The Background
In June of this year I started doing some work with a group called charity:water. They are almost two years old and they have been growing donations very quickly. They expect to raise about $5 million for water projects this year. The organization has less than 10 full-time staff and I’ve been advising them on how to build the capacity to scale up quickly. It’s been a lot of fun. Early in July the founder, Scott Harrison, asked me if I wanted to join him on a trip to Ethiopia in August. I said “yes.” This blog is an after-the-fact blog of my trip (internet access is rather limited in the Ethiopian countryside).
Getting Ready
I work with Scott’s travel agent in the UK. No matter how we try to work it, the trip over will be long. I’ll leave Chicago at 2:30 on Friday, 8/8. Hang around JFK for about five hours. Then catch an Emirates flight to Dubai with Scott. That flight leaves at 11:00 PM Friday and gets into Dubai at 7:30 PM Saturday. That means missing a full day of daylight. Overnight in Dubai to catch-up on sleep. Then an 8:30 AM Sunday flight to Addis Ababa. In summary, leave at 2:30 PM Friday from Chicago; arrive Addis Ababa at 11:30 AM on Sunday. Fortunately the return on Friday 8/15 has tighter connections and an 8 hour timezone gain.
A little more than two weeks before my trip I started getting ready by going to the travel clinic to get all of my necessary shots and prescriptions. I’ve been to India twice before, so I’ve had some of the shots
and I’ve taken Larium (to prevent Malaria) before. Larium is supposed to give you crazy dreams and is rather troublesome for some people - I’ve never had any of that. The nurse has a list of all the possible diseases I may be exposed to in Ethiopia - suffice to say that it is all of them. I get six shots, prescriptions for Larium and Cipro (just in case) and a bill for $706. Over the next few days I head to REI for some travel gear. I pick-up Ultrathon bug repellent (34.34% DEET!) and a spray to keep bugs from biting through my clothing. I also pick-up some “light-colored long-sleeve shirts” (on Scott’s advice) in linen (Eileen’s advice) from The Territory Ahead online. I also go online to buy a new suitcase from Red Oxx. I get some new hiking boots from Uncle Dan’s in Evanston - they make them much lighter than they did when I bought my last pair fifteen years ago. My last stop is the drugstore for sunscreen, TSA-approved size of toothpaste and Immodium. I’m ready. I suppose.Flying to Ethiopia (First Leg)
It's Friday 8/8/08. Katie left for camp and my parents took the other two girls for an RV trip the previous Sunday, so it's been just the two of us for a few days. Eileen drives me out to O’Hare for my Delta flight to JFK. On the way I get a text message from flightstats (highly recommended!) telling me that the flight is delayed. We decide we don’t need to rush through lunch after all. I’m not to stressed about the departure delay from 2:30 to 4:15 since sitting at O’Hare isn’t materially different form sitting at JFK. Also, this is why we scheduled a five-hour layover.
However, at about 3:45 with our plane already sitting at the gate they suddenly move the departure time from 4:15 to 8:07 PM. This sends everyone into a tizzy. It seems that most of the flight is trying to make an international connection and an 8:07 PM departure won’t get it done. I avoid the long line at my gate and head over to the relative calm of the next gate down. I ask to be moved to the 4:45 flight on American. They are very nice. They call back over to my gate eventually telling me to go back to my gate and ask for Fergie (”the little, red-haired lady”). I return to my gate and stroll past the line and, no doubt, a lot of glares up to Fergie. She has printed out a boarding pass for the American flight, but she tells me to hold on for a few minutes so she can sort out this flight first.
I head over to use the restroom. When I return a few minutes later the whole line has dissipated or, more accurately shifted to the side. I learn that Fergie has informed everyone that she will give them an update in a few minutes. True to her word, she comes back in a few minutes and announces “Okay, we’re ready to board.” Less than 30 minutes later we’re on board and wheels up to JFK. No one ever explains the change from 4:15 to 8:07 or the change back. Theory one: someone made a typo. Theory two: if you think your flight will be delayed by almost six hours, you’re actually quite relieved to have only a two hour delay. Theory two is supported by the fact that my fellow passengers were almost giddy as they boarded the substantially delayed flight. It also relies on a higher level of intelligence than I’ve seen the airline industry exhibit (sorry Bliss).
