I have been in Ethiopia for two days now, and so far the trip is not off to a spectacular start. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris three hours ahead of my flight to a "line" of more than 100 people waiting to check in. My bag was, of course, over the allowed weight, so I had to transfer half of it into a new bag, which is fun to do in front of many of angry people.
At that point we had to go to a weigh station to have our carry on bag weighed. The airline has enforced a limit of 7kilos/15lbs per passenger. My bag weighed in at 30kilos/67lbs, so we had to get supervisor to approve it. After that, security told me my carabiners (rock climbing clips I use to attach my cameras to my bags in the field) could be used as weapons and sent me back to check them in. I had already checked two bags, and a third would cost 50€, so the supervisor asked another passenger to put them in his bag and give them to be at baggage claim in Ethiopia.
It was an all-night flight and I sat with my big legs tucked in the fetal position, unable to sleep for the duration. Upon arrival in Addis Ababa, I waited two hours for the guy with my stuff in his bag, and still have no idea where he and my stuff ended up. I found a crappy little hotel in the city center and slept for 16 hours, woke up and began my quest to find internet access. The $100 modem I used in Kenya is now obsolete and replaced by one that costs $140. Another $30 is needed to set up service and then it's 10 cents per minute to use it. All of this was frustrating, but when I found out that the $250 cash I had just up and vanished from my pocket, I was beyond upset.I have a lot of experience traveling, and like to think I am fairly wise to the way things work in most places. But I haven't the slightest idea how someone could have gotten $250 (which is more than 20 Ethiopian bills, a large wad) out of my front velcro pocket without me knowing! My only guess is the share taxi I was in (picture about 15 packed into a minivan, almost sitting on top of each other) must have had the pickpocket placed right next me.
I must say that it is really frustrating to get robbed in a country you have come to photograph in. To go somewhere to show what the local population is living through, and then be robbed by one of them, is a bit of a bummer. I am smart enough to know that this happens everywhere in the world, and I am sure that the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians would never do such a thing, but it happened and it is frustrating.
Anyway, it is back to work. I will begin my photography here in Addis Adabad in the coming days, focusing on the lives of the poorest of the poor as well as childrens' issues. I also hope to do some work on AIDS here, although the government is not so happy with the presence of journalists here, so what I am able to do may come down to how well I am able to avoid the police and slip under the radar. Next week I will be traveling to some remote regions to do pro bono work for the International Rescue Committee, documenting the lives of refugees living in their camps.
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