One night in Addis Ababa

I. Welcome to Addis Ababa

I arrived at Bole International airport at 8:15am and as the speaker in the background thanked us for choosing Ethiopian airways and to enjoy our stay in Addis Ababa, my nerves had started to flair up. Now was the time to find out whether my plan had actually worked or if it was all for naught. I made no deliberate move to get off the plane as soon as it came to a halt as my neighbor was doing. I perfectly understood though, for she had a flight in less than an hour to what was going to be my final destination - Juba, South Sudan.

I had not been quite neighborly in the first 5 hours we had sat next to each other as i was nervous and anxious about my visit, and it was not until the last leg of the journey that i finally initiated small talk that i learnt that she was on a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan and we exchanged contacts which none of us have made use of up to this very day. I finally got up as the flight attendant was making a show of closing the overhead luggage spaces. She smiled at me politely as i asked her in as much as i asked myself if they would allow me to have a transit visa that would allow me to visit a friend for one night before proceeding to my final destination. She said she did not know but there was no harm in trying and wished me a wonderful stay in Addis Ababa. I was going to do more than try, i could not bear the thought of being in the same city as him and not see him even for just a minute.

The woman at the Ethiopian airways check-in booth at Harare International Airport had chastised me for booking my flight with a 30 hour gap transit as i had and she warned me that at Bole they were going to put me in the next available flight to Juba. I quickly brushed off the thought as i walked into the warm airport building, and silently vowed I would see him today come rain come thunder.

Him.

The him whose name I can't bear to write down at this moment in time. I wondered if he had reached the airport already as he had slept quite late keeping me company while i waited for my flight to come to him. When i first asked him if he would love it if i flew in to come see him for his birthday it all seemed but a dream but as they say dreams do come true. I quickly connected to the airport wi-fi which was considerably fast to my pleasant surprise. He had sent messages that he was on his way to the airport and could not wait to see me. I grinned as I imagined him standing at arrivals with a man-boyish grin on his face and the flowers he had said he would get me. When he first got back home, his sister had brought him flowers and he said he had loved the feeling and he would do the same for me one day. I had never gotten flowers before and i had never considered them a need or a want.

"Did you get the flowers," I asked humorously.

"No, I didn't want to be late to meeting you. We will get them together. Welcome to Ethiopia Nana."

I grinned at my phone as i often did when he called me Nana which translates to child/baby and I decided my man was waiting for me at the other end of the terminal and no immigration officer was going to tell me otherwise! I joined the long line with different people from all walks of life who were in transit waiting to be assigned a hotel to relax while waiting for a flight to wherever people go. I noticed that the line was barely moving and after a few enquiries with fellow queuers upfront it turned out the system was down and was taking a few minutes to be fixed. Everyone was suddenly throwing a tantrum towards the officer, a young fleshy lady who reminded me a little bit of myself. All around her were people who had important places to be, and shouted their grievances at her - Arabia men with white long flowing abayas, white people with back packs, sophisticated black women who neither had the time nor the patience all spoke at one in her direction. I stood there in front, watching and sympathizing with her and with them. My man was waiting for me at the end the terminal i had no time to be angry and shout profanities at this poor woman. As she stood aside while an IT personnel worked on her computer, she was suddenly aware of me as i stood there looking, not raising my voice along with the crowd and we shared a brief smile.

I found a corner to sit in to relieve my legs and let my man at the other end of the terminal know about the technical glitch to which he replied that he will be standing out there for the rest of the day if need be and that he cannot believe i am in the same place as he is. Suddenly the technical issue seemed to have been smothered out and i now found myself near the counter by skipping the line. There also seemed to be another problem as the lady in front of me was raising her voice at the poor girl at the counter again, couldn't she catch a break?

"What do you mean i have to pay $70 bucks for a hotel room when i am just transiting? Is it not your duty to provide me with accommodation?"

"Yes, ordinarily we do but there was a flight which is going within 4 hours therefore you must have booked to be on it." She answered in a silent calm voice.

"But that's not my problem, i cant be paying $140 for me and my daughter to stay for these few hours!" She boomed.

From the tone of her voice I recognized her as Kenyan and i also recognized her dilemma as my dilemma. 70 bucks is what it would cost for me to see my man, and i was willing to sacrifice it because you can't put a price tag on love. I use the term sacrifice because as i stood there i had $100 between me and poverty. The same $100 dollars my mother had given to me and had said it was to help me start up in the new country i was going to until i get paid at my new job. And suddenly it was my turn after the Kenyan lady and her daughter begrudgingly paid for their transit and hotel and were told to go wait for the shuttle at the other end of the terminal. Ah! Canaan! The land of milk and my honey. The lady at the counter did not have to ask me twice for my $70, she did not need to explain what it was for, for i was eager to risk it all for the man i loved under the guise of God will provide. As i got my hotel booking itinerary for Bole Sky Hotel and got on the escalators to get my biometrics taken I knew that i would survive with the $30 left in my pocket one way or the other.