The Beginnings of a New Adventure

I am now writing you from Addis Ababa. The journey here was a bit... unpredictable. First, they were unable to check my bags all the way through from Wenatchee so I got to fly to Seattle, pull my bags off the plane, go through the airport, re-check them and then go through Sea-Tac security. Then my flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was late and my ticket from Nairobi to Addis wasn't ready to go, so I missed my flight to Addis. Fortunately, I got a ticket for the next morning. Unfortunately, I had to spend the night in the Nairobi airport. Fortunately, I found a sleeping lounge in the basement of the airport... (think a 6x4 ft cell with a bed). It was an interesting experience, but I at least got to lay down for a few hours. I finally arrived in Addis 11 hours later than expected and went directly to work at the Institution of Ethiopian Studies. We are running a workshop for 14 people on how to digitize Ethiopian manuscripts. The students are very nice and I have enjoyed working with them. They are learning a lot, but it is slow-going as there is a lot to learn.
Other than a bout of jet lag (to be expected after crossing 11 time zones) I am doing really well. Obviously, I miss my friends and family, but the people here are kind and the friends that I have here are very caring and treat me like family. :) It has been especially fun to reconnect with my good friend Kaleab and I am looking forward to he and I moving into our apartment this weekend. I saw the outside of the building and it looks very nice. Perhaps I will have a strong enough internet connection next week that I can post pictures. I think it will be a nice place and Kaleab and I are very excited that the place has a basketball hoop and some fields to kick a soccer ball around. It will be a great stress reliever. I hope that you are all well and I will write more soon (I have to wrap up my time here at the internet cafe). Until next time.