My Morning-After Recollection of Events

I’ve just read through Mike’s recap of events of our two-day journey, and I want to offer my POV on the situations J

The flight from Amsterdam to Entebbe seemed like the longest flight of my life, including the 20+ hour flight I’ve taken to South Africa. I caught up on sleep, movies and TV shows I’ve missed (27 Dresses was reeeally cute, for the record), and even ate a little (did you know they offered a fruit platter as a special-requests meal?? Perfect for picky eaters like me!), but somehow I still had a few hours to kill. I woke Mike up somewhere over Sudan, which I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled about but I figure as much as we’ve studied the Darfur conflict, it’s pretty crazy to actually see it. (Side note: The in-flight tracking map showed that we went just past the Darfur mountains and I can’t help but wonder if the people below cringe at the sound of a plane flying overhead, because of the countless Antonov bombers that have flown over and destroyed their villages)

FINALLY we began our descent to Entebbe (with a huge lightning storm in the visible distance). I won’t bore you by repeating what Mike has already written about our experience at that airport, but let me just say that “Oh sh*t” is definitely the best way to describe what I was feeling (sorry for the swearing, Mom!), and those few minutes that I had to leave Mike at the X-ray machine were so scary. Every time I saw an airline employee, I kept reminding them that there was someone else coming, and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief when from out my window I saw Mike running to the plane with three carry-ons. Unlike Mike’s experience of a friendly woman apologizing for all the problems, I got yelled at. The man who accompanied me to the plane said “Where have you been?! We’ve been looking for you and everyone is waiting!” so I told him how everyone steered us in the wrong direction, but he scowled at me at kept telling me to hurry up (my short little legs can only go so fast!).

Arrival in Kigali was amazing. You can’t help but get swept up in the history of your surroundings- knowing that where we landed our plane was where all the foreigners were evacuated from the country in 1994, and that UNAMIR had guarded it in the process. I felt like I was in one of the countless movies I’ve seen about the genocide, and I kept getting chills. I’m sure it will sink in even more when we are walking around the city and actually able to see our surroundings.

And Dad, you’d be proud to know that I’m finally utilizing the French I’ve been learning for over 10 years now! See, it’s ok that when I studied abroad it wasn’t in a Francophone country because I’m using it anyway. J When I went through immigration at the airport in Kigali, the guy looking at my passport said “Stéphanie.. that’s a very French name, you know!” so I said “Oui, je sais” and he was impressed and asked me “Ahh, tu parles un peu de francais?” and I told him, in French, that I don’t speak it well but enough to get by. He seemed impressed at least! And I communicated with the cab driver that Mireille got us, who will also be bringing us to the airport again this evening to pick up our lost baggage.

I will write more once we actually go out and are able to experience Rwanda. Miss you all already!!

xoSteph