Day 3

Arrived in Addis after an uneventful, albeit long flight of 13 hours.  I am usually the first one off the plane and first in line for a “Visa on arrival”.  However, 3 flights arrived essentially simultaneously and I was behind 200 people in line.  2 hours later I claimed my suitcase with $50K of equipment and anxiously approached customs where they had detained me a few years ago and tried to confiscate the equipment.  However, this time I walked casually for the exit, making pleasant eye contact with the customs official, and emerged unscathed with equipment intact.

One of my former residents, Tsega, now an attending, met us at the airport and took us to our guest house.  Plan was to try to stay awake, take a nap and go to Rick’s for Shabbat.  We walked just under a mile to the Telecom office for a SIM card and to activate phone service,  There 6 desks, 5 with people doing meaningless work and one person doing phone activations,   10’ or so for each person.  We were at least 15 or 20 in line.  I was next to a wonderful Ugandan fellow, now working as a software engineer in South Africa.  He was becoming increasingly restless as I was fighting fatigue and trying to stay calm.  We advanced to 5th in line when suddenly all employees exited for lunch.  Exhausted we walked somewhere for lunch and decided to return to Telecom, but for no more than 30’  They were still at lunch after 1 1/2 hours, but slowly returned.  At this point we got a little aggressive, advanced to the front of the line and finally emerged with Ethiopian phone service.

Shabbat at Rick’s was remarkable.  Wonderful people from all over.  A family from Toronto via Dallas just returning from safari in Kenya.  A fellow from San Francisco who had come here from Europe when his 1 year visitor visa expired.  Now in Ethiopia just handing out.  Michael O’malley, a former attorney from Chicago now living in Croatia, and volunteering at Mother Theresa’s here in Addis massaging backs of the poor and ill, walking with them, and just doing something different in life.  TThere were probably 30 or more in all, including six children leaving for Ghana tomorrow with 18 other children for 3-9 months of traction, then incredibly complex spine surgery for some of the worst scoliosis that one can imagine.  Rick has raised $22K for each child for their surgery (yes a total of $530,000)!   One child walked 300 miles in 8 days from Gojam to get here in time for his surgery.  He could not afford the $20 bus fare.