We made it! We're here. Safe and Sound.

YES!!!!

We are in the Lammergeyer Hotel in Gonder having Dashen beer and blissfully cold and wet bottled water. After leaving Tuesday morning just before 6, our prop plane (Nicholas, I got you an Ethiopian vomit bag; you're welcome) put down in the Gonder airport this morning (Friday! with our baggage! without diarrhea!) around 9:30.

We took a taxi (15-seater van with historical tour guide) 19km along the one main, paved road through goats, bread-sellers, jumping and excited kids, corrugated metal abodes and shops, amazingly tenuous stick scaffolding with wooden bridges, to the University Guest House where we'll be staying for the month. One of the managers showed us the... door to apartment #5 but, as it turns out, there is a single key and Sonal had taken it to the hospital not knowing if we were arriving today and not having anyone to leave it with as the Reception office was closed.

Excellent things:

• the friendly airport dude in Addis who led us at 03:45 to the domestic terminal and helped us with the Amharik pronunciation we'd been practicing
• that we made it onto a flight to Gonder on stand-by (via Axum and the Simien mountains)
  
• the smell of the air - dusty, breezy, vaguely smoky, a bit floral
• the injira with lentil and jalapeno, traditional coffee ceremony complete with popcorn and grass adornment, and frosty beers we had for lunch
  
• the eventual pity taken upon us by a guest house worker who let us nap in apartment #4 when she found us trying to nap outside in lawn chairs
• the sound of Sonal's voice on Dr. Shitaye's phone from the hospital
• the 31 minutes and 3/5 battery charge left on our Nokia by Matt Sullivan
• the cuteness of the endless supply of children shaking our hands
• seeing Elliott climb up on a dirt pile outside the guest house with 5 stunned, staring little kids
  
• having a weekend to get oriented before work

I'll skip the down-sides of our journey but we're doing great overall. More to follow but here are a few pics from recent sleepy travels.

Leonardo daVinci Express from Rome airport to Metro Termini.

Cairo airport in the middle of the night:










Trying out "kids and pets" mode with the new vending machine camera ("jump around like a kid or a pet"):

More later, my lovelies. Food is here (special tibs!) and we're practicing our numbers.

We're planning to go out tomorrow to Goha Hotel for a 5 (or, perhaps 6) star restaurant meal with panoramic views for Sonal's 30th birthday. It is, in fact, the finest restaurant for no less than 100 miles in any direction. And she deserves only the best. All three of us are having birthdays on this trip so we will dine finely many times!

xo, liz and elliott and sonal