We left off in Dulles, on the bus for immigration...
How long had we been up at this point? The 9 hours we lost on the way over, we were re-living on the way home. Remember, the flight left at night, so we'd been up all day...then basically all night with some naps...and landed at 9AM in the morning, 17 hours after leaving Addis.
Atsede & Kebrom were not happy to be getting onto a bus, where we were crowded & sitting again. Come to think of it, Paul wasn't happy either, downright irked. Then, the bus started moving & at least Kebrom was riding in another mahkeenah!!
We waiting for everyone else to exit, to gather all of our carryon's & children, and have I mentioned, God bless Dawn & Bernie as they were constantly picking up a bag we seemed to lack the arms to carry!!
We had our sealed immigration envelopes we'd been given in Addis, ready to present. And the immigrations officer was very kind...looking at passports, children, us. We thought we were through.
We were so wrong. After immigration, claim all the luggage. Thankfully, there were carts!! We'd get it loaded, Kebrom would try to drive off, a bag would fall off, Atsede would fuss as she wanted Rahael...did I mention we were sleep deprived, sweaty, STRESSED? We get into line at customs & watch eveyone else happily cleared through. The customs agent could be on the list for the grouchiest/meanest people ever, and declared because we had beef jerky snacks for the children, we had to enter another line. He would not entertain any questions, just barked, LINE A & wrote all over our customs sheet. We waited in that line, knowing Dawn, Bernie, Tedros & Rahael were heading to their gate, not sure if we'd see them. We waited, not understanding why were in this line. The children were being horrible. In fact, an Ethiopian man chewed Kebrom out in Tigrinia & believe me, we didn't understand him, but Kebrom did and he hung his head & slunk over to Paul, hanging onto Paul's leg.
We finally got to the front of the customs line, I thrust my bag of sealed Oberto beef jerky packages & promptly burst into tears. The agent looked at me with big eyes, female agent is telling me not to cry (did no good at this point), and I pointed to Mr. Mean Customs Agent, and tattled on him. We were assured we didn't need to be in that line for our sealed beef jerky, he cleared our forms & we were able to bypass yet another xray machine.
Now, we go through closed doors, kids are really acting up. Can they tell we couldn't do little about it, while carrying all those carryons, driving the cart with all the suitcases? We're wondering, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? When they cry, they are loud, they go limp which makes them nearly impossible to carry. And to think, we'd been worried about their physical health!!
We check our bags, completely forgetting to take out the clean shirts we'd so carefully packed for ourselves in an outside pocket. We're handed our stroller, which IMMEDIATELY caused loud rioting on the part of the children. We cross over to get our boarding passes, and beg the lady behind the counter to pitch the stroller. Throw the stroller? She says. YES we beg, please, they're fighting over it, and we must have had a desparate look, because away it went.
Off we go, to find out we must board a train, with humming children, one step away from full tantrums. We get off the train, make it to yet another line, for security AGAIN. By this time, I didn't care what I looked like, just wanted to find a safe place...security gently asks me to take off my case. I ripped it off. Paul & Kebrom made it through. Atsede made it through. I beeped. Shoot, forgot my hair clip. I ripped it out of my hair, handed it to the man & stomped back through. Now, no beep, he hands me back my hair clip.
Seriously, Dulles must have the nicest TSA employees, or I was so terrifying to look at by the point, they were afraid of me...but they helped me get my cast back on, get all our shoes, carryons...and we we were off again, in search of our gate.
It felt like we lived a life time of tantrums between exiting the plane & now. And we were only in DC, before lunch, and would not be landing in Missoula anytime soon.
Atsede & Kebrom were not happy to be getting onto a bus, where we were crowded & sitting again. Come to think of it, Paul wasn't happy either, downright irked. Then, the bus started moving & at least Kebrom was riding in another mahkeenah!!
We waiting for everyone else to exit, to gather all of our carryon's & children, and have I mentioned, God bless Dawn & Bernie as they were constantly picking up a bag we seemed to lack the arms to carry!!
We had our sealed immigration envelopes we'd been given in Addis, ready to present. And the immigrations officer was very kind...looking at passports, children, us. We thought we were through.
We were so wrong. After immigration, claim all the luggage. Thankfully, there were carts!! We'd get it loaded, Kebrom would try to drive off, a bag would fall off, Atsede would fuss as she wanted Rahael...did I mention we were sleep deprived, sweaty, STRESSED? We get into line at customs & watch eveyone else happily cleared through. The customs agent could be on the list for the grouchiest/meanest people ever, and declared because we had beef jerky snacks for the children, we had to enter another line. He would not entertain any questions, just barked, LINE A & wrote all over our customs sheet. We waited in that line, knowing Dawn, Bernie, Tedros & Rahael were heading to their gate, not sure if we'd see them. We waited, not understanding why were in this line. The children were being horrible. In fact, an Ethiopian man chewed Kebrom out in Tigrinia & believe me, we didn't understand him, but Kebrom did and he hung his head & slunk over to Paul, hanging onto Paul's leg.
We finally got to the front of the customs line, I thrust my bag of sealed Oberto beef jerky packages & promptly burst into tears. The agent looked at me with big eyes, female agent is telling me not to cry (did no good at this point), and I pointed to Mr. Mean Customs Agent, and tattled on him. We were assured we didn't need to be in that line for our sealed beef jerky, he cleared our forms & we were able to bypass yet another xray machine.
Now, we go through closed doors, kids are really acting up. Can they tell we couldn't do little about it, while carrying all those carryons, driving the cart with all the suitcases? We're wondering, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? When they cry, they are loud, they go limp which makes them nearly impossible to carry. And to think, we'd been worried about their physical health!!
We check our bags, completely forgetting to take out the clean shirts we'd so carefully packed for ourselves in an outside pocket. We're handed our stroller, which IMMEDIATELY caused loud rioting on the part of the children. We cross over to get our boarding passes, and beg the lady behind the counter to pitch the stroller. Throw the stroller? She says. YES we beg, please, they're fighting over it, and we must have had a desparate look, because away it went.
Off we go, to find out we must board a train, with humming children, one step away from full tantrums. We get off the train, make it to yet another line, for security AGAIN. By this time, I didn't care what I looked like, just wanted to find a safe place...security gently asks me to take off my case. I ripped it off. Paul & Kebrom made it through. Atsede made it through. I beeped. Shoot, forgot my hair clip. I ripped it out of my hair, handed it to the man & stomped back through. Now, no beep, he hands me back my hair clip.
Seriously, Dulles must have the nicest TSA employees, or I was so terrifying to look at by the point, they were afraid of me...but they helped me get my cast back on, get all our shoes, carryons...and we we were off again, in search of our gate.
It felt like we lived a life time of tantrums between exiting the plane & now. And we were only in DC, before lunch, and would not be landing in Missoula anytime soon.
Wow. Congrats on making it home in one piece!
ReplyDeleteHuh. I read the blog and I find so many things I did not know! You would think that you would tell your favorite blonde haired blue eyed daughter these things but no! It's good that you guys let me on here! =) Love you! Missed you!
ReplyDelete-Kyra