Flying to Ethiopia (Second Leg)
I arrive into JFK at a reasonable hour and hop the Airtrain from the Delta Terminal to the Polyglot International Terminal. The exciting news is that we will be flying the first regularly scheduled Emirates flight of the new A380. I believe that Emirates has the first A380, so this is the first regular flight ever for the behemoth. There's virtually no line for the Emirate check-in so I stroll right up to the agent and do my best to get an exit row or bulkhead. No dice. I'm told the flight is oversold. He convinces me that I'm lucky to be able to get an adjacent seats with Scott.
I eat dinner and get through security pretty quickly. I settle down at an unused gate to read, listen to music and recharge my phone. I manage to get a call into my parents so I can say "good-bye" to Julia and Lizzie. I get a call from Scott. He'd already called to tell me he was on his way, so I'm expecting the "I'm here; where are you?" call. Instead I get the "I forgot my passport. I'm going back to get it!" call. Its still about 3 hours before departure, so I'm actually not that worried. Scott, on the other hand, asks me to find an agent and "stall the plane". I'm amused for a few minutes as I think about how I can stall a plane that isn't leaving for several hours without ending-up at Gitmo. I decide to defer any stalling action until we're sure it's necessary. A few text exchanges later and Scott is standing at the gate well before they're read to board.
I'd taken a look at the plane when it was out on the tarmac and it really is massive. Two levels front to back. The Business and First Class passengers board directly on their own jetway from their own lounge so they never have to mix with the coach passengers or even set foot on the coach level.
My only real concern is that I'll end-up in a seat next to someone who hasn't bathed recently. I'm not terribly sensitive, but this is a 13+ hour flight. We board and I give Scott the aisle seat and I take the inside seat. My seatmate arrives and she looks well-bathed. I breath a sigh of relief and inhale an overwhelming melange of perfumes. It smells like she just came from running the gauntlet at Bloomingdales. Actually, "running" suggests she tried to avoid being sprayed by every perfume known to man; it seems that she rather "sauntered" to ensure a full dosage. No matter, she's nice and the perfume will wear off.
The Emirate's entertainment system (ICE) is completely over the top. There are movies, TV shows, Games, a lot of music, etc. You can create your own playlists from the music selection. And you can save all your settings to a jump drive. The UAE motto seems to be "if you can't do it completely over the top, don't bother." Coolest of all are three cameras on the outside of the plane - one in the nose looking forward, one on the bottom looking straight down and one on the tail looking down and forward towards the nose. It was very cool to watch the take-off from those cams.
Once in the air Scott takes some magical sleeping elixir, sets his video to "The Bucket List" and promptly drops off for nine (NINE!) hours. I listen to my playlist, read, watch "Iron Man" (pretty good), read, etc. "The Bucket List" is in infinite repeat on Scott's screen and I keep seeing the same scenes over reminding me that time is passing. Just as I try to sleep the woman to my left pulls out her Ziploc bag of perfumes. She applies a heavily scented skin lotion to her arms. Spritzes her wrists with one perfume and her face with another. She does this once again during the flight and again right before we land. I finally doze off with my head turned away from the perfumery and get about 3-4 hours. Before landing, I watch a BBC comedy called "The IT Crowd." It has me in tears. I have to download it to see whether its really that funny or fatigue affected my judgment.
We land in Dubai and walk a long, long way. We get through customs and get a shuttle to our hotel.
