Owlhavens in Ethiopia: Beginning our journey home

By the time the AAI driver got to the guesthouse around 7 pm, we had indeed gotten everything into the suitcases, including a large round woven injera mat that we’d bought a couple evenings before. A woman had been selling them near the guesthouse when we were walking by one evening. When I spotted it, I knew I wanted one. I stuck 10 birr into my 11 year old’s hand and asked her to go back and get it for me. After a minute or two of talking with the woman, she came back with it looking pleased, and so was I. On our last trip, I’d bought a couple similar mats about the diameter of a pot-holder. This one was big enough to hold a whole large piece of injera.

One thing I didn’t know about the luggage was if it was over-weight. I was hauling back many pounds of Ethiopian spices for an Ethiopian friend in our town, as well as berbere green coffee beans, and shiro powder for myself. These items were pretty heavy. I did my best to distribute the weight among the bags, but I had a hunch a couple of my big bags were a bit over-weight anyway. Oh, well. I had no scale, so I’d just have to take my chances.

The 9 year old had been eager to go all day, asking me several times during the day how long it was till we left. When I told her to go to the bathroom right before we left, she said, “No. I go in America!” (Thankfully I was able to coax her to use the facilities a time or two before then!)

The 11 year old was torn. I saw some excitement in her eyes at times about this adventure (like in this picture when we were waiting for our driver to bring us to the airport). But also there was sadness. By the time we left for the airport, she was very sober. On the drive she spoke with Abraham, the driver, and handed him more letters for her friends at Layla. At the airport, he gave both of the girls a big hug, and told them he’d miss them.

Then it was time to load our bags onto a couple of luggage carts and take the walk up the hill to the airport among hordes of other travelers. We had 5 bags to check, plus a backpack for each family member, along with one rolling bag and one laptop bag. John and I each pushed a luggage cart. The 11 year old pushed the stroller with our (sleeping) 2 year old, and the 9 year old held hands with the 5 year old. They were best buddies by now! We were quite the parade, but as we walked I realized what an asset these big girls were already.

After security we saw a huge horde of people at the Ethiopian airlines check-in waiting in line to get their baggage weighed. In the line people frantically shuffled items from bag to bag, trying to lighten their biggest bags. As we walked past them to the Lufthansa counter, I thought again about those two heavy bags of mine. Eek.

At the counter I affected nonchalance as the bags were loaded on. Sure enough, two of ours weighed nearly 30 kg each–66 lbs– ack. But the person at the counter didn’t bat an eye. Either he gave us the overage because we were only checking 5 bags for 6 people, or he had pity on us (already bleary-eyed) parents on the brink of a 30+ hour trip with four kids. Whatever the reason, I was grateful.

We got upstairs to the gates a good two hours before our flight was leaving. We found a couple of quiet benches near one end of the terminal where we hung out, eating snacks and playing cards with the 5 and 9 year olds. Both the 2 and 11 year olds opted to sleep. Eventually it was time to run to the bathroom one more time and then go through security and wait a little longer at our gate.

The 9 year old was buzzing with excitement by then. The 11 year old stayed somber until we got on the plane. Then she and dad had a great time getting the headphones going, looking out the window, and playing with the various controls. The plane was a big one, with a configuration of ‘2-seats/ aisle / 4-seats/ aisle/ 2-seats’. We had been assigned two ‘side’ seats right across the aisle from a block of 4 ‘center’ seats. We decided to give the 11 year old the window on this first flight. Dad sat next to her, and then I sat in the center section with the three younger girls.

That first take-off was a real thrill for everyone. The big girls just glowed, and John and I grinned just watching them. Hopefully their enthusiasm (and ours) would last awhile. It was still about 30 hours till we’d be home.

Previous portions of this story
Sunday and Monday | Tuesday | Tuesday(later) | Wednesday | Thursday (earlier) | Thursday (later) | Friday morning | Friday afternoon | Saturday morning | Saturday afternoon

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