Big Hugs (Frank López - Tanzania)

June 5th, 2008 – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This is my 2nd morning in the last 12 hours. Now I’m confused. I meet a beautiful Ethiopian woman on the flight from London named Mekdes who ended up scolding me for changing the time and my watch.

“You’ll drive yourself mad!”

Oops.

During our conversation I tell her about the MYTH project. We speak about the apathy and disconnect we experience in the U.S. and England and share stories of how we attempt to break it down. She tells me of how different it is in her birthplace of Adis Ababa and how kind she feels people are all over Africa.

“I went to Kenya with a coworker of mine and we couldn’t believe how friendly people were. We didn’t have transportation and had to ask two guys on the street to drive us to Nairobi. I was very scared at first, but all of a sudden, I trusted them. I still don’t know why. Anyways, my coworker kept in touch with one of the men and ended up getting married to him! And I told her, ‘Are you crazy?!’, but I couldn’t change her mind. She was in love.”

After telling her about my poem, "Love Still Lives" (hear it on our myspace page!), I tell her about our blog site.

“I’m going to write about our conversation Mekdes.”
“Oh how sweet, I’m just sorry that we didn’t speak sooner.”

I extend my hand, but instead she drops her bags and gives me a big hug.

One down, so many more to go.