Leaving on a jet plane

It’s around 4pm on Saturday afternoon and I’m cruising through the sky at 927km/h at an altitude of 10,058.  The air temperature outside is a chilly -48.0 degrees Celcius, yet the cabin of the plane is only slightly chillier than is comfortable.  When you break it down and think about it, the entire idea of a simple transatlantic plane flight boggles the mind.

It has been an incredibly frenetic past few days.  The lead-up to a big departure like this one always is, but this was an especially ridiculous mixture of appointments and errands, punctuated with some really fantastic quality time spent with friends, family and loved ones.  At the end of the day though, everything came together and I made my flight.  I have actually really been looking forward to a 17 hour chance to pause, catch my breath, and take a personal inventory in the calm, transitory junction between unemployed schmuck-titude and working stiff-titude.

My flight is packed with children, and families it seems.  I may be reading farther into this than I should, but given the enthusiasm and volume with which parents seem to be gleefully playing with their kids, I expect that I like Indonesia and Thailand, Ethiopia is a country that highly prizes children.  Also, despite being on a Boeing 777 with loads of other passengers, many more people than I would expect seem to know each other.  There were so many warm greetings in the check-in line with people exchanging hugs, hearty back slaps and handshakes.  Again, I don’t want to read too far into anything up front (strongly held assumptions can be so limiting, especially when trying to learn about a new culture and environment) but I have the suspicion that personal social networks play an integral role in daily life in Ethiopia.  I quietly made a note that focusing on building my own personal network, both socially and professionally, will be an important thing to focus on in my first few months. 

With the best of intentions I borrowed a friends library card a few weeks ago and spent three hours digging through the stacks at the University of Toronto Library for everything I could find on the agricultural sector, teff, political history, and rural economics in Ethiopia.  Then, I convinced a friend to head up to the cottage with me for a few days of solid reading/literature review.  I got through less of the material than I had hoped to, but it served as a decent primer.  Current reading goals are to learn more about the nature and sociopolitical legacy of the massive famine that took place there in the late 70s and 80s.

It’s getting dark.  My computer says it’s supposed to be 4:30 PM in Toronto, but we’re just about to pass over England on an arcing route south toward the equator and I should probably try to get some sleep.  Jet lag is going to be loads of fun to deal with, I can tell already.  I’ve also got quite a few documents still to go through regarding organizational policy, protocol, and the onboarding process in general to familiarize myself with what to expect starting at work on Monday.

For now, main goals for this week are to remain grounded and to roll with the initial integration-punches while staying focussed, organized, and on-task my first week. I am braced for the initial high of excitement at the novelty of landing in a new place and beginning to establish myself but want to try to maintain a healthy amount of perspective and try to see things as clearly as I can starting out. Lofty goals? Perhaps, but what’s the harm in aiming high.  I’m incredibly excited to begin.