Day 12 for Porter in Ethiopia

Hello all!
The good news is that Clare and I are back safe and sound from our whirlwind trip to Bahir Dar (day 8), Gondar (day 9), Lalibela (day 10) and Aksum (day 11).
We had an awesome guide, Solomon, who made the whole thing easy and fun. We learned a ton, walked a ton, saw a ton, and feel totally happily exhausted from the tour. I took a gazillion photos and will bore you all with them later.
I can see now why people say it is important to get out of Addis, and I have to agree – Addis is not Ethiopia and Ethiopia is not Addis. I’m not saying I understand the whole of Ethiopia now, certainly. But just seeing the Northern part of the country has vastly improved my understanding of the place and of the people. I can’t wait to go South to Awassa to see yet another part of the country.
The bad news is that today was supposed to be my Embassy appointment, and it had to be rescheduled. The U.S. Embassy here STILL does not have my paperwork, which is incredible given the amount of work happening and phone calls and emails and everything else going on. It was originally sent to them last summer, but they never received it. The trick is to get the National Visa Center in the U.S. to resend the cable to the Embassy here. They have promised to do so. Several times. But so far, no results…
(And yes, for those of you paying attention, my original Embassy date was to be Thursday, the 20th – which is tomorrow. But, it got bumped to today, Wednesday, because Thursday is a holiday here (Mohammed’s birthday) and the Embassy is closed. All the Thursday appointments got moved up to Wednesday. This was problematic anyway, as I would have had to find a way to get back to Addis a day early from the tour up North, and there were no flights available. I’ll spare you the drama, but suffice to say that we were in the process of chartering a flight from Lalibela back to Addis in order to make it in time, but then heard that the paperwork is still missing, so there was no point in doing that.)
Anyway, my appointment is now Monday, which – with luck – will give us just enough time to have Elsa’s visa issued, pick it up on Wednesday, and fly out that night. That is really cutting it close, but we don’t have much choice at this point. I am choosing to believe that it will all work out.
So, it’s now Wednesday evening – we got back a few hours ago and have checked back in to the Sheraton – happier that you can imagine to have air conditioning, a bathroom with toilet paper, clean sheets, and a bathtub.
Everything I brought with me is disgustingly dirty, and I’ve quarantined it all to go to the laundry. Clare is taking a nap, having finally succumbed (last night in Aksum) to a bit of the elevation sickness that I was feeling throughout the trip… we had just gotten used to Addis elevation then went up! (Not so smart I guess… it was worth it, though - I’d do it again in a minute!)
The other good news is that I’ve taken a hot bath and washed my hair and sitting in a comfy chair next to my open balcony doors overlooking the fountain courtyard to a view the city and Meskel Square, while the sun sinks slowly into the murky haze of the horizon.
Tomorrow morning I will go and see my daughter again – hoping that she hasn’t forgotten me. I’m pretty sure that my four days’ absence hasn’t caused her any distress, but I do hope very much that I get the same smile I got the last time I visited – one that looked like she actually knew who I was.