It's a whole new world...

Left/ right... Stop/ go... Run/ walk... Life is full of opposites and contrasts and the last 24 hrs has thrown me into a world of them. I sat next to a lady from West Africa on the plane who only spoke French. When I told her "Je ne parle pas Francais" she took that to mean "Oh, she knows French!" The rest of the flight I was her assistant getting her drinks and snacks.

The seat-back entertainment unit for my seat didn't work. I tried and tried; it was clearly broken and nearly falling out of its socket. I found a plastic knife stuck behind it, someone's attempt at fixing it or sabotage. Finally one last wiggle and I got it working! Couldn't fix the seat entertainment controller though:-( and I did try. I had a bum seat! From now on if something's broken the phrase will be "Stick a knife in it!"

Arriving in Addis Ababa, while fun to say, was a very different experience than either of us expected. Inside our hotel, we could have been in any major city in the world with a modern, amenity-filled, tower of rooms. Outside of the hotel was a wild dog haven with chaos in the streets at every turn (not unlike driving in Indonesian). Attending the National Museum, it was hard to tell which was older the building or the artifacts. It's a very unique city.

But the highlight of the day was meeting Pammi's sponsor child and getting to know about life in her village. I loved hearing about education and social structures in Ethiopia.

Tomorrow it's off to Tanzania for a whole new set of experiences!