IT’S TIME TO HEAD HOME TO KENYA

So it’s my last day in Addis and even though I have had a great time here, it is time for me to head home.  The boys have things to do and I think I have drained them enough of their time and I have accomplished what I came for.  It was a bonus to meet new people and have had such an amazing time was something I hadn’t really counted on.  But I should have known better when I had Minalu as a host and knew I was in very good hands. 

The weather all day today was crappy.  Minalu had some things he had to get done and it ended up that I just stayed at the guesthouse all day today-which I was okay with as I got a blog written, some songs downloaded and some general internet jobs done while I had use of the free Wi-Fi.  I received an email from my travel agency back in Australia and there has been a time change on my ticket to London in May, which is actually routed via Addis Ababa (this was booked over 12 months ago when I was supposed to be living in Addis), so I need to purchase a new ticket from Nairobi to Addis and when I actually sat down and worked out the dates I am going to be back in Addis in 5 weeks!  Can you believe it will be May in 5 weeks!  Holy Moly.  I checked the flights and costs to connect onto the London flight and the morning flight is 149USD which arrives into Addis at 7.30am giving me all day in Addis or the evening flight which gives me only a 4 hour connection is 235USD.  If the boys are around, I’ll take the earlier flight and see them and if they aren’t I’ll just pay the money and have the shorter connection.  We will see how they are placed in the next few weeks.    

Minalu picked me up for dinner and we had to take a quick drive to an ATM to get cash out for me to pay for my accommodation.  They didn’t take credit card, so we got the amount calculated by their exchange rate and I used the ATM to get out the cash and then we headed back to the pizza place we went to the other day for dinner-I’m telling you it was an AWESOME pizza.  Then it was back to the guesthouse to pay my bill and by this time it was 8.30pm and I just told Minalu to take me to the airport so that he could head home.  My flight didn’t leave till 11.15pm, but I had some ‘airport’ shopping I wanted to get done and you just never know what chaos awaits at Bole International Airport.  So it only took not even 10 minutes to get to the airport, paid the 5 birr (.27c) car park entrance fee and we did a drop and run, as Minalu isn’t allowed into the terminal anyway.  So with a massive hug and heartfelt thanks we waved goodbye with the promise of seeing each other in 5 weeks’ time.  The airport was SUPER busy-the car park was full, as people aren’t allowed into the terminal there were a lot of people milling around-passengers and family alike- and as I walked up to the terminal building there were 3 long queues of passengers waiting to enter the building.  So today’s departure was going to be hectic.  Great (not).       

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport serves the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The airport is located in the Bole area, 6 km south east of Addis Ababa City Centre.  Formerly known as Haile Selassie I International Airport, it is the main hub of Ethiopian Airlines, the national airline which has service to destinations in Ethiopia and throughout the African continent, as well as nonstop service to Asia, Europe, and North America. . It is also one of the main pilot training and aircraft maintenance centres in Africa. The Addis Ababa Bole International Airport currently accommodates more than 150 flights per day. The airport is capable of accommodating the Airbus A380-800.  The airport has two terminals with a total of 11 gates, plus 8 remote aircraft parking stands behind both Terminals.  To enter the check-in terminal you have to have all your luggage scanned and pass through a security screen.  It really is mayhem and even with 3 entrances processing all the departing passengers it took me 25 minutes to get through into the building and I did a sneaky thing and pushed in front of a French group which I felt terrible about, and the front guy knew what I was doing but didn’t say anything for which I was grateful that he let me through without making a fuss and making me go to the back of the line.   

The last time I flew out from Addis was back in September and you could have thrown a stone in the carpark and not hit a single car.  In saying that it was New Year’s Day in Ethiopia then (11^th September) and I was on a Saudi Arabia Airlines flight that left during the day.  As I approached the check-in counter Ethiopian Airlines had 3 flights departing within 30 minutes of each other, so their check-in was a shambles and Lufthansa had a flight as did KLM and Egypt Airlines-so that explains the busy-ness of the airport and throw into that there seemed to be a lot of groups all leaving as well, it was quite manic.  Initially you could see a system with the Ethiopian Airlines check-in based on destination-made sense, but standing in line when people had been checked in, instead of our line moving there were supervisors that would wave another person in front of us from another line.  Now normally you don’t mind if the flight was due to close and there were a few people running late, but the Washington flight was leaving 30 minutes after us and they were getting waved in front of us-I didn’t get it.  Then there were a few antsy people in line that were panicking about their flight and at one time they called Cairo, the lady behind me panicked and said ‘yes that’s me’ and jumped 4 people to be in front and the supervisor said she still had plenty of time and she decided to stay where she was and pushed in front of us all!  I guess I can’t talk when I had just pushed in front of a group outside, but that was different……….because I said so!  After waiting 25 minutes, our line finally moved and I got to the counter.  Ethiopian Airlines permit you to have 30kg for checked luggage and how you divide that between bags, they don’t care.  As I had bought a second bag with me to take my stuff back from Zeme, I had 2 bags that were both cabin approved but I decided to check them both in and they weighed a total of 15.8kg and with my window seat boarding pass I was able to leave the mayhem of check-in and to immigration.  You used to have to fill in a departure card when you left the country but you don’t need to do that anymore, so after a 10 minute wait in line I was stamped out of the country and headed to the departure gates and the SHOPS!

