Philadelphia

I made it back safely on Wednesday night at about midnight. The trip was very long (about 50 hours total) and rather eventful. The first thing that happened is that my bags were too heavy. So I had to split them up into a box at Addis airport. Then when I got to London I had an 18 hour layover, as I previously talked about. My flight from London to Frankfurt was delayed one hour, so I missed my connecting flight to Philadelphia. They got me on the next plane out, 4 hours later, which would take me to Philadelphia via Toronto and I was scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm. Then when I got to Toronto I found out that my bags were missing, so I had to go on ahead...but that flight was also delayed, just over an hour. When I got to Philly my bags were not there and I had to fill out a form. They brought them to my house last night. So, all is well with that.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about Ethiopia since I got back. It's nice to be back with friends, hearing about their past month and talking about mine. But I still feel as if I'm missing a part of me, the part I left in Ethiopia. I've had email contact with a few of my friends over there already, so that's been nice. I feel more distant from my own culture than I have on other trips, I guess I really did become part Ethiopian while I was there.
So, needless to say, it will be a long process for me to deal with this trip, deal with missing my friends there, deal with not knowing when I'll be back...etc.
The good news is that I know I'm going back, even if I don't know when. I know that I'll move there someday, though I don't know when that will be either. So, as hard as it is to be apart from all of my friends and family there, I can rest in the knowledge that I will see them again in the not too distant future.

Thank you all for reading this, for your prayers and your interest in this trip. It was wonderful. It was a blessing. And I feel honored to have been given the chance to do this.

If you're interested in looking at some pictures you can find them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DanButera/EthiopiaSummer2007
Unfortunately not all the pictures explain themselves and I didn't take the time to put captions on them. I will try to find the time to take a few of the pictures, put them on this blog and tell the stories behind them. So, check back if you're interested.

Also, I brought back a ton of coffee (well not literally a ton, only 90 pounds). If you're interested in purchasing some, that would be great considering I still need to pay for some of the trip. I'll sell it for $15 per 1/2 kilo (just over 1 pound). It's really phenomenal coffee (I won't be selling all of it because it's my stash until I get back to Ethiopia). It's a wonderful dark roast, Italian style - made with Ethiopian coffee beans, of course. The brand is Abol Buna. Which means First Coffee. They have a coffee ceremony that they do, often after meals or in the afternoon. This usually involves fresh roasting the coffee, crushing it by hand somehow and brewing it. They brew the same grounds 3 times, the honored guests get the first brew. This is what Abol Buna means. The first brew of the coffee ceremony.

Thanks again everyone.
Dehna hun, dehna huni.