Great trip so far. Actually, a very GREAT trip. Our entire team had a non-eventful trip to Africa. We all met in Seattle and were completely checked in before 8pm. Left Seattle pretty much on time (it seems like a lifetime ago, but was really just 3½ days).
Below is the ONLY picture I am going to be downloading until I return, since it takes too long. This is "the Team" as we met up in Seattle. From the left are: Laura, Sarah, Alex, Phyllis, Angie, Colin, Erica & Betsy.
We were late departing DC by 1½ hours. The flight was completely packed, but I had a great seatmate, which helped make the time go by quickly. Seemed like every 2 or 3 hours they brought us something to eat. And it wasn’t just peanuts, but rather a full-scale meal. Good thing we got off planes when we did, or we’d weigh twice3 as much. Refueled in Rome, Italy….on the ground about an hour.
By the time we arrived in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian’s capital) we thought we were late, as our boarding pass said we should start boarding at 9:45am (and here it was 10:00am already). So we got off the plane, walked up the ramp and found gate 1-A for our Kigali leg. Had to go through X-ray security again….but had to wait because the X-ray guy was in the washroom. Same procedure as earlier – shoes off, laptop out, liquids all on display. Then re-dress, stuff everything back in the bag and wait. Turns out we were boarding the EXACT SAME PLANE as we had just arrived on.
That was great, because it meant that our luggage only had one handling change since leaving Seattle!!
We actually arrived in Kigali almost 2 hours late. Customs was a breeze, then it was downstairs to wait for our luggage. Our plane from Addis was not full at all, so we spread out and each had a full row all to ourselves for the last 2-hour flight. A Kenyan plane landed right before we did, so all of those people were standing around waiting for the luggage as well. I had gotten bright candy-striped ribbon that we put on all of the suitcases, so it was very easy to snatch it as it came down the carousel. Amazingly, all of our luggage arrived. Amon was there to meet us and we crammed everything into the back of a van, we all piled in and headed to our hotel – Chez Rose.
Hotel is actually called a “guest house”. It is very small, with 20 rooms. We have mosquito netting on our beds – tucking it in around our mattress before heading off to sleep at night. Mosquitoes are only a problem at night (why, I don’t know).
First night (which was actually Tuesday night) we went to bed early (like 9pm). I thought for sure that I would zonk out and sleep right through. But no, I was up at 11pm, 2am, 4am & finally up before 6am.
More on next entry.
3 comments:
Oh the silly nuances of international travel. I laughed out loud about you going through security again just to board the same plane! Very smart of you to not only tie brightly colored ribbon on your own suitcase, but the whole group as well. Such a seasoned traveler you are! Glad to hear that everyone's luggage arrived safely and on time. That can be a real downer when you are traveling without your stuff, especially in a place like Rwanda where there isn't a Target around the corner.
And thanks for posting the group photo. It's great to be able to put faces with names.
Yay for you! Yay for nocturanl mosquitos (can you imagine day and night pesky critters?) Yay for the group!
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