It must have been 23 years ago.
Dalaro, my cousins summer retreat. The Stockholm archipelago at it’s best. So many memories, so many stories. I was left speechless. It is very curious to me that I am getting older. The memories remains. I will return.
It is nearly impossible to explain life here. What you see, hear and smell transfers poorly onto a picture. Helena spent a week here and we talked quite a bit about what it was like here, and how we perceived it. I worked five of the days when she was here, but she managed anyways. In part due to that she immediately confiscated my friends.
The first day she was here, we went around town. Tried the blue mini buses. Cramped, smelly and lovely. Managed to find our way to the National Museum, where Helena with her blond hair was the biggest attraction. These girls followed us around most of the visit.
We ate at the “Lucy” restaurant, where they have a stuffed donkey and razorblades as decorations.
Then we went back to the Hilton for some Gazebo fun.
I enjoyed spending the day with Helena, reliving my first time here. The culture shock is enormous initially, but she seemed to do ok.
Sunday…. first day off this time. I slept until 730, had breakfast at the cafe. I did some reading at the pool, where I talked to a couple who was here to adopt a three year old orphaned girl. The weather was nice in the morning but now the sun is behind some clouds.
Yesterday afternoon when I came back from work, the lobby was prepared for some festivities. Lots of serving trays, balloons and white linen cloths on the tables. Then there were two carts with six hooks on them. From the hooks hung what appeared to be a whole butchered cow…. mmmm meat…
The festivities was to welcome the European union delegation, that is here to oversee the elections taking place next month.
Stepping of the shuttle and walking into the Hilton, i was greeted several times by staff that recognized me. “Good evening, captain Mathias.”
I checked in, got a room on the fifth floor facing the pool. I had a note from the General manager of the Hilton and a plate of strawberries waiting in my room. It’s good to be treated like this.
I called Jonathan and we decided to meet downstairs in 20 minutes.
A couple of beers, some good conversation and all of a sudden it was midnight. I had now been awake more or less for the last 36 hours. I had to be at work, teaching, the next morning. Time to sleep.
I woke up at 2AM, jet lag sucks. Slept from 4 to 6 and then it was time to get up.
Last time I was here, I did systems ground school for the Q400 and three days of procedures training. This time I had a few other courses to do. The students are either 6-7000 hour B737/B757/B767 First Officers who are doing there upgrade into the Q400 or 200 hour pilots straight out of the Ethiopian Air pilot academy.
The goal of the training is to prepare the First Officers to become Captains of the Q400 and to prepare the Academy pilots to be Q400 First Officers.
The difference in knowledge and experience is large. Selecting the appropriate level of difficulty for every lesson is a challenge. To teach automation to a highly experienced airline pilot and a low time light piston pilot at the same time is quite the challenge.
The students are progressing and I feel confident that I will be able to do the job that I was sent here to do.
I wake up at 6AM every morning. Listening to the city of Addis Ababa waking up with a cup of coffee in my hand is a treat. There are lots of birds chirping and singing as the sun rises, a group of people is using the swimming pool and I am taking it all on from the balcony on the fifth floor.
Breakfast is delivered to my room around 6:15 every morning and the strong, aromatic coffee is absolutely fantastic.
I leave for work at 7:30 and I get back at around 17:30.
I try to workout almost every evening, but one out of three is probably all I do in reality. Jonathan makes sure that we spend adequate time at the bar, and Yohannes is still here to hang out with.
Last night we went to the Sheraton for the music show, the band from Atlanta is still there. One of the German Embassy guys had a farewell party and the Red label was flowing freely. The show was great as usual and Jonathan and CD had a great time.