I eat dinner and get through security pretty quickly. I settle down at an unused gate to read, listen to music and recharge my phone. I manage to get a call into my parents so I can say "good-bye" to Julia and Lizzie. I get a call from Scott. He'd already called to tell me he was on his way, so I'm expecting the "I'm here; where are you?" call. Instead I get the "I forgot my passport. I'm going back to get it!" call. Its still about 3 hours before departure, so I'm actually not that worried. Scott, on the other hand, asks me to find an agent and "stall the plane". I'm amused for a few minutes as I think about how I can stall a plane that isn't leaving for several hours without ending-up at Gitmo. I decide to defer any stalling action until we're sure it's necessary. A few text exchanges later and Scott is standing at the gate well before they're read to board.
I'd taken a look at the plane when it was out on the tarmac and it really is massive. Two levels front to back. The Business and First Class passengers board directly on their own jetway from their own lounge so they never have to mix with the coach passengers or even set foot on the coach level.
My only real concern is that I'll end-up in a seat next to someone who hasn't bathed recently. I'm not terribly sensitive, but this is a 13+ hour flight. We board and I give Scott the aisle seat and I take the inside seat. My seatmate arrives and she looks well-bathed. I breath a sigh of relief and inhale an overwhelming melange of perfumes. It smells like she just came from running the gauntlet at Bloomingdales. Actually, "running" suggests she tried to avoid being sprayed by every perfume known to man; it seems that she rather "sauntered" to ensure a full dosage. No matter, she's nice and the perfume will wear off.
The Emirate's entertainment system (ICE) is completely over the top. There are movies, TV shows, Games, a lot of music, etc. You can create your own playlists from the music selection. And you can save all your settings to a jump drive. The UAE motto seems to be "if you can't do it completely over the top, don't bother." Coolest of all are three cameras on the outside of the plane - one in the nose looking forward, one on the bottom looking straight down and one on the tail looking down and forward towards the nose. It was very cool to watch the take-off from those cams.
Once in the air Scott takes some magical sleeping elixir, sets his video to "The Bucket List" and promptly drops off for nine (NINE!) hours. I listen to my playlist, read, watch "Iron Man" (pretty good), read, etc. "The Bucket List" is in infinite repeat on Scott's screen and I keep seeing the same scenes over reminding me that time is passing. Just as I try to sleep the woman to my left pulls out her Ziploc bag of perfumes. She applies a heavily scented skin lotion to her arms. Spritzes her wrists with one perfume and her face with another. She does this once again during the flight and again right before we land. I finally doze off with my head turned away from the perfumery and get about 3-4 hours. Before landing, I watch a BBC comedy called "The IT Crowd." It has me in tears. I have to download it to see whether its really that funny or fatigue affected my judgment.
We land in Dubai and walk a long, long way. We get through customs and get a shuttle to our hotel.
Dinner in Dubai
I've reserved a room at the Le Meridien Fairway because it's cheap ($100), near the airport and Meridiens tend to be nice enough. The Starwood site says its "situated within close proximity of the enchanting Dubai Creek and provides guests with an intimate hotel experience and a restful place to retreat." I say none of that was evident to me. It's on a highway-ish thoroughfare surrounding by light industrial buildings as one normally finds near an airport. But I don't care, I just need a comfy, perfume free bed. We get upgraded to a huge suite. Scott thinks I'm a total player.
Scott has an acquaintance who's managing the Dubai branch of a hot London restaurant. They exchanged emails and the acquaintance encouraged us to come by the restaurant. With the prospect of great (and maybe free?) food we head out of the hotel. Scott doesn't have an address so we ask at the front desk and the concierge. Neither can help. Scott manages to manipulate the browser on his Blackberry to give up an address. We get a taxi to the Dubai International Financial Center Gate 6. We arrive at a monstrously large complex. I jump out and ask to make sure we're in the right spot. We get directed to the other side of the building. The taxi takes us there and we hop out. It's hot and we're hungry, but we're in the building in no time and the concierge has pointed us in the right direction. Well maybe not the exact right direction. We ask someone else who sends us upstairs. Where we find someone else who guides us outside to the wrong restaurant. We find someone else who says we need to be at "Village Gate 6", not "Gate 6". She gives us directions. We approach Village Gate 6 with some hesitation. There doesn't really seem to be anyone around; it just doesn't feel like we're heading to a trendy restaurant. We reach Village Gate 6 and the concierge knows exactly where the restaurant is. Finally, Victory! He walks us through the lobby and opens the door to our restaurant which is ... still under construction.
