The Part-Time Explorer

Addis Ababa (Spend 3 days here, I spent 1 night)

In Ethiopia I spent 2.5 hours in line to get a stupid visa (at one point 30 people were in line for 1 attendant, and she was doing everything by hand) and a free hotel room (I would have preferred a shorter wait, but whatever). It was late, cold and I was already bitter about spending another $1,500 on flights, on top of the $2,500 I’d already spent.

I met a really nice Peace Corp Volunteer in Kigali and we ended up next to each other on the plane. I think I convinced her that not all gold miners are evil, and we just talked about working in Africa.

When we parted ways in Addis Ababa, another American girl was in the same boat I was, where we had waited for hours for nothing, and needed to find a hotel. She used to live in Addis, and so after a little convincing, I got her to take me out to a bar or two and I had an awesome time. She was really fun and cool, but the icing on the cake was definitely the fact that she looks exactly like an older version of Maebe from Arrested Development. She works for the NGO that repairs clef lips for children all over Africa, and so she travels all over the continent running programs to do these surgeries. Really awesome stuff, and made me feel like a total slacker for just staying in the Congo. The people you meet out here are incredible.

I got back to my hotel at 4:00 a.m. went to sleep at 5:00 a.m. and woke up at 6:30 a.m. I am now at the airport in Addis about to get in my super fancy chair on the plane to see how much Business Class is actually worth it.

Ethiopian food

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