Zannerpalooza: October 14, 2011 - Destination Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Air Canada threatened to strike but thankfully they did not. As a result, many people cancelled their flights and I had an entire 4-seat row to myself. How awesome is that!

At the Calgary airport I met Dr. Northcott, Deb Northcott, Bryce Meldrum and Steven Harding. These travel partners are my team with Canadian Humanitarian for the October Expedition to Ethiopia. Friends of the Northcott's along with two of the Northcott's children stopped by the airport to wish us safe travels. One of the friends who stopped by was none other than Mary Campbell - a high school friend of mine who I had not seen since graduation 20 years ago. What a small world!

I am thrilled to not be traveling alone and I think our team will build some great friendships on this trip.

October 2011 Expedition Team (L to R):
Bryce Meldrum, Zanner, Steven, Nicole, Dr. Northcott, Deb Northcott

Our flight had a stop-over in London - what a great city to spend the afternoon. It was sunny and warm and Bryce and I visited Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and South Bank. We ate our Pret-A-Manger at the Trafalgar Square fountain by the London 2012 Olympics countdown clock.

Bryce at Trafalgar Square.

We stopped in at the National Portrait Gallery and one exhibit was the sculpted bust of an artist - made out of his own frozen blood! Ewwwwww. One modern portrait was actually an LCD screen and the subject blinked and breathed (his chest expanded). It was pretty freaky - I did a huge double take thinking "Did that painting just move?!?"

We enjoyed watching the street performers. One performer dislocated his shoulder to remove a stringless tennis racket that was around his waist, all while riding a 7' unicycle. Bryce was his personal assistant so it was pretty fun to watch.

Tom from "The Tom Show" and his helper, Bryce.

The Tom Show at 7 feet high.

We saw a hustler moving 3 matchboxes, one of the boxes had a small ball under it. To guess which box had the ball under it you had to pay 20 pounds. If you got it right, you doubled your money. People were guessing, matchboxes and money was flying, the hustler was super fast at moving the matchboxes and he earned money from a lot of people. In the end he was very fair and honest; this guy was a true money man!

Back at Heathrow we boarded Ethiopian Airlines for our flight to Addis. The plane was a new 767, with TV screens at every seat (yeah, free movies!). It was every bit as modern as any Air Canada plane.

This isn't the 767, but it is a better picture!

Safety in English and Amharic, one of Ethiopia's main languages.

Comfy seats and friendly stewardess made for a great flight.

My first views of Addis from the plane were lush, green hills. There are endless square plots of land for agriculture and crops. There were many houses, villages and signs of industry. The greenery was surprising - I thought the mountains would be rockier and more barren since the elevation is 2355 meters (7726 feet). The Addis mountains are not jagged like the Rockies, but rounded like the Coast mountains in the Kamloops area.

View from Ethiopian Airlines flight 710.

The airport is a very modern, glass building designed by a Canadian architect. All signage is in English and Amharic so it is easy to find your way. There were many helpful people along the way - everyone is so polite!

I was proud to see the beautiful Canadian architecture at the Bole Airport, Addis Ababa.

It was important for me to travel to Ethiopia as my view of the country was limited to World Vision TV commercials. I knew there had to be progress in Ethiopia beyond the Red Terror and the famine of the 1980’s. I was right.

Outside the airport it really felt like a big city (8 million people live in Addis Ababa). My first view of Addis was an appreciation of the new and old; the traditional and modern. The city is full of juxtaposed buildings, both commercial and rural.

Traditional store.

Modern store.

There are lots of high rise condos and businesses. It was amazing to see construction of high rise buildings using scaffolding made of eucalyptus tree branches!

New construction using tree branches for scaffolding.

Now that's a funky building!

There are many, many cars, trucks, buses and vans - and they all seem to be spewing thick black smoke. The fumes and exhaust were choking. The vehicles, people, donkeys, goats and sheep all share the roads which are full of activity and movement!

Yo Donkay - hurry up or you'll miss your lunch with Shrek.

I stayed at the Tazina Guest House which is a gated B&B style hotel off a gravel road about 10 minutes from the airport. I had my own room with my own private bath, a desk and a TV. It's a good thing the bed was comfy because after 36 hours of travel it was definitely shower and nap time!