Ethiopia Day 1

August 5th finally arrived. The day we would embark on the journey to our son! As everyone who reads this blog knows, I had been a bundle of nerves in the weeks leading up to this trip. I did not want to fly 30 some hours to Africa. But, I knew I had to and I finally came to the realization that this was not about me. It was about my son, who was waiting for his parents to come. I reminded myself of this many times on the plane :)

After not getting to bed until after midnight, 3:30 AM hit early. By 4:30 we were on our way to Peter's parents house where Peter's dad and brother would drive us in to the airport. I couldn't help but imagine how different our lives would be the next time we were home. I was filled with calmness and excitement by this point in time! There comes a point when you dread something for so long, that you just want to get it over with. I couldn't wait to get to my son, but it was just the means of getting to him that was hard for me.

Leg One: Portland to San Francisco

By the time we got to the airport around 5:00 the place was packed. Peter’s brother came in with us to help us get the 4 tubs all checked in. We made our way to the front of the line and the lady gave us our luggage tags but not our seat tickets. She also told us that they would be unable to print us our tickets for the final flight and that we would have to go to the main part of the Frankfurt airport and get those boarding passes. We knew this would be a huge problem and would cause us to miss that already tight connection. We were really expecting to miss that flight anyhow, so we would just have to go with the flow. At this point we still had no tickets in hand, but our luggage was all checked in. She told us to go stand in another line and that we would have to show our passports to get our tickets.

So off we went. We said goodbye to Peter’s brother and stood in the other line. A manager came over and was looking for some sort of tag. We didn’t have any sort of tag. She told us that she would figure it out and off she went with our passports. She got interrupted several times by unhappy travelers while she was working on our stuff, but finally she appeared with all of our boarding passes for all 3 legs of the journey. We were so relieved that she was able to print the tickets for our Frankfurt flight.

We made it through security and got a little something to eat. We were pretty calm and excited and in disbelief that the day was finally here! We were not thrilled that we still had a very long trip ahead of us.

After waiting about an hour, we were on the plane. We were thrilled to see that we got Exit Rows for this first leg. I had prayed that we would get good seats along the journey, hoping that would make the trip easier on me.

After a very uneventful 2 hour trip we were in San Francisco. We had a long 5 hours to kill in San Francisco. It was like we got started on our trip, only to not really get anywhere and wait. We walked quite a bit right away, trying to find somewhere to plug in the computer and get some internet working. We had our backpacks and 2 duffle bags full of stuff for Malachi and it was a pain to walk around with all that stuff. We finally got all plugged in and spent some time on the internet, got some food, and hung out. Before we knew it we had killed the time and it was time to board the big bird that would take us so much closer to our son



2nd Leg: San Francisco to Frankfurt (11 hour flight)


As it was time for our plane to board, apparently the computers were down. That meant they had to call someone and verify every person with a ticket on the flight. Needless to say, boarding took a pretty long time. We were concerned about our short 1 hour connection time in Frankfurt but knew at this point they would be able to make up any time lost.

We were thrilled once again to get great seats on the flight. We were in the bulkhead of Economy Plus which means we had extra legroom once again for this long leg. Peter and I did not have seats together but we were able to trade so that Peter could sit next to me!

Once again this flight was very uneventful. We spent a lot of time trying to sleep, but we are no good at sleeping on planes. For the most part, in between our dozing we watched all the onboard movies and tv shows. I had tried to mentally prepare myself for this long part of the trip. It was very long, but seriously not as painful as I expected it to be.

After about 11 hours we arrived in Frankfurt about 10 minutes early. We were excited because that would give us 70 minutes to catch our next flight. We knew it was going to be very difficult to make that connection but we were going to try our hardest. Unfortunately, there was a plane at our gate that was slow leaving the terminal so we sat for about another 20 minutes on the tarmac waiting for that plane to leave – uh oh.

Another miracle with this trip, is that we were seated in the very first row of Economy seats. We had talked with some of the people around us and they were aware of our very short connection and let us get off first. They all wished us good luck! We were off, going as fast as we could. We had a looong way to go to get to the next terminal. We were making great time until we got dumped back out at a security check point. This was our first taste that the rest of the world, doesn’t move at American pace. It was so sloooow. We were literally standing there, waiting and waiting for them to send our bags through the scanners while a mob of the security people just stood there talking with each other and laughing about a difficult person that went through security. Our bags were literally sitting inside the machine, we could see what the tech should have been looking at but she had her chair completely turned around the other way and was having social hour. Finally, a co-worker came over and yelled something at them that got them working again.

Finally, we were through that checkpoint and back to the races! We still had a long way to go and time was ticking. We finally made it to our gate and they asked us if we were the Keyser party. They said we literally just made it and that they were closing the gate. At this point we went through the gates only to have to board a bus that would take us to our plane.

