Day 2 - Flying to Addis Ababa

Ethiopia Trip Day 2 – Flying to Addis Ababa

Well, friends, here we are, on an airplane again, flying from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had a short stopover in Khartoum, about an hour I would guess and we did not even get off the airplane. Good thing we could move around, both Lori and I needed to move after the 5 and a half hour flight from Frankfurt. Yes, this is Brian writing this time, I hijacked the computer from Lori. ;)
At this point, we have about 48 minutes left in the flight, of which I can probably expect to type for about 18 or so. It is probably a good thing that there is not really a whole lot to tell about today.
We both woke up early…well; I woke up early and ended up waking Lori, too. We both showered and waited a little while before we could go eat breakfast. Breakfast was about the same as any other Holiday Inn Express in Europe that we have stayed at; cold meat and cheese, with bread, some yoghurt and plenty of good coffee. After breakfast, we headed back to our room to repack our “luggage” and head to the airport. I say luggage in quotes because we did not retrieve all of our bags (checked baggage) for the day in Frankfurt; this made it much easier to move around and get in and out of the airport.
At the airport we had to wait for a short while before the security line we were in opened for business. Security was really quick, it usually is in Frankfurt, and we were on our way to the Business Class lounge. We are not traveling Business Class; I have sufficient status with United to be allowed access to Star Alliance Lounges. One of the small perks of my having to travel so much. In the lounge I was completely frustrated by the lady on the phone at Mileage Plus (United frequent flier program) who did not tell me what I wanted to hear at all. The long and short of it is that we will probably not be able to upgrade to Business Class for our return trip to Denver on the 19th/20th. We drank a little coffee, Lori read her book and we played some cribbage in the lounge. She has beaten me every game on this trip. We headed down to the gate about 9:40 to board the plane.
When we told everyone about the adoption, we said that our daughter’s name was going to be Alexa. After careful reflection on the subject, we have decided not to name her Alexa but to keep her name Selamawit. We will call her Sela for short. Sela means rock in Hebrew. This is not how Ethiopians would shorten her name, their way would normally be Selam, but we felt that could invite too much ridicule on the playground and at school. Since we both like the name Sela, that is what we decided on. We decided to keep the name Selamawit because, rather than being named by a monk (like Brendan was), Sela was named by her parents and we feel that it is right to honor their choice and judgment in her name. Her name is also in honor of them as they have both passed away. So, when all is said and done, her full name will be Selamawit Marie Whittam.