Amber Henshaw

Airport rant!

The last two days have been pretty horrific. After almost three weeks in Axum we were due to fly back to Addis on Tuesday morning. Everything was going smoothly - we got to the airport at 8am, checked in and even went through to the "departure lounge" when disaster struck. The plane - a rather flash Boeing 737 - arrived and the ground staff tried to get the steps out but they jammed. After lots of step pushing and shoving they still wouldn't move - the passengers onboard had to climb down a ladder put on a trailer to make it high enough.

To cut a very long and hideous story short-ish we spent 11 hours at the airport on Tuesday as other Addis-bound passengers came and went. We couldn't go on those flights for some reason we had to wait for technicians to arrive and mend the steps - which they couldn't.

At 6.30pm we were sent back to Axum for the night. The next morning it all started again. We went to the airport and waited.....and waited....a flight coming from Addis for us had to be turned back. Other flights - again - came and went.

At about lunchtime it all got too much for me and after shouting at Mr Ethiopian Airlines man I burst into tears. Must be feeling particularly hormonal at the moment! Little good it did - we were sent back to Axum for lunch. The restaurant in the airport has been closed.

We eventually left Axum airport at about 4pm last night - miserable, irritated and exhausted.

When I was thinking about blogging yesterday I was so furious I couldn't think of anything good to have come out of the experience. Ethiopian Airlines failed to tell us what was happening, we never got priority over other passengers and no one apologised until we actually boarded the plane to Addis two days after the ordeal started.

But now I'm back at home and feeling less angry the one thing that was good was the camaraderie with the other passengers. There was a group of women villagers, some other journalists and a couple of Ethiopian/Americans on a pilgrimage - they were all great and helped keep us informed and cheered us along when our spirits were flagging.

Celebrations and jubilations

The third and final part of the Obelisk arrived back in Axum this morning - hurrah!

There were far more people at the airport today - perhaps 400 or so but I've never been particularly good at guessing crowd sizes.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, turned up on a specially chartered Fokker with his wife and a couple of his children.

Other special guests included Richard and Rita Pankhurst who have been long-time campaigners for the Obelisk's return. They both seemed quite choked by the event and the general atmosphere.

The atmopshere was fantastic. After the Antonov had landed there was a concert and speeches just outside the town. Thousands of people were there. It was broadcast live on Ethiopian TV.

And then there was excited mayhem as the three trucks carrying the separate pieces of the monument (had to be transported in chunks because of the weight and the high altitude of Axum) drove through the town to the stelae field where the Obelisk was stolen from.

I watched as they passed and nearly got bowled over as the crowds chased the lorries.

Comedy capers.....

There was such an element of comedy capers about yesterday. We (the small group of about 10 international journalists) had decided to share a mini-bus to the airport together at about 5am because the plane was due to land at 6am ish. A very flamboyant Italian journalist - who had the real McCoy look about him...press cards dangling round his neck and kits draped all over him - said he had organised it all.
We got to his hotel at 5am only to discover he would be down at 5.30am. The bus wasn't quite as organised as we thought but eventually it was sorted out. We got in and then he (flamboyant Italian journo man) came over and said he was going to take a taxi because it was too expensive and that the bus was only going one way anyway. At which point the five or so of us in the bus rushed out and jumped into a very beaten up yellow taxi that went at about 20 miles an hour. By now it was approaching 6am and as time ticked on I was getting quite worried that the Antanov might arrive before we did. On arrival at the airport - the two taxis in convoy - all of us squished into the back had to then show our papers and press cards etc etc blah blah blah......we hadn't been standing on the runway tarmac for more than a few minutes when the plane appeared in the skyline!!! Blimey! And there's two more where that one came from...

The Obelisk has landed....

The silhouette of the plane carrying the first part of the Obelisk appeared over the horizon just before dawn today. The sight of the Antanov 124 in the distance met with applause from the selected onlookers...government ministers, priests and some old soldiers who'd fought the Italians in the 1930s when they had tried to colonise Ethiopia. It was fairly chilly as the huge plane landed - it had to be under 15c for technical reasons. When the plane opened and you saw the Obelisk for the first time it looked like a tiny fish in the stomach of a whale. It took four hours to left it from the plane on to an HGV where it will be kept for the next few days until the other parts arrive. I was so chuffed to see it finally get here after so many days of delay and speculation....I wasn't the only one! Pics and sounds later.

Back in Addis

Back in Addis after a six day Obelisk stake-out. Just as we landed we had a call from a friend saying that it was arriving tonight!!! Marvelous. There are SO many rumours and no one seems to know a thing still - I would be surprised and pretty irritated if it did arrive tonight. More in the morning....

Wot no Obelisk???

The Obelisk's return has been delayed again - this time indefinitely. People here are extremely disappointed....we're sticking around for a day or so with our fingers crossed.

From Axum

Thought I'd better take write an update now that we are in Axum to say that the Obelisk IS now coming back again on Wednesday (April 13th). Just as well - when we told people here yesterday that there might be a 10-day delay they were absolutely crestfallen. But it's all fine so that's a relief. The celebrations to mark its return actually got underway last night when thousands of people paraded through the streets of the small town in northern Ethiopia holding candles and chanting. They walked, ran and some even jumped past the northern stelae field where the Obelisk was stolen from. The atmosphere was fantastic. Everyone does seem really chuffed that it is coming back after so long..it would have been terrible had there been a delay.

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Obstruction and the Obelisk.....

Over the last week or so we've been waiting for a final date for the return of the Obelisk stolen from Ethiopia by Italian invaders in the 1930s. It could be a massive event for Axum (where the stelae was stolen from) and for Ethiopia generally. After much faffing and date changing there was a press conference today held by the Ethiopian Culture Minister Toshoma Toga. Everything seemed totally set in stone...the Obelisk was definitely coming back next Wednesday (April 13th). A few hours later it seems that things aren't quite so sorted on the Italian side and the Obelisk may not come back next week after all. Talk about adding insult to injury.