It’s our first full day in Ethiopia.  I just woke up—an hour early.  Decided to whip out the computer and update the blog a little bit.  I somehow managed to tame the wireless network in the hotel, so I can do a bit of writing and a bit of web surfing.  The plane rides yesterday weren’t that bad.  Our group was split into two sections on the plane but at least we were together.  I feel like the overlying theme was simply trying to get to sleep but failing miserably.  And even though we were exhausted, and even though we couldn’t believe it when we hit the ground after 20 hours of flying, we were excited to get our first few peeks of Ethiopia.  We were greeted by a representative from the Panorama Hotel after we went through customs and collected our 13,000 bags.  Our first awkward encounter was when a couple of random porters helped us load our bags into the truck and proceed to ask for a tip.  But Keith and the guys from the Hotel that helped us into the cars too both told Jen not to give them anything.  The random porters were so insistent though, so it was pretty much the most awkward thing ever.  The hotel is nice—wireless internet (that works some of the time), TV’s in the rooms (with French cooking shows and BBC in English), hot water to shower with (which Henry claims goes cold after 5 minutes; I had better luck—about 10), and bottled water for $2 (which I promptly left in Jen’s room last night).  Last night was my first encounter with the Ethiopian water, and I already felt lost.  It’s so hard to keep track of when I can use the water here and when I should use bottled.  I pretty much passed out after cleaning up and woke up this morning, ready for the day.

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