in Sofia, Bulgaria at 4:00am on May 30th. Our flight to Istanbul left at 10:30, we arrived about an hour later and had a six hour layover. Then we had a six hour flight to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. We arrived at midnight and spent two hours getting our visas. Around 2:00am some vans arrived to pick us up and bring us to the hostel, so we loaded up and arrived around 2:35am. It was actually a really smooth travel day. The next day I slept on and off and went to a grocery store more than a mile away from the hostel. So far, people are super nice and welcoming, moreso than probably anywhere else we’ve been. I learned from the sweet hostel workers that in the capital, children learn English in kindergarten and by 7th grade, all their schooling is in English. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia, and I’ve learned some words and phrases! Click on my video link above to see me speaking some Amharic. My team has been blessed to stay at this hostel until Monday. It’s $7 per person per day over budget, so we will need to make up for this by sleeping in tents at some point probably. We still have not decided which city we will be going to yet. Pray that God really leads us in this and provides us with something safe. Pray that we do not get sick as well. My team used some local water not realizing right away that we can’t use it for anything and there’s already been some upset stomachs. Yesterday I cooked carrots in the microwave in some tap water. I ate the carrots but it really didn’t smell right. I also had some instant coffee which I made from tap water that was in a carafe. Everyone else was drinking it but I don’t believe we will be doing that anymore.
Anyway, here’s some views from my window:
It’s illegal to take pictures in town as far as I understand plus it’s not smart to pull out a fancy phone around here.
