Started out quite funny, actually. Somehow, I had the time wrong for departure, and we ended up at the airport a full 4 hours before the flight was to leave! Ooops. No wonder the check in desk wasn't open yet. Anyways, I did check in, and we ended up going shopping at Costco and Best Buy and had some chicken McNuggets before heading back to the airport! However, it was a bit of an indication of how the rest of the trip was going to go...
I was also quite sick before I left, so I was NOT looking forward to the overnight flight, the layovers and all the hassle. The flight to London actually wasn't bad. I was sitting next to an East Indian grandpa, who kept trying to talk to me in a language that was definitely NOT English. But he was very insistent and persistent in chatting away at me, even though I clearly had no clue what he was talking about! It was actually quite entertaining to watch the reaction of the poor flight attendants who were also trying to figure out what he wanted when it came time to serve him meals and drinks! I'm just thankful there wasn't an emergency on the flight, as the two of us were sitting in the emergency exit row.
We landed in London at about 9:30 am, and I made my way through customs, and out to the bus station. I know that people were praying that I would feel better, because despite the lack of sleep, I felt SO good. Not even a sniffle! I found a bus to Oxford to spend the day with some good friends. I had such a nice visit with Wendy and her little girl, Emma. Wendy was a wonderful hostess - she fed me, entertained me, let me have a wonderful hot shower, and showed me around Oxford.
I love buildings, especially old ones, so I was quite in awe of all the beautiful buildings in the city. We had a nice brisk walk through the town, which was a really good way to enjoy the city, as well as shake some of the cobwebs from my little sleep deprived head.
Wendy even walked me around to the church where C.S. Lewis went and the place where he got his inspiration for the "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". 
After our walk through the town, Wendy made sure I packed a cheese sandwich for my supper, and she brought me back to the bus station where I caught the bus back to Heathrow.That's where everything got a bit crazy. I arrived at the check in desk, thinking that I would simply check in, then go through security and enjoy munching on my cheese sandwich whilst waiting an hour or so for my flight.
However, seems there was a bit of a problem at the airport that day, while Wendy and I were strolling the streets of Oxford, a plane had missed the runway at Heathrow! So my flight was delayed, and the airport was crazy, since a lot of flights had been completely cancelled. Well, that was fine, I had my cheese sandwich, and I'm used to waiting around for planes. However, that was the least of my problems. Seems my booking had been cancelled, as well! The flight was going, but I wasn't booked on it, even though I had my ticket right there - I even had an old fashioned paper ticket, which I had called and confirmed the day before!
As it turns out, I had to wait around at the check in desk for the station manager to appear. I waited for about an hour, entertaining myself by watching everyone rearrange their luggage. They were SO picky about luggage on that flight - only ONE carry on of 7 kg. That's not very much stuff, especially when you're already carrying a printer and a laptop! So the whole time I was sitting there, I was mentally rearranging my stuff and trying to figure out what to do with my 13.9 kg of carry-on. I also spent some time chatting with a Somali man who was also waiting for the station manager. He had a bit of a problem, which, as it turns out, means he's going to be taken to court by the airlines! Yikes. I also saw the security come and take away a passenger who was in line because he was verbally abusing one of the passenger service agents at the desk! There were some crazy people there, let me tell 'ya.
Anyways, the station manager had to call the headquarters in Addis Ababa to see if they could let me on the flight. They did, in the end, let me on, but also let me know that there was no room on the on-going flight, nor could they do anything to help me while I waited in Addis for a space to open up on the on-going flight. They just weren't too helpful. The only person that was helpful was one of the agents who allowed me to check my excess 6.9 kg of carry-on for free. So there went everything and anything that I could have used for an overnight stay in Addis... contact lense solution, extra underwear, computer cables...
Perhaps God was trying to tell me that I really was holding on to my "stuff" too tightly, and that I was depending too much on my stuff for my security... when I should have just been trusting that He had it all under control.
Anyways, to make a long story, um, well, a little less long, I ended up in Addis after my on-going flight (which I wasn't booked to fly on anymore anyways) had already left. Even though the folks in London had said they couldn't do anything to help me, the folks in Addis told me to join the line up of people who had missed their flights because of the delays in London. So I did.
Turns out, they gave me a boarding pass for the next on-going flight to J., escorted me through immigration so that I wouldn't have to pay for a visa, found my carry-on luggage which I had had to check, and put me in a little mini-bus bound for a hotel downtown, where I would be provided with three meals a day and a room, for free!
Of course, as soon as I got there, I called one of my dearest friends, Hiwet, who lives there.
As soon as she was finished her work, she came straight to the hotel. I picked up my stuff, and we were off on a taxi to her house, where I spent the weekend! It was really an amazing weekend. We visited with her family, some of old friends, wandered around the town, enjoyed more cups of macciato than I'll have all year here in J., and just enjoyed being together. Hiwet is one of those friends who you can pick up with right where you left off - I haven't seen her in almost two years, but when we're together, it seems like it was just yesterday that I had seen her!She has her own little apartment in Addis, and I got to stay there with her. I think all the neighbors were slightly shocked to see a white person staying in their apartment block, though!
We got to eat some nice injera and shiro and all sorts of other wonderful Ethiopian delicacies, which I LOVE, and we had such good company all weekend to enjoy it all with, as well, such as these little girls who are the neighbors of Hiwet's sister, where we had lunch and coffee on Sunday afternoon.
It was a special weekend in Ethiopia, too, called Timket, or Epiphany (on the Julian calendar). So on Sunday morning we got to see the Ark of the Covenant in a procession of priests and parishioners, all decked out in their white shawls. I've never seen so many people in a city wearing traditional clothes, and I happen to think that the Ethiopian traditional clothes are some of the most beautiful in the world!
It was really quite a special weekend to be in Addis, to see all of this celebration, which is HUGE in the Orthodox church. A lot of tourists go to Ethiopia especially just to see the festivities, and I just happened to be there on the right day :)The weekend, of course, was too short, even though Hiwet and I made the most of all our waking hours! On Monday morning, we left her little house, took a bus back to the hotel where I was supposed to have been staying all weekend, and she went off to work, and I waited for the bus to take me back to the airport!
I know that I had been praying that I would get stuck in Addis for a few days, but once I got to London and it looked like it was all just going to be an expensive, stressful experience, I got a bit anxious about it all, and I just wanted to get straight on the plane to get back "home" to J. But of course, God had it all under control, and the weekend turned out better than I ever could have imagined! And it was a real blessing from God - starting with the time in Oxford where I got to have a great visit with an old friend, and ending with an amazing weekend in one of my favorite cities in the whole world with another dear old friend. It was all a good, unexpected gift from God, and the memories of the trip that never seemed to end will make me smile for a good long time to come!
1 comment:
Good to see that you made t 'home' safe and sound and that you were able to enjoy the trip despite all the delays and stresses !
Blessings to you as you carry out your work !
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