Wednesday, October 15th : On a plane from Stockholm to Addis Ababa
Mr. P and my last minute “tax-free” candy gift shopping for all the important gatekeeper people that we might need to make like us.
The last thing I see of Sweden: rain.
I’m exhausted. It’s like all the air is gone, all substance sucked out of me as soon as the plane left the ground. I was planning to do stuff, maybe read a bit, write a little, but I simply cant seem to focus.
The plane is small. We’re stopping in Vienna to refuel. That’s how small it is. I can’t think now. I’ll watch some Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince instead.
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Thursday, October 16th : At Bole International Airport
Our flight to Ouagadougou is delayed for almost an hour. Our flight from Stockholm/Vienna was early. There is a lot of time to kill. I didn’t sleep much on the flight, for the obvious reason that I was sitting in an airplane chair, but also because of the stop in Vienna and that they didn’t serve dinner until midnight. I watched some Harry Potter, and then I fell in and out of sleep.
The descent to Addis Ababa was incredible. So green, and mountaineous, with a patchwork of fields. Morning was coming in a pink sunrise.
Just a couple of days ago, I had a meeting with an old remote sensing teacher of mine about my project, and a very similar project that he was about to become part of with some researchers from the human geography and ecology departments. That project is in Ethiopia, and Marcus, the teacher, jokingly said that I should go to Ethiopia as well, while I’m at it, to do some groundtruthing for him too. I almost said I actually could, seeing as I’m already planning to stay in Ethiopia for a week or two on my way back home. Why not, right, when the plane is already stopping there. But I didn’t say that. I didn’t want to seem too eager.
From this vantage point, though, it seemed like a really appealing place to go groundtruthing in. All that greenery will probably have gotten brown around the edges in two months time when I get back, though.
Now, they’re saying we have to go confirm our seat at the gate. The plane is overbooked. Let’s see if we make it all the way to Ouagadougou.
Katja Malmborg 