Ethiopia Trip Day 3

We woke up very late in the day Dubai time, missing breakfast by far and being almost too late for lunch (although, of course, our hunger clocks were on a totally different schedule than the one our minds were fighting to put our bodies on.) After taking our time getting ready, we headed straight for the pool. Unfortunately, Carsten suddenly didn't feel well and returned to the room, but feeling himself a few hours later, came back out to the beach. Everything was going really well for most of the day- as you can see by the video, we pretty much relaxed beachside except for a short excursion to visit a swelteringly hot public beach and a big mosque. Towards the end of the day, though, Carsten felt sick again, and, although I was in denial at first, I, too, began to feel unwell. I'll spare you the details, but it made for a very unpleasant night for the two of us. The timing, of course, was absolutely perfect- it was the night before we were set to leave for Ethiopia, and the night before we were scheduled to meet Sasha for the first time. My body and mind have never felt in more of a mess ("mess" is such an understatement, but I can't think of the most descriptive word to capture what I was feeling.) You can probably imagine how terrible it was though- we were all extremely jetlagged and sleep-deprived, collapsing from the heat, and emotionally distraught with our upcoming big day, but if you add a very upset stomach that sends you to the bathroom every hour (forcing you to stay awake feeling miserable in between) to the mix- thus leaving you with about three hours of sleep, that being a generous guess, and knowing that you'll have to wake up so early Dubai time that it would still be morning the day before US time- you probably get a good idea of what a "mess" we were in.

I'm not trying to complain, although I think our experience was worthy of complaining at the time. It certainly makes for an interesting story to tell, and I can't wait to tell the rest of it!

The next chapter is of us meeting Sasha for the very first time. Check back next week to read about it! :-)

In case you've missed the first two installments:

Day 1 of Our Ethiopia Trip

Day 2 of Our Ethiopia Trip