Ethiopia - 1st Trip - Day 1

Our day started very early in the morning, 2:30 am, to be exact, when we were woken up by 3 alarm clocks. We showered and were out the door by 3:45 am. Our flight left on time at 6:15 am and we landed promptly at Dulles at 7:30 am.

Our plane arrived at the same gate that Ethiopian Airlines was supposed to depart from. But for some reason, when we got to D23, our gate was changed to B41. We got to our correct gate and were standing in line to get checked in by 8:05 am. The line behind us grew quickly. Fortunately we were able to get all checked in by 8:30 for our 11:00 flight.

About 15 minutes before we started boarding, we met the Hight and Voight families, also AGCI families. And thank God we did. Jen informed us that our return flight on Feb. 2nd was cancelled and pushed to the 3rd. We had no idea and didn't even have the travel agent's phone number. Luckily Jen did and I was able to call her. Just as our section was starting to board, I was able to reconfirm our return flight with the ticket agent. All it meant was that we get to spend an extra day with our beautiful girl. God is good!

I think I've been on a Boeing-777 one other time in my life. It was snowing like crazy in D.C., but 20 minutes after takeoff it was nothing but sunshine high above the clouds! The flight was wonderful. I don't think I've seen a more beautiful-looking flight crew. And so pleasant and patient. Always smiling. The food was yummy too.

Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of the east coast, so meals were based on Ethiopia's time. At 1:00 pm EST we had dinner. At 5:00 EST we were given a sandwich. We received nice, hot wet towels to refresh ourselves with and shortly after we had breakfast at 8:30 pm EST.

Before we boarded in Dulles, I took a sleep aid. I knew that once we landed in Addis, it would be the beginning of the day there and I wanted to be rested up for it. I slept the majority of the flight. I brought 3 great books, thinking I would really make a dent in them and never cracked one of them open.

My poor husband. He was awake practically the whole flight, watching movies, playing cards, playing soduku. At 9:15 pm EST I finally had to tell him to shut everything off and just relax so he could sleep.