Part Three: Frankfurt to Addis Ababa

Joel, Ariana and Nadia fell asleep and slept most of the trip. The
rest of us got some rest as well later in the trip. The flight went
smoothly and we landed 7 1/2 hours later. Everyone woke up cheerful
though Kalia still felt sick. (Now I wonder if it was actually the
flu since the flights weren’t actually bad and our other children had
all had a mild version of the flu earlier in the week.)
We had a ½ hour wait on the plane while a gate opened up for us. A
helpful Ethiopian airport person brought us a trolley for our bags.
THANK YOU! We had a ½ hour wait at passport control. Ariana fell on
her face and split her lip. Almost done.....
All our boxes arrived (minus our one carry-on) and we went through
customs. Lord have mercy. This process took about 2.5 hours but the
children were cheerful. We set up our blankets again and had a snack.
The custom agents were cheerful and chatty. Barry Schwenk was able
to join us and there was lots of talking and laughing.
There was concern over the 7 boxes of clothing we were bringing into
the country. Would we sell the clothing? They took a look just to
make sure. In the end, they charged us $100 dollars duty for one
item. We left the airport about 12:45am.
As soon as we exited the airport, Kalia perked up and said, “I love
this smell!” I think only a true MK could respond this way. Joel was
nearly jumping for joy, “I love it here, I love it here!” Ariana
wondered why it wasn’t raining as I had told them it was rainy season.
A minute later, it began to rain! We got into Barry’s landcruiser
and it started to pour. Barry and Rolf loaded all the boxes into 2
vehicles.
We arrived at the house we were staying at 1:15am. Time for
breakfast! We settled in and were in bed by 3am. What will tomorrow
bring?