under another sun

Woken at around two in the morning by sudden wind and a storm. Shutters on the hotel were banging and unidentified bits were skittering down the corridor blown by the wind from the roof patio nearby. I got out of bed and looked at the sky, and saw it was lit up with lightning, there was the sound of distant thunder but no rain came. Despite pushing every single button in every combination on my air conditioning, an icy blast continued to surge out of it onto the bed all night. I resorted to wearing my fleece, despite the huge heat outside, and my tilly hat to deflect the polar gust on my head. I slept pretty well however, worn out after no sleep the night before. The team hanging about this morning, waiting for our papers to be approved. Then we were driven to the Charity’s office. The streets of N’Djamena seeming chaotic to me, people and cars and scooters wandering about in the lanes. The streets lined with stalls here and there, and cramped shops with hand drawn posters, and p...

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 ...