It is funny I have been here 4 times now and with the places that I travelled to I never really saw any souvenir shops or stalls where I could buy things and for the ones I did see they were either bad quality or I wasn’t in a position to carry large stuff with me.  Well that doesn’t apply on this trip as I am heading straight home and there was actually some very nice stuff that you can buy at the duty free shops.  There were some things that I was looking at that I have seen in Kenya at the Masai Markets, so it was stuff that I have seen before and not just in Kenya, there was also stuff that I had seen in other African countries, so I am glad all my markets days have helped in my shopping today.  The down side with shopping at Bole International Airport, and most airports are the same, it was expensive, and I am not talking just a little, the prices they were asking for some things was just incredible.  I saw a beautiful lady statue but when I asked the price I almost fainted when she said 85USD!  I could get something similar in Kenya for a third of the price so that promptly went back on the shelf but then they had handmade clay jugs sitting on a hand woven ring for 10USD-go figure.  I also saw magnets which I have never seen in Ethiopia so I put 4 of them on the counter to buy, one for each place visited on each of my 4 trips till I found out that they were 12USD each.  Yes TWELVE DOLLARS a magnet.  I wanted to get at least one, so I put 3 back and sucked up the 12 bucks for the one and then I saw some local made pendants that were only 10USD a pop and so I bought 2 of them.  They are beautiful; they are roughly made but have character and a nice reminder of all my visits here.  That was all in one shop and even though I knew I needed to make my way to the gate, I stopped at one more shop and found some great looking hand painted statue heads and they were only 21USD each and bought two of them.  I have no idea where the shop next door was asking for 85USD for a single statue that wasn’t as nice as these ones.  I could have bought more stuff but I knew that the security line was going to be disastrous based on previous travels and with me coming back in 5 weeks, I can have a second round and another look at things then.  It was nice to actually have some things from Ethiopia that I could add to my home after being here so many times and loving the country as I do.

It was time to now tackle the gate security line.  It was a shambles and there were people everywhere.  This was going to take a while and I thought there were worried people at check-in, multiply that by 50 now all standing in queue all looking nervous and stressed.  There were a few moments when a business class passenger made waves and another couple jumped the line to which people got mad at but all in all the 40 minutes, FORTY MINUTES it took to get through wasn’t too bad.  I made it out at 10.20pm into the gates and when I checked the departure screen it told me my flight was leaving from gate 1 and it was boarding, but at the gate it had a Dubai flight flashing on it.  You had to go down some escalators to get to the doors, so I walked straight in the gate and went down the escalator and there were 2 doors, one for the departing Emirates flight to Dubai and then our doors for Nairobi-it was a bit of a mess as people were coming down now and some were for Dubai and some for Nairobi, but as long as I was in the right place was all that mattered. 

We were bussed from the terminal to the plane and as we were waiting for the bus to fill I heard a German guy telling some-one that instead of heading through the security at gates 1-4 and having to wait the 40 minutes-you can go through security at gates 5-8 and then walk to the other gates from there.  He said it was a tip the check-in agent told them about and they didn’t have to wait long at all.  I WILL remember that next time I go through here as it really is a long, sweaty line with people who are stressed.  As the bus pulled away the heavens opened up and it started pouring rain.  Great (not) just what you need when you are boarding a plane via the tarmac and needless to say we all got drenched as we waited on the stairs to get into the plane.  For once it was a blessing that the air wasn’t turned on so we were able to dry out pretty fast as we were the first bus.  Ethiopian Airlines operate a Boeing 737-700 on this route with a 3x3 seat configuration for the 1 hour and 40 minute flight back to Kenya.   This aircraft didn’t have in seat TV’s and because I was in the 2^nd last row of the plane (which I don’t mind) the overhead space is taken up with airline stuff like cups, the entertainment system, hostee bags, bags of snacks, the soft drinks etc….. so the overhead storage was fast becoming an issue as the plane filled up.  I was so glad that I decided to check-in both my cabin bags (on the assumption that they could not be lost on a direct flight).  One thing I have learned with all the flights I have done in the last 2 years is that if you’re not on the plane first you will miss out on the overhead storage and then it is a massive problem finding spare space and your bag could end up rows and rows away from you.  I didn’t have to worry about that on this flight as I only had my handbag but it made for some interesting entertainment as people tried to find room to store their stuff.  That is one bad thing on this particular aircraft that you lose the last 4 rows of overhead with airline stuff and seems to be an issue. 

