I am in AFRICA!!!

May 31, 2009 (Sunday)
Cherokee House, Addis Ababa

I have arrived! So, funny story (or GOD STORY) - after getting to Dulles airport in DC I was walking to my gate after getting something to eat and I hear someone say "Are you Sarah Herbert?" It was a girl named Rachel that I had been facebook messaging back and forth for a few weeks , who is also staying at Cherokee House with me. It turns out that she and Blair (another girl also staying at Cherokee House) were supposed to fly out 3 days earlier, but something had happened and they were stuck in D.C. and were supposed to fly out this coming Monday, but had come to the airport hoping to get on an earlier flight. And they got seats on the same flight that I was on! It truly was a "God thing" because I cannot imagine having to go through visa application, immigration, and customs all by myself. It was total craziness. The line for visas was insane and took like 2 hours to go through. Rachel described it best by saying we were like gumballs in a gumball machine, all trying to go through the same little opening (the doorway), though I don't think gumballs would have been as pushy as the people we were crammed up against. Everything went fine though and one of the Cherokee people, Brianna ( I think that's her name...I'll get back to you on that) was there to meet us (though she actually still wasn't expecting me until the next night... another way Rachel and Blair being on my flight was a God thing!!!).

The most exciting thing so far? Being hit on by a big, older, black man while in line for our visas. Apparently I have very nice left handed hand writing and a bunch of other things I couldn't understand, and he wanted the number of where I was going to be staying in Ethiopia. I'm telling you, 21 years in America and I can't get a man, but 1 hour in the Addis Ababa airport and I have one asking for my number. So everything is good and we're just settling in, taking showers and heading to bed. Right now, we're the only guests in the house, but 2 more are coming tomorrow morning and then I believe we are spending the day visiting places together.