This is where it gets comical. We board a bus, which drives around between all the airplanes and terminals for about 10 minutes before finally getting all the way to the other side of the airport (where we first started) to board our plane. Peter and I laughed when our bus LITERALLY drove right behind the plane we came in on. Our plane was way closer to our original gate than it was to the gate they had us get on the bus at. It was pretty crazy, but we were just happy to have made the flight and know that we were just hours away from our son’s birth country.


Leg 3: Frankfurt to Addis Ababa 6 1/2 hour flight

We boarded the plane and were once again surprised and thrilled to see that we had exit row seats! We were so blessed to get those wonderful seats for the entire journey.

By the time this plane got in the air, we were exhausted and so ready to be done. This was the toughest leg for us. We had 6 ½ hours flight time. We tried to sleep, but there was so much commotion all around us that it was very difficult. This flight seemed to move in slow motion.

Finally the flight tracker showed us narrowing in on the city of Addis Ababa. I had tears in my eyes as I looked out the window as we neared the city. We were almost to our son! He was and is so worth this journey! In our row, we had a beautiful Ethiopian baby girl and it was so fun to people watch on this flight. This was our first real glimpse of Ethiopian people as there were several on this flight. One thing we noticed, which I had heard before – is that people would just come over and take this little girl from her mother and carry her around the aisle and such. That is a very culturally acceptable thing to do and the baby girl (probably around 9 to 10 months old) never seemed to mind.

The clouds were very dark as we flew into the city. We could definitely tell why the city has to shut down the courts during the rainy season. Every place was muddy and swampy. It was starting to get dark out and you could see little tin roofs laid out throughout the area, but only rarely did you see a light on a building.

Landing in Addis Ababa was unlike anywhere else we have been. There were no big high rises. Just lots and lots of tiny little shacks. Our plane landed and the Ethiopian people on the plane clapped. It was just another example of their joy and thankfulness. It was very foggy out as we made our way to our gate. First thing we had to do was get in line to get a Visa. That went smoothly and then we were dumped into a very slow line to go through customs. For whatever reason, we were put in a line that just was not moving. Finally, we made it through. We went from being one of the first people off the plane, to being the second to last family to get through Immigration. The airport was emptying out by the time we got to baggage claim and I was just hoping that the person who was picking us up was still waiting for us and didn’t think we missed our flight.

Baggage claim was pretty empty by the time we got there and it didn’t take long at all to notice that none of our tubs were there. So off to the baggage desk we went. Once again, we realized that the rest of the world does not move at the same pace as America. We did eventually find out that our bags were still in Frankfurt (no surprise) and that they would arrive the next evening. We then had to try and guess how or who would be picking up our bags. We were getting more and more concerned that our driver may have left by now as the entire airport was almost empty by the time we made it through Customs.


My stuff made it through customs no problem, but they wanted to search Peter’s bags. So at this point, I ditched him and headed out to the main airport area to try and find our driver. I was one of the only white people in the entire airport and so taxi drivers kept coming up and asking me if I needed a ride. I found a few men who were holding up signs for people, but none with our name on it. We were expecting someone from AGCI would be picking us up as that is what we were told. Finally Peter caught up and we walked around the airport a little bit with no luck finding our driver. We were almost off to the pay phones to call our contacts when a man approached Peter holding a sign with our name on it. Apparently our agency sent someone from the hotel to pick us up.

So off we went with the man, still not sure who he was. It didn’t click with us that he was not from our agency until we arrived outside and saw the van was for the Riviera Hotel. A few more people hopped on the van and off to the hotel we went.

The city was dark by this time. It didn’t take long for us to realize that driving in Addis Ababa takes some serious skill. Still not sure if there are any laws to driving, but somehow through honking and flashing their lights drivers are able to get the point across about what they are intending on doing.

We were able to see several people walking along the roads and shacks everywhere. It was night, but there were still a lot of people out and about and moving around. That adds another element to driving. People are constantly walking out in front of cars that are flying through the city. At one point there was a stray dog that ran out in front of our van. Oddly enough, I never felt unsafe on the drive.
I knew that the driver was very experienced and capable just like the drivers in Jamaica.

Another unique thing that we had heard about is the smell here. It is indescribable, but very apparent. It is not a bad smell, just different. A weird combination of diesel fumes, smog, tires, and smoke. With that combination and the fact that we are sitting at a high altitude – breathing is different.

It was very humbling to watch the city at night. Almost unreal and so different than what we are used to. There were thousands of people along the streets, huddled up under blankets, sleeping for the night and it is quite cold outside right now. After about a 20 minute drive we made it to our hotel. Check in was easy and we were able to try to settle in for the night. The people have all been very nice to us! We definitely stand out though.

We tried to get internet set up, but had no luck. We were so tired that we skipped any dinner plans and just went to sleep.