I started my last blog post in Frankfurt airport over 48-hours ago. It has been truly a thrill to experience a connected world by airplane, online ticketing systems, and even the occasional facebook update through our tiny phones. These massive distances; oceans, desserts, and mountains once represented the very edge of people's imaginations. Today, we are limited only by our circumstances... and I feel humbled by the amazing good fortune of being able to physically connect with this new place. Ethiopia... Africa!!
Heidi and I are sitting in a cafe in downtown Gondar after a long sleep that feels as though it has aligned us with the rhythm of a place that lives eleven hours ahead. Sleep and food; the first, the basic waves that we capture as we move into this new place. The human connections, of course, have started to touch us... people are kind and open and gentle... smiles are sincere and present at every encounter. But it will take more time to feel in human rhythm, I suspect. We are still so foreign and new, something we display beyond the image of our Keen sandals and iPhone cameras. We are learning to return the sincerity... a smile without awe or curiosity. Such joy to learn these rhythms... the traveler's dance!
We are trickling out these communiques over what seems an almost miraculous wi-fi connection in the center of town... the roads are shared by cars, trucks, 'tuk-tuks', people, and livestock. The electrical grid seems hopeful at best. We are off to the Simian Mountains in the morning on a four-day trek. Then back to Gondar to start working: Heidi at the hospital, and me at a charity called 'Link Ethiopia'. I hope to offer another update before leaving, and perhaps a photo or two. But again, this connection feels a bit like a message in a bottle right now... hopeful. Perhaps I will establish a better rhythm with the internet when we get back in town.
Cheers!
