Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Day 9

Saturday May 14, 2011

My last day!  I woke up with a sniffling and sneezing, I think I officially have a cold. That’s going to be fun on a 14 hour plane ride!  We got up around 7:30 and walked down to Bilo’s for our morning chocolate croissant.  After, we went to the Internet shop and for the first time in 2 days we could actually get online!  I checked my email and Facebook quickly and got on the phone with Jason. We chatted for 30 minutes.  This is the last time we can actually talk until I see him at the airport on Sunday! 

My parents had already walked back to the hotel so I walked back alone.  I got in the elevator, hit level 4 and then the electricity went out. With me still in there!   I immediately started imagining plummeting to my death.  It was completely dark (I didn’t know the electricity had gone out at this point) so I started yelling “help” and pounding on the doors.  I heard voices below but they weren’t responding to me so I was getting more worried.  I kept pounding, having no idea what floor I was on, if any.  After a few minutes of this, a housekeeper (looking as frightened as I was) pried open the doors – no I didn’t try that one – and I jumped out on the 4^th floor.  I was about a foot below the actual level.  When I saw her face I burst in to tears and ran immediately to our room. 

My parents had heard the pounding but didn’t realize what it could be.  They were quite concerned when I walked in, in hysterics and tried to calm me down.  My heart finally stopped beating hard about 10 minutes later.  Pretty scary!! 

My moms friend Amsale and her husband picked us up around 12:30 for lunch at their house.  They live in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, that didn’t even exist 30 years ago when my parents lived here. They had a very nice house and we had a yummy traditional lunch with them and their two teenage daughters.

They drove us back to the hotel around 5pm where we took the stairs up!  No more elevators for me!  We walked down to Bilo’s for ice cream, blackberry for me!  We headed back a little after dark to wait until my taxi got there at 9:45.  I check in at 10pm, flight is at 1:15am.  We are going so early because they have decent wifi there!