Arrival

Her plane arrived 30 minutes early, but J didn't exit the arrivals area
until almost 90 minutes later. Although her flight from Japan to
Ethiopia, via Malaysia and the UAE, went smoothly, at some point they
lost her luggage. She filled out the paperwork and the airport baggage
department will contact us as soon as they find it. However, in the
meantime, we were scheduled to leave Addis Ababa and head south to
Awasa, a city about a 5 hour drive away. I took J back to our hotel and
she had a shower while I ate a quick lunch and contacted our office in
Addis to ask them to contact the baggage department while we were gone,
and then we hopped in the car and were off.
When we arrived in Awasa, night had fallen, but there was a shopping
center across from our hotel that was still open. J only had the clothes
on her back, so we walked over and had a look at their shops. Luckily
she found a nice top, a skirt and some slip-on shoes that she liked. She
changed out of her stretchy, velor pants and a tee-shirt I'd lent her
and transformed into a charming young woman again. With renewed energy
we joined my coworker M for dinner, along with three Japanese volunteers
working in Awasa at vocational and prep schools teaching computers. It
turned out to be quite an eventful arrival for J, but a good time in the
end. I joked with her at the end of the night, "So, are you going to
lose your luggage on purpose from now on so that you can buy a new
outfit upon arrival?" She gave me a smack in the arm, but since she was
smiling a bit, I think I understood the real answer.