The Trip Home: The Endless Journey

Our trip back home was filled with excitement – and a lot of stretching emotionally. We spent the night in Indy at a hotel with Gary and Jean (Jim’s parents) and were able to have supper with them and my mom and dad as well. Tuesday morning – we were up and excited to go. Off we went to the airport, dragging 14 trunks and 10 VERY heavy carry-ons (yes, the boys did have those 10 pounds of cheese). We checked in and went thru security, tripped up for a few minutes by the cheese and some summer sausage, which they let pass) and some peanut butter (which they did not). Thankfully, that was rescued by the Kansas grandparents, who are no doubt enjoying it on toast now. SO much for my in-country breakfast menu. . . .

We hung out and then flew to Atlanta, where we ate a final salad (and drank that last iced tea) at TGIFriday’s and boarded the plane for Brussels. The flight was LONG (about 8 hours) but no one was very tired, since it was only 2 am when we arrived. By this point, I am usually feeling a little punchy. Too little sleep, too much time sitting, too much food at weird hours. . . . We arrived in Brussels at 8:30am (around 2:30 am our body time) and transferred to our gate, passing through security again where we were tripped up for a few minutes by a rope the boys had a the bottom of their backpack (it took a few minutes to verify that it was legal and not a lethal weapon) and some shampoo bottles that had to be measured to verify that they were indeed under 3 ounces. There we sat and slept, blissfully unaware that our baggage was being piled up somewhere and forgotten, since the Indy guy never checked it all the way through, like he was supposed to. (Good thing I am not bitter.)

We boarded the plane for CKY and tried to settle in. By this time, we were definitely tired, but sleep on an airplane is hard to come by. We were seated in front of a very nice Lebanese family with 2 small children. Hannah played with the kids while she was not sleeping. Thankfully, the flight was not super full and we were able to stretch out some. We landed in Dakar to off-load passengers and the pilot