I've got jeg jet lag brain. But I made it.

Wow. Okay so I'm here.

I went to bed at 1900 last night, woke up at 0030, fell back asleep an hour later and woke up at 0611, and it is now 0656 and I feel like going back to sleep. But I am going to try to not nap today.

More than anything right now I am thirsty. I am used to drinking 3 liters of water a day, and have only had two cups since yesterday. For some reason in Ethiopia I had to go through airport security again after arriving and getting on my connecting flight, so I drank the water I had brought and then there was nowhere to get more once going through security. My housemate here, Helen, had part of a bottle but I don’t want to drink all her water, and the power has been out since I arrived so we can’t even boil more. Ah well. We are going to the market this morning and I plan on stocking up.

So I arrived yesterday afternoon and have been getting settled in. I flew from Arkansas to Chicago to London to Addis Ababa to Kilimanjaro. Whew. I had a 9.5 hour layover in London and went into the city in order to stay awake. When going through customs the gentleman there asked why I was in the UK and I told him I would be only for a few hours and he was talking to me about that and I told him I was a student and he asked what I was going to do with my few hours in London and I said, “oh you know, get some fish and chips, walk around.” And he laughed and his buddy said, “she’s doin’ it proper, en’t she?” and then my guy told me to have a pint of beer as well. I said I would and then he let me go on my merry way. I love British people.

I also love London. I’ve been a couple times and done most of the “big” things so I took the Piccadilly line all the way into Russell Square and got off and walked to a fish and chips shop, got it takeaway and walked around til I found some steps to sit and eat on. I forgot to grab one of the little wooden forks so I ate it with my fingers. So good.

YES

Then I literally got lost for an hour. Ah well, there are worse places to get lost. I just walked around and ended up by Hyde park. I went to a Marks and Spencer and got some candy as gifts for the faculty at the nursing school and a croissant (I’m obsessed with their croissants) for myself and then bought myself a pen at a Cath Kidston store, because for some reason I only brought one pen. By then I decided to head back, so I trained back to Heathrow, collected my bag, logged on for my 45 minutes of free internet, and called my husband. We chatted for a while, I bought a yogurt, and headed to my next flight. The plane to Ethiopia actually had power, so I was able to charge my electronics, and slept fitfully for the 8 hour flight.

Addis Ababa airport

When we got to Addis Ababa I power napped for 20 minutes in a chair then realized I had to go through security again. I should have taken a picture of the line. There was a group of women in front of me who were all wearing white or off-white dresses and head coverings, with embroidering and applique decorations. One of the women had a head covering which was elaborately embroidered with gold accents saying “facebook” and the letter “f” like the facebook f. That was it. It was just sheer white fabric with rhinestone accents and embroidery saying “facebook.” I wanted to take a picture so bad.

Also, the ebola precautions being taken at the airports in Africa were interesting. It was just a temperature check. When we arrived in Ethiopia there was one man in a lab coat, gloves, and a mask who scanned everyone’s temporal temperature before letting them through. When we arrived in Kilimanjaro, we had to walk a couple hundred yards through the heat and sun and then before we could go inside you had to walk through and they did an infrared body scan thing. Yeah. So if you failed that you just waited in the shade for a bit and tried again. I had to try like 7 times before I passed. And when we arrived in Kilimanjaro we had to fill out a health survey asking about the countries we had been in over the last three weeks and if we were having any symptoms such as fever or vomiting.

ebola checkpoint??

Anyway. I got my visa and collected my bag and was met by the driver from Duke, who drove me the 45 minutes to Moshi. He stopped on the way and got me these little fried dough things, one was spicy and filled with meat and onions, the other was just a fried ball of dough and vaguely sweet. He dropped me off at the house and gave me three skeleton keys on a leather keychain in the shape of Africa. I unpacked, showered, and crashed for 30 minutes until my roommate got home. She is a med student at Duke, tiny, nice, and brilliant, apparently. She’s been here a week and we plan on going to market today. She will be living here for 8 months.

Duke van!

That’s all my brain can handle at this point. I already need a nap. I’m so glad I arrived on a weekend and don’t have to go to school straight away. I have pictures but don’t know that I’ll be able to upload them, might have to wait til I get home.