We are in Africa !!
(Gabe here) Our flight out of D.C. was delayed three hours so we went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum for a couple of hours on Sunday, instead of sitting around the airport. Pretty amazing place- I wish we could have spent more time there. It just happens that I am reading a book called Flyboys (thanks Sean) so I got to see some of the same planes and history from WWII that the book refers to; Amazing history! We also got to see the Space Shuttle, SR71 Blackbird, The Concorde, and the Enola Gay (the actual plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima).
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| SR-71 Blackbird |
Because of the delay we missed our connecting flight to Lubumbashi so now we are spending a night it Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What a different world. There are no stop signs or traffic lights on any of the streets. Driving through town is a free for all. Thankfully we were passengers on a hotel van. Hundreds of people were walking everywhere while we drove by. Crosswalks are irrelevant. Saw a guy holding a leash, but not to a dog, he was leading (or being led by) a water buffalo!! Again, a different world! Our Hotel de Leopol entrance had a real stuffed lion and cheetah. They’d seen better days. We were very grateful for clean a room with a flushing toilet and tub with hand held shower.
From our hotel room we can see all sorts of “skeletons” of buildings in the distance. It looks like the Ethiopians construct dozens of towers from concrete but then don’t finish them. There are only pillars and floors (many about 10 stories high) with no walls or windows. The scaffolding around the “under construction” buildings is the scariest part. Posts and rails only with no platforms. There is a set of scaffolding about 9 stories high and 100 feet from my hotel room that looks like it is made from wooden sticks tied together. Let’s just say safety standards are a bit different here.
Tomorrow [Tuesday] is the big day when we get to meet Didier with Kara and Brandon! We’ll try to post when we can.
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| [Jenn: I think this is the DC Airport, Dulles International.] |
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