What's up my Ethiopian Brothers!!

June 10

After staying the night in Tanzania, we flew northward to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to drop off the last of our cargo. It was an amazing experience for me. I was born in Ethiopia and had not been there since I was an infant.


We landed in the afternoon and what I saw was a bustling airport with all the modernities you see at other airports. All I knew of Ethiopia was famine and war. What I saw that day was a modern airport terminal and a nice looking skyline just off the airport grounds. The area surrounding Addis was green with nice plots of land and a few trees. My pictures don't do it justice because my camera doesn't have a blue filter and it was a little hazy.

No graft or corruption; at least not outwardly. The flight plan was filed quickly, the ground crew parked us efficiently and provided us with a power cart. The offloading was done easily with a very modern power forklift. The kind that has the power rollers that can spin the cargo pallets around. It was hard to believe this country was still in turmoil. Usually it's painfully obvious that a country is having difficulty, but for Ethiopia, at least in Addis, it was business as usual.

I would have loved to spent more time so I could go in the terminal. I have met many Ethiopians in my travels and they are warm and friendly and have told me much about my birthplace. I wish I could travel there personally, but the State Department says that'd be taking my life in my own hands.

After a short ground stop, it was back home to Djibouti's heat and sand!!! On the way home we flew within 10 miles of Mt. Kilamanjaro! Man that is one of the highlights of my life. I have flown over it in a C-5, but seeing it at eye level was exciting; the pictures do not do it justice.
 
We landed in the afternoon for the first time this trip. Man was it hot! 40 degrees, which isn't as hot as Iraq or Afghanistan, but the humidity due to the Gulf of Aden makes it unbearable. In order to make our next day's length shorter the pilots filed flight plans and got weather early while the rest of us went to the chow hall. I've fallen in love with a triple chocolate ice cream bar called the Galaxy!!! Man does it make playing in the sand worth it. Then back to our ridiculous hotel after driving through extreme poverty and despair. This time they put me in an upgraded room with wireless internet. I have a walk in shower, but the internet is slower than a turtle!!! Hence these posts all stacking up until I get enough bandwidth to post them.