Be the change you want to see in the world. ~ Ghandi

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

GETTING to HARGEISA – NURSES for EDNA

Although I  left San Francisco on Monday, September 8th, I didn't actually get to Hargeisa until Friday the 13th. I had a horrible time getting here. My connecting flight from Addis to Hargeisa was cancelled. An angry airplane of Somali natives and I were waiting around the airport for hours until they gave us hotel vouchers.

 We stayed overnight in Addis. The next day, still no word on how Ethiopian Air would transport us to Hargeisa. There was talk about a bus ride across the border, or possibly sending us to Djibouti to catch another flight to Hargeisa.

 I walked to town with a new friend and had Ethiopian coffee and used the internet. When we returned to the hotel, we learned the airline would fly us to a border town called Jijiga, and then catch a bus across the Ethiopian border to Hargeisa, Somaliland.

We caught our scheduled flight to Jijiga that afternoon and  were greeted by several vans. We loaded up the vans and began our bumpy drive to the border. It was 6PM and as we neared the border, the driver says, "They closed the border. It is 6:05pm. They close at 6pm." WHAT?!

The airline representative with us put us up in a hotel about 4 minutes away. Hotel? No way. This was a cinder block brothel that converted to a hotel when we arrived. Cardboard covered the ground and the walls were dodgy and dirty. Thank the Lord I got my own room because they were short on rooms. I knew would rather sleep standing than lay on that bed, but. I grabbed my stuff and headed to bed anyway wrapping myself in my towels limiting skin contact with the bed.

Edna and Tom picked me up from the drop off location in Hargeisa the next day – Friday the 13th! When we arrived at the hospital I finally met the rest of the Nurses for Edna team - the lovely Kerra and Kim! We've been sharing plenty of laughs the past few days. We've been teaming up on various projects.



“It's an honor to work alongside such passionate nurses. One Nurse At A Time and Nurses for Edna has shown me what amazing things can happen when ambitious women join forces and work towards something they believe in.” ~ Sarah David


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