So it was a breeze to get out of DC. Wonderful job packing by Mandi, kids were ready to go...and Ethiopian Airways was right on time. Met a family who had oneway tickets to be missionaries in Uganda - they read "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and it had "wrecked their lives". Also met a former Kanakuk kamper on his way to do set up work for Billy Graham in Malawi & a pastor and his wife going to minister in the Sudan. Halfway across the Atlantic we had watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" 1.5 times (not all that good of a movie), busted out the Sratburst bribes & been offered sushi and rice for dinner. Really, who offers kids under 8 sushi? It was around then that I realized we were not actually going to Ethiopia...we were getting a pit stop in Rome. We had to sit there a bit, and I sensed the kookiness coming out of the kids, but they hung it in there and we were off.
The plane landed in rainy Ethiopia & we were promptly delayed by rain and fog, in Ethiopia...go figure. It was almost more interesting then that. Let's just say that boarding in Addis Ababa is a little more informal than say, Dulles. An employee just walks out and says a city, and then all the people (and it was a myriad of folks - full spectrum of fashion, color, accent & religion) going on that flight walk down THE runway. No signs, no loudspeaker. SO let's say a family with small kids, just trying to keep the lid from blowing off, thought they heard "Lusaka" and went down THE runway to get on a plane that was actually headed to Mumbasa (Kenya, I believe)..well that could happen. Fortunately there was a nice gentleman there to make sure we, I mean they, were actually going to Mumbasa. So that flight went very well. We slept. Well, we selpt about as well as you could. By then Addie ahd spit up on me (she didn't like or want to swallow the little bit of Airborne I gave her....it got stuck a little...and she let me have it. Plus her and Rayna's idea of sleeping is to sprawl on Mandi and I, and then twist and kick and shove (I imagine it's what it feels like to have a baby in your tummy). We landed in Lusaka and cleared customs easily...basically = give us $50 per adult. Then got a taxi from a guy who loved the fact that when he told me to "just say Banda" when saying there president - and I returned like "just Obama". Don't underestimate how big that was for people over here. It was cool. Then on to the House of Moses. It was a beautiful drive. It just seemed so relaxed, so at peace.
Praise God!
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