Wednesday 20 January 2010

Arrived

I arrived in Jinja (south east Uganda) on Monday and just coming out of my post flight stupor. Ethiopian Airlines surpassed all expectations. It was undoubtedly one of the most uncomfortable flights of my life and was not helped by some Zimbabwean princess* loading all her hand luggage onto my lap and proceeding to spend most the flight with her head in a sick bag.

Before we had even boarded a massive ho ha developed between some militant
Heathrow officials, half a dozen American missionaries and a young African couple. One of the missionaries actually bolted over the seats to come to the couple's aid. I think it had something to do with baby milk. It turned out the Christians were actually occupational heroes. On arrival in Ethiopia they averted a potential catastrophe by rescuing a man who got his shoelaces caught in the escalator. In one swift synchronised movement they came together and hoisted him to safety. They'd obviously done this kind of thing before.

Otherwise it's been a fairly gentle introduction and getting on with the charity work. Just about to head off to a meeting now - haven't said that for a while!


*This was based on a phone conversation I overheard but was later disproven when it materialised she'd been sitting on her video camera for half the journey. If a real princess can feel a pea through a 100 or so mattresses then she was definitely an impostor.

Ethiopia: Dusty and monotonal - that's my kind of landscape.

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