Waking up in Africa

It seems surreal waking up in Africa. I really can't believe that we are here after all the planning over the last couple of months. 

I just had to ask Joe what day it is. It's Thursday, April 21. Lost a day coming. 

I'm not sure what to say about the trip here. The flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was very good. We were on a newer airplane that stayed cool, had a place to plug in our headphones, and had decent sized seats. We left Atlanta at 5:40. Had dinner of ravioli, salad, bread, wine, and dessert. After dinner I thought I would try to sleep but that didn't work. We had nice little personal screens to watch movies, tv shows, the flight tracker of our plane as well as lots of music to listen to. I thought I would watch a movie but fell asleep and hardly saw any. 

Breakfast of a blueberry crumb cake, vanilla Greek yogurt, a slice of cheese, and OJ was served about 1 1/2 hours out of Amsterdam. 

When we arrived in Amsterdam, we heard that the temperature was in the 30s. 

Our flight from Amsterdam to Kigali was on KLM and left at 11AM. Older plane so the seats were smaller and the tv screens were not as nice. There were about 100 empty seats so the flight crew encouraged people to move to other seats. Katherine moved up to row 13 while Joe and I stayed where we were. That left Joe with an extra seat. I was on a row of 4 seats and only one other person. Before I knew it the man on my row was lying down over 3 seats - so much for extra room. 

For lunch we had sweet and sour chicken with rice (not so good), slaw which was pretty good, roll with butter, and dessert. 

Thought I would go back and watch the movie I fell asleep watching. Well, I fell sleep again. I am going to watch it sometime! It sounds like I slept a lot of the flights but I really didn't. 

Arrived in Kigali around 7:15PM Wednesday. No customs. Paid $30 each for Visa. Didn't have to show our yellow fever card. Very easy process. Got our luggage and headed out to find Rachel. 

There she was standing. It was hard not to cry when I saw her. 

She got a taxi for us. Imagine a small, older Camry - four Hills, driver, 4 very full suitcases, 4 backpacks. Joe sat in the front seat with his bag in his lap. 

Kigali is very hilly - looks like mountains to those who live in the flatlands. 

Rachel got us rooms at Centre Saint Paul which is the guesthouse for the diocese of Rwanda. Each bed has a mosquito net over it so that was a new experience last night. 

Plans for today include exchanging money, buying pillows, going to a store that has olive oil and other things that Rachel wants. We will have breakfast with a Rwandan Peace Corps employee who is a friend of Rachel's. This afternoon we head to Kayenzi via a small bus where Chesie will have dinner for us. 

Joe and Katherine in front of plane in Kigali.