Into Chad
As the plane took off from Heathrow I decided to neck a diazepam. This kept me completely calm for the flight, but sadly did not help me sleep. I had invested in one of those neck rests, but it didn’t help much. So spent my flight wide awake and looking at Matty and Steve, next to me, who were dozing like babies. I could see Brad the filmmaker watching movies, and Pete the stills photographer zonked out. A bit galling, though I did get to look out of the window. As we approached Addis Ababa just before dawn I saw the sky flush red above the clouds and we ducked down below a couple of cloud layers to land in Ethopia’s modern airport as the sun was rising. A long wait here, where we found a café and had overpriced cups of tea. The airport rather airporty. Women carrying things on their heads and when I went to the loo rather solid looking men washing their feet in the sinks let you know this was Africa. Ethiopians very fine featured and attractive, but this was a crossing point of many cultures and all kinds of people were here, including quite a few Chinese.
I realised that I had left Lorraine's little pebble heart onboard. A gloomy omen. After some hours we boarded another plane to Chad, on this place I found myself jerking my head as I fell asleep and instantly woke up again. More space on this flight. Lots of Chinese about in Addis Ababa airport and on this plane.
After three and a half hours flight, we disembarked into a very hot day. Like stepping from a plane in Greece but rather warmer. Getting through customs something of a nightmare, and the five of us were shepherded into a room, which I noticed was 29 degrees in the shade. In the corner of the room half a dozen men squatted on their haunches on the floor, and there were two stuffed shirts behind two desks out to make life difficult. Steve was dealing with them admirably, until our local charity man Passiri arrived with an apparently well-known local policewoman and cut through the whole thing like a knife through butter.
Then in cars through the streets of N'Djamena into a busy government compound, where our angleic host took us to stand outside a visa office in a crowded passageway. Lady police officer shaking hands with everyone, and being super friendly which seemed to speed the process up rather. Lots of people milling about, and I felt like I had walked into a movie. Learned later there had been a bomb attack at this compound early in the year.
Eventually driven off, through streets full of soldiers in varieties of camouflage. Everything rather photogenic, but none of it was stuff that could be photographed without attracting unwanted attention. For example, shortly after getting off the plane one Chinese guy took a photo of the plane we’d arrived in, and was instantly surrounded by immigration people angrily demanding his passport.
We find ourselves tonight in the Chinese owned Shanghai Hotel, the great plusses of my room are that it has working air conditioning, and the sheets are clean. On the downside, despite having eight nozzles the shower does not work, so I had to resort to mansized wipes plus washing myself in the sink.
Eventually I had some rest this afternoon, and slept for two hours. Bliss.
We stayed in the hotel tonight, and ate Chinese food, rather surreally, and had a meeting with Passiri, who is coming with us on our travels, and then a long creative meeting discussing all the stuff we need to do while we are here.
Personally feeling fairly relaxed at present. This isn’t like anywhere else I have been. Managed to speak briefly to Lorraine and Mum today. All good. Below some stolen glimpses of Chad. A couple of men strolling down the road. Bugs swarming around a light at night. A few more shots to come but upload times too slow here.
I realised that I had left Lorraine's little pebble heart onboard. A gloomy omen. After some hours we boarded another plane to Chad, on this place I found myself jerking my head as I fell asleep and instantly woke up again. More space on this flight. Lots of Chinese about in Addis Ababa airport and on this plane.
After three and a half hours flight, we disembarked into a very hot day. Like stepping from a plane in Greece but rather warmer. Getting through customs something of a nightmare, and the five of us were shepherded into a room, which I noticed was 29 degrees in the shade. In the corner of the room half a dozen men squatted on their haunches on the floor, and there were two stuffed shirts behind two desks out to make life difficult. Steve was dealing with them admirably, until our local charity man Passiri arrived with an apparently well-known local policewoman and cut through the whole thing like a knife through butter.
Then in cars through the streets of N'Djamena into a busy government compound, where our angleic host took us to stand outside a visa office in a crowded passageway. Lady police officer shaking hands with everyone, and being super friendly which seemed to speed the process up rather. Lots of people milling about, and I felt like I had walked into a movie. Learned later there had been a bomb attack at this compound early in the year.
Eventually driven off, through streets full of soldiers in varieties of camouflage. Everything rather photogenic, but none of it was stuff that could be photographed without attracting unwanted attention. For example, shortly after getting off the plane one Chinese guy took a photo of the plane we’d arrived in, and was instantly surrounded by immigration people angrily demanding his passport.
We find ourselves tonight in the Chinese owned Shanghai Hotel, the great plusses of my room are that it has working air conditioning, and the sheets are clean. On the downside, despite having eight nozzles the shower does not work, so I had to resort to mansized wipes plus washing myself in the sink.
Eventually I had some rest this afternoon, and slept for two hours. Bliss.
We stayed in the hotel tonight, and ate Chinese food, rather surreally, and had a meeting with Passiri, who is coming with us on our travels, and then a long creative meeting discussing all the stuff we need to do while we are here.
Personally feeling fairly relaxed at present. This isn’t like anywhere else I have been. Managed to speak briefly to Lorraine and Mum today. All good. Below some stolen glimpses of Chad. A couple of men strolling down the road. Bugs swarming around a light at night. A few more shots to come but upload times too slow here.
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