Overall our trip here was more than tolerable. We made it to London without much trouble. The layover in Chicago was short and so we didn't have much time to ponder our changing lives. After a 7 hour flight (in which Grace never slept) we made it safely to London. We were happy to get there early because we had reserved a hotel (named Yotel) in the airport. However, no one in the terminal where we landed had heard of it. After finally finding the reservation on my computer we discovered we needed to be in Terminal 4. When we arrived at the terminal we were told we had to leave the secure area in order to get to the Yotel. This meant going through customs and immigration. Just as we were leaving Kristin realized that we had left our camera bag on the plane. We decided that I would take the kids through customs and to Yotel alone while she went to look for the camera. It took her over 2 hours. Yes they speak english in England but they don't do "american". The kids did all go to sleep which was a great blessing. We thought our flight was at 9pm so we got up and showered and left the hotel at 6. We decided to check in for our flight first since we had to back through security but when we arrived at the ticketing agent we discovered that our flight was at 740 pm. We had to skip supper in order to make it on the plane. If we had stopped for supper before checking in we would have missed our flight.
The flight to Nairobi, Kenya was a little over 8 hours and 3 of the kids slept most of the way. However, Grace watched videos most of the way and did not sleep.
When we arrived in Kenya our flight to Kigali, Rwanda was cancelled due to a strike by the flight attendants. We were told to come back to the desk for re-ticketing at 730 am. This is not an American airport. There was only one line, one attendant and no one in a hurry. (sounds like an American airport) After we were given new tickets for a 1230 pm flight and were told to wait in the transit lounge until the gate was assigned and called. We waited until 1pm before we started asking questions. By the time we were called to the gate it was after 230 pm. We were told every 30 min that our plane would be boarding in 30 minutes. At 4 pm they announced that our flight would be combined with another flight to a different city. We would stop in Kigali and let some passangers off and then the plane would continue on to another country. By 5 pm we were still seated in the gate area. We were finally asked to board the plane and when they announced the gate everyone ran towards the door at the far end of the terminal but just about the time we were able to wake our kids up and move our baggage they announced that the plane would board from a door at the end we were on. We found ourselves at the front of the line. Amazing. Even better than that, we had three men take pity on us and ask to carry our bags. By this time the kids were so wiped out we could not get them awake enough to carry their bags. We had one carry on per kid and four back packs/computer bags and we needed each kid awake to carry a bag or we could not move. These men were awesome. One of them was a man who was coming to Rwanda for the church planting workshop and was a church member in Togo that had been started by the Koonces. God is awesome.
When you fly into Africa you have to deboard on the tarmac without a "jetway". You have to carry your bags down the steps from the jumbo jet and then back up the steps into the airport. So getting back on we had to go down the steps from the gate, to a bus, drive to the plane, walk across the tarmac and then up the steps to the plane. When we got on board the attendant announced that it was open seating since two flights were combined. She said that she expected every in coach to sit in coach and not to go into business class seats. Ha! It was a mad house. people running all over that plane to get good seats. We sat on board for almost 2 hours because their head count did not match the number of boarding passes give out during the day.
We finally arrived to a warm welcome in Kigali. After getting our 12 trunks and 6 bags loaded we headed for the Koonces.
The day we arrived Aaron came down with a fever and over the next day became worse with sore throat. He has strep throat and already had to go on antibiotics.
We have been here 2 and a half days now and the kids just love it. Madelyn (who cried a lot before we left) said it was not what she expected and she feeling better. They have had such a great time with the Koonce and Crowson boys.
Today is our first Sunday and we are looking forward to church with many of the other American missionaries at NTCC (New Testament Church of Christ).
