This title reflects a slightly different perspective. No Camino discussion today, and I’m writing mainly to give an outline to family and friends who are curious.

I think I hear someone ask “Why is Grandma working? I thought she was supposed to be retired.” Well, the short answer would be “Because she can, and because it is (usually) fun. I won’t be writing about it here because I make a point of separating my personal blog from my professional life. I will just say that I am involved with a not-for-profit professional/technical association.

I have spent most of this week in an airport hotel at meetings talking about training and capacity building. I am jet-lagged with very little free time, and Addis Ababa is not a place where I feel comfortable going out for a brisk morning or evening walk. Besides I have a plantar plate injury from too much walking (hello, Camino!) and am trying to walk as little as possible. (That is the main reason I cut my 2024 Camino short, as well as having to prepare for this Ethiopian jaunt.)

One day involved an excursion to visit two large dams. It involved a lot of sitting, but much of it in a 4-wheel drive vehicle hurrying across the Ethiopian countryside, far from the city. The day started with a wait at the airport for the weather to improve, after which a charter flight took us 400 km southwest of Addis. The flight was on an 11-passenger plane – excellent smooth flight for an hour, but without much to look at, due to cloud cover.

Interesting 50 minute drive to a large dam. I was bouncing around in the middle of the second row of the van, so I couldn’t easily take photos, but here are some. Much of the drive was on a modern 2-lane highway built for the dam construction, but some was on more typical dirt roads that were sometimes very good, but sometimes not. We could see the effects of washouts and minor landslides. (A week later, parts of Ethiopia suffered severe landslides.) Many small settlements were scattered along the route, and livestock were enjoying the convenience of the road.

We wandered around the big dam. I took photos of birds for online friends.

Then, a drive back to plane, which took us on a 20 minute flight to another “airport” and drive to a dam site. This was more interesting because it was under construction. What a busy hive of activity, and massive engineering project! Then we stopped for lunch at the construction camp, which was like a tropical resort.

Finally, returning to the “airport” in a rush. We were running late and knew that daylight was a factor! The group was in 2 small planes (10-12 passengers each). Fortunately my plane had instrumentation for landing in Addis Ababa in the dark, but the other plane didn’t. So, those people had to stay in the construction camp overnight.

The rest of the week involved more meetings, an excursion to a market devoted mainly to local fabrics and traditional clothes, and to buy coffee to take home as souvenirs. We have had two dinners at Ethiopian restaurants with typical food and dancers.

The final interesting experience was getting through to the boarding gates at Addis Ababa airport. This involved some firm positioning in haphazard queues. We removed shoes, laptops, and liquids, and put them all back on again – not once, not twice, but three times before getting to the boarding gates. In fact, the last time was after the last toilets!

The flight home was oh, so long – 16 hours, 45 minutes from Addis to Toronto, including a refueling stop in Rome. It was night, so no view. While stopped in Rome we didn’t get off the plane, but we had to undo our seat belts and turn off our electronic devices. The plane was completely full. I exaggerated – the centre seat in the last row was empty. There were quite a few babies on board near me, near the back, but the plane was noisy enough that it didn’t really matter. A 5-year-old girl was next to me. She was cute and well behaved, but I spent much of the flight with her feet in my lap as she slept. Her father tried to pull them back, but I said never mind, it was quite cosy.

In Toronto, I had an 8 hour 45 minutes layover!!! So I took the bus to my brother’s house for a visit and a short nap before the 5 hour flight home.

Needless to say, I was exhausted and slept 11 hours, which was very unusual for me. Jet lag was not much of a problem on the return because I had never really adjusted to the 10 hours change 7 days earlier.

I can’t consider this trip to really be visiting Ethiopia, because my experience was so limited. I didn’t even see the city centre in Addis Ababa. All the local people we encountered, though, were very welcoming! Maybe there will be another opportunity.