I was sitting next to a male ‘Chatty Cathy’ and I realised even before we had taken off that he was a little intoxicated!  I reached straight for my headphones and just hoped that he wouldn’t talk to me for the flight as he was chewing off the ear of a guy behind me and his knees were invading ‘my’ space and his breath was on my face as he spoke – ughhhhh.  My travel gods are still with me and he knew someone that was coming down the aisle and asked him to sit with him so they could talk, which the guy did and I think that was my saving grace for the flight!  But I did feel sorry for the man that was roped in as ‘Chatty Cathy’ didn’t stop the whole flight.  After take-off the seatbelt sign did stay on longer than normal and as soon as it was switched off he was harassing the hostees for his food and red wine ‘as we were about to land’ after we had just taken off 20 minutes ago into an 1 hour 40 minute flight.  Boy this had the makings of feeling like a much LONGER flight than what was indeed.  I did get accosted when I had to take out my earphones when dinner was served and he turned to me and said that I hope I don’t take offence that he hasn’t spoken to me as he is sitting next to his ‘friend’ as he spat on me while he was talking and nearly hit my face with his flailing arms-no really that was fine with me as I asked for a water and then plugged back into music-land.  He was annoying to sit next to with elbow prods, a twitching leg and leaning on me when he talked, but I just sucked it up for the short flight.  As there are no –inseat TV’s they have the drop screens every 4 rows or so and as we were eating dinner they had an episode of Bones playing and I can’t say that it made for great dinner  viewing when there was a decomposed body with maggots and skin coming off it while we were trying to eat chicken.  I have a pretty strong stomach, but it was pretty gross to be watching it over a meal.                

We arrived into Nairobi 20 minutes late and I felt bad that I knew that Driver Steven was waiting for me, but then I have to remember that this is Africa and I am sure he is more used to it than I that things take time, including the late arrival of flights.  There are eight departure gates used to board aircraft via boarding bridges in Nairobi and the arriving international passengers enter via the same gates into a concourse which leads to immigration counters located on the first floor.  Just about everyone needs a visa to enter Kenya and they can be obtained on arrival for most foreign nationals.  Now because I have been through Jomo Kenyatta International several times I know that there are 2 areas that you can get visas.  The terminal is set in like a semi-circle when you come off the plane and as everyone de-boards the flight they all follow each other and head to the same visa counters BUT because I am smart I know that I can head in the other direction and hit another set of visa counters that has no passengers and I am processed through while the other 135 people are all fighting for forms and standing in queues to get their visas.  There were a handful of people that had the same idea, but I seriously didn’t have to wait in any line and after paying my 50USD for my 3 month tourist visa I was through to the luggage carousels on the lower level.  I had to again admit on paper that I was now living in Kenya and the immigration officer asked a few questions and then I asked him is there a limit on how many tourist visas that I can enter the country on and he said no-as long as you aren’t working, they didn’t care which is good to know and a relief as I think I am not going to apply for the proper visa until at least next year and at least until I know that I am going to work-as either way it would be a waste at the moment with no burning desire to get a job and with my travel planned for the end of the year would be a waste of money to do it before hand.    

While I was waiting for my bag I sent Driver Steven a text to let him know where I was and that I wasn’t going to be too much longer and then 5 minutes later both my bags surfaced and I was out of there and Steven was there waiting for me.  It was now just after 2am and it only took us 30 minutes to get home and with a thanks to Steven and plans for him to come back and pick me up at 3pm this afternoon this little black duck was ready for bed.  

So this is a BIG, MASSIVE THANKYOU to Minalu and David who made this trip as great as it was.  Thank-you for your support and encouragement for me to finally close a chapter in my life that will never be forgotten (especially with Zeme’s name tattoo blazoned on my wrist) but besides that I have hope now for the future and I do believe that I would prefer to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

I loved 100%

I gave a 100%

Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.  So, love the people who treat you right, forgive the ones who don’t and believe that everything happens for a reason. 

If you get a chance, take it. 

If it changes your life, let it. 

Nobody said it’d be easy.  They just promised it would be worth it.