We get another taxi and head over to some vaguely Venetian hotel near the Burj Al Arab. We eat decent Persian food as Scott tries to calculate how much abuse he's going to take for the missing restaurant excursion. People are riding around on motorized gondolas - they look happy enough. Even at 10:30 it's pretty darn hot out and humid to boot. Back at the hotel I go right to bed. Scott, flush with his nine hours (nine!) of sleep in a day shortened by eight hours stays up to watch the Olympics.
Scott has an acquaintance who's managing the Dubai branch of a hot London restaurant. They exchanged emails and the acquaintance encouraged us to come by the restaurant. With the prospect of great (and maybe free?) food we head out of the hotel. Scott doesn't have an address so we ask at the front desk and the concierge. Neither can help. Scott manages to manipulate the browser on his Blackberry to give up an address. We get a taxi to the Dubai International Financial Center Gate 6. We arrive at a monstrously large complex. I jump out and ask to make sure we're in the right spot. We get directed to the other side of the building. The taxi takes us there and we hop out. It's hot and we're hungry, but we're in the building in no time and the concierge has pointed us in the right direction. Well maybe not the exact right direction. We ask someone else who sends us upstairs. Where we find someone else who guides us outside to the wrong restaurant. We find someone else who says we need to be at "Village Gate 6", not "Gate 6". She gives us directions. We approach Village Gate 6 with some hesitation. There doesn't really seem to be anyone around; it just doesn't feel like we're heading to a trendy restaurant. We reach Village Gate 6 and the concierge knows exactly where the restaurant is. Finally, Victory! He walks us through the lobby and opens the door to our restaurant which is ... still under construction.
We get another taxi and head over to some vaguely Venetian hotel near the Burj Al Arab. We eat decent Persian food as Scott tries to calculate how much abuse he's going to take for the missing restaurant excursion. People are riding around on motorized gondolas - they look happy enough. Even at 10:30 it's pretty darn hot out and humid to boot. Back at the hotel I go right to bed. Scott, flush with his nine hours (nine!) of sleep in a day shortened by eight hours stays up to watch the Olympics.
Flying to Ethiopia (Third Leg)
It's Sunday morning and I'm excited to finish the travel portion of our trip. The flight to Ethiopia is at a very civil hour (8:30 AM) and generally uneventful. We arrive into Addis Ababa on time. The airport looks modern and solid. We pay $20 for our entry Visa. Interestingly, it's denominated in dollars not the local currency. Customs goes quickly and we're soon standing on the curb. A friend of Scott's picks us up. Her husband works for "A Glimmer of Hope" another US charity raising money for wells. charity:water does there work in the Ethiopia through AGOH. We decide to drop by her house to see the kids - three boys and a girl.
They live close to the airport in a concrete home down a series of bumby dirt streets. It's definitely not glamorous, but I don't ahve much of a benchmark. After Scott roughhouses with the kids for awhile we all (seven of us) pile back into the RAV4 for the short drive over to the hotel. We soon arrive at the Beer Garden hotel. It's down the street from a busy intersection and surrounded by tall (about 10 story) buildings under construction. After the family leaves Dan emerges from the large tent adjacent to the hotel. He's tall and skinny; he's wearing sunglasses and a green german army jacket; he's got a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. In short, it looks like he showed up late for the bus when the Rolling Stones left town.
They live close to the airport in a concrete home down a series of bumby dirt streets. It's definitely not glamorous, but I don't ahve much of a benchmark. After Scott roughhouses with the kids for awhile we all (seven of us) pile back into the RAV4 for the short drive over to the hotel. We soon arrive at the Beer Garden hotel. It's down the street from a busy intersection and surrounded by tall (about 10 story) buildings under construction. After the family leaves Dan emerges from the large tent adjacent to the hotel. He's tall and skinny; he's wearing sunglasses and a green german army jacket; he's got a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. In short, it looks like he showed up late for the bus when the Rolling Stones left town.
A day in Addis
Metal scaffolding is apparently a first world luxury. All the buildings around us are under construction and all of the scaffolding is wood. It frankly doesn't look very reassuring. Then again cranes are toppling over in New York with some frequency, so who knows. Construction also appears to be very simple - concrete core and concrete slabs. In almost every hotel we stay in throughout Ethiopia the bathroom floors are elevated. I assume this is to accommodate pipes which would be built into the floor in the US. With concrete slabs I assume they just run it straight up through the building in a stack.
We check into our rooms. Dan has his own; Scott and I are sharing. The room is large and nice enough. We drop our stuff and quickly head out for lunch. We take a taxi over to the Hilton. The Hilton doesn't look like much of an upgrade over the Beer Garden. It looks like it was built a while back and hasn't been well maintained. We have lunch down by the pool. Scott recommends and we all get the sizzling fajitas - where better than Ethiopia to get authentic Mexican food? These fajitas are, in fact, so sizzling that waitresses tie bibs around our necks prior to the fajitas' arrival. The fajita stuff is fine - the tortillas are stiff.
We retire to the ping pong table so that Scott and Dan can relive an epic rivalry. There is agreement that they played about 50 games in a single night. There is disagreement about whether Dan slaughtered Scott or merely beat him. There are some tween boys at the table and they seem willing to play in rotation with us. Fortunately they are soon called to lunch by their father. Unfortunately, they own the good paddles and the only ball that isn't cracked. They agree to let us borrow the equipment while they eat. Dan proceeds to beat each of us repeatedly in turn. In our defense Dan has the better side of the table. The boys come back from lunch just in time to see me collapse late to Scott - his only victory.
We head over to the convenience store to get some gringo supplies, but they have no hand sanitizer or sun tan lotion. Oh well. We get into a taxi and head back to the Beer Garden. Dan and I want to see the sights, but Scott isn't confident there are any. We settle on a large Ethiopian Orthodox church near our hotel. We get out of the taxi at the multiplex and in a flash of anti-tourism brilliance Scott suggests we go to see the Batman movie. Sure enough we're just in time and after a little searching we arrive at the movie theatre. Everyone is frisked as they enter the theatre and we are forced to relinquish our cameras and Scott's computer. This induces anxiety which is eventually solved by the manager assuring us it "guaranteed" that we will get our belongings back. I would like to say that I was able to enjoy the movie knowing that our electronics safety was guaranteed, but, alas, the movie sucked. Too long, too overwrought, too complex - in short completely overrated. All three of us hated it.
Dan headed over to the Sheraton right away to meet someone and Scott and I followed an hour later. The Sheraton is gorgeous by any standards. We have a good Indian dinner. Scott uses the wireless to do some work while Dan and I chat. We head back to the Beer Garden where we each have a glass of the house beer. It's pretty bad. Then off to bed.
Breakfast in Tigray
Day four means flight four. We’re up for an early flight form Addis Ababa to Makale in the Tigray region. We’ll be spending the rest of our week in Tigray. Tigray is in the north abutting the disputed border with 
Eritrea. Scott had promised us an unreliable turbo-prop type plane, but alas we’re on a Boeing 737. While boarding the plane I walk up the steps behind a woman carrying a young boy. She’s wearing calf-high boots that appear to be malfunctioning. With every step the heel collapses inward at about a 45° angle. It looks really painful and I keep worrying that as people jostle their way up the stairs she’s going to fall to her right and drop the boy over the edge. I keep close behind to help, if necessary, but, fortunately, it’s not. I’ve negotiated the window seat, which gives me a great view of the tops of clouds. As such, I don’t get much of a feel for the topography.
We land in Tigray and it’s immediately evident that we’re in mountainous terrain. The runway itself slopes down towards the end. Overshooting the runway would lead to a rather steeper drop. The plane parks at the very corner of the tarmac, so we have a decent hike over to the terminal. Given that there are only about three flights a day, it seems odd that they don’t park closer. A few minutes later we’re picked-up by Tekla (I’ll use phonetic spellings, in part because I don’t know the correct ones) the head of REST. The Restoration Society of Tigray (REST) is the partner that implements our clean water solutions in this part of Africa. charity:water has done a few projects with them earlier this year, but we’re looking at some significant funding in the back half of the year. Scott spent a couple of weeks with REST filming the 33 villages for the Born in September campaign. They’ll also be the partner that we use to do live drilling for a well at a school on 9/7.
They drop us off at our hotel the Kastel – I assume that means castle because that’s about what it looks like. The hotel sits on top of hill overlooking the city and only has a few rooms. Dan again has his own room and Scott and I are sharing a suite. The furniture might be described as “garage sale eclectic” and there’s too much of it making the spacious room feel somewhat cramped. We drop o
ur bags and head out to the nice big veranda for breakfast.
Scott predicts that I will drink 22 cups of coffee during this trip. Since I’m not a fan of coffee (it tastes like burnt milk to me) I am taking the under. I’ve already had one cup at Lensa’s house in Addis, but here I’m also presented with the option of tea – I take it. The next choice is a juice – papaya or avocado. I’ve never had of avocado juice so it’s an easy choice. I take avocado. Dan and Scott have never had avocado juice so it’s an easy choice. They choose papaya.
Eritrea. Scott had promised us an unreliable turbo-prop type plane, but alas we’re on a Boeing 737. While boarding the plane I walk up the steps behind a woman carrying a young boy. She’s wearing calf-high boots that appear to be malfunctioning. With every step the heel collapses inward at about a 45° angle. It looks really painful and I keep worrying that as people jostle their way up the stairs she’s going to fall to her right and drop the boy over the edge. I keep close behind to help, if necessary, but, fortunately, it’s not. I’ve negotiated the window seat, which gives me a great view of the tops of clouds. As such, I don’t get much of a feel for the topography.We land in Tigray and it’s immediately evident that we’re in mountainous terrain. The runway itself slopes down towards the end. Overshooting the runway would lead to a rather steeper drop. The plane parks at the very corner of the tarmac, so we have a decent hike over to the terminal. Given that there are only about three flights a day, it seems odd that they don’t park closer. A few minutes later we’re picked-up by Tekla (I’ll use phonetic spellings, in part because I don’t know the correct ones) the head of REST. The Restoration Society of Tigray (REST) is the partner that implements our clean water solutions in this part of Africa. charity:water has done a few projects with them earlier this year, but we’re looking at some significant funding in the back half of the year. Scott spent a couple of weeks with REST filming the 33 villages for the Born in September campaign. They’ll also be the partner that we use to do live drilling for a well at a school on 9/7.
They drop us off at our hotel the Kastel – I assume that means castle because that’s about what it looks like. The hotel sits on top of hill overlooking the city and only has a few rooms. Dan again has his own room and Scott and I are sharing a suite. The furniture might be described as “garage sale eclectic” and there’s too much of it making the spacious room feel somewhat cramped. We drop o
ur bags and head out to the nice big veranda for breakfast.Scott predicts that I will drink 22 cups of coffee during this trip. Since I’m not a fan of coffee (it tastes like burnt milk to me) I am taking the under. I’ve already had one cup at Lensa’s house in Addis, but here I’m also presented with the option of tea – I take it. The next choice is a juice – papaya or avocado. I’ve never had of avocado juice so it’s an easy choice. I take avocado. Dan and Scott have never had avocado juice so it’s an easy choice. They choose papaya.
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