Jane Kurtz -- Trip to Ethiopia - 2007

Getting Ready to Go

Continued

Article index

What Does a Book Do?

Books Offer Adventure

Getting Ready to Go

The Workshop

Nearing the End

Ah, Catie. How simple it had sounded to make sure food, lodging, and transportation were smooth. (“That part will be fun for me,” she’d said.) The reality? LauraP showed up for her red eye flight out of San Francisco and was told that her ticket was going to deposit her in Spain, not Ethiopia. (In the early dawn of the next morning, one flight to the East Coast, and many frantic phone calls later, this information turned out to be false.) Virgin Atlantic and British Airways between them somehow created a gigantic maw that gulped down carefully packed suitcases belonging to Rose and Chris and Carolyn and Kristina. Some of the suitcases held materials for our training. Some never arrived, no matter how many phone calls were made, no matter how many times their owners pointed out they were without clothing, medicine, training supplies. Every day had its glitches and groans: stomach ailments, extra car trips, emergencies and longings and a certain amount of confusion. But Catie kept smiling.

Chris and I created an invisible nanner nanner boo boo tee shirt that we traded back and forth as the amazing hours piled up, as one full day followed another. We were mostly good about saying, “You were right; I was wrong” (unless one of us got to wear the tee shirt too often or too long).

But so much of what we worried about went right. Thirty-eight trainees arrived on time…earlier, in fact, than we ourselves usually managed to make it from the Addis Ababa B&B to Shola Library through streets crowded with early morning cars, people, and animals.

Trainers took turns standing in the front, sharing what we know about books. Eskidar and Selam translated our words into Amharic.

Eskidar was one of our translators.

Selam helped translate our words in Amharic.

(cont inued)

	Getting Ready to Go	Continued
Article index What Does a Book Do? Books Offer Adventure Getting Ready to Go The Workshop Nearing the End
Ah, Catie. How simple it had sounded to make sure food, lodging, and transportation were smooth. (“That part will be fun for me,” she’d said.) The reality? LauraP showed up for her red eye flight out of San Francisco and was told that her ticket was going to deposit her in Spain, not Ethiopia. (In the early dawn of the next morning, one flight to the East Coast, and many frantic phone calls later, this information turned out to be false.) Virgin Atlantic and British Airways between them somehow created a gigantic maw that gulped down carefully packed suitcases belonging to Rose and Chris and Carolyn and Kristina. Some of the suitcases held materials for our training. Some never arrived, no matter how many phone calls were made, no matter how many times their owners pointed out they were without clothing, medicine, training supplies. Every day had its glitches and groans: stomach ailments, extra car trips, emergencies and longings and a certain amount of confusion. But Catie kept smiling.
	Chris and I created an invisible nanner nanner boo boo tee shirt that we traded back and forth as the amazing hours piled up, as one full day followed another. We were mostly good about saying, “You were right; I was wrong” (unless one of us got to wear the tee shirt too often or too long). But so much of what we worried about went right. Thirty-eight trainees arrived on time…earlier, in fact, than we ourselves usually managed to make it from the Addis Ababa B&B to Shola Library through streets crowded with early morning cars, people, and animals.
Trainers took turns standing in the front, sharing what we know about books. Eskidar and Selam translated our words into Amharic.

Eskidar was one of our translators.	Selam helped translate our words in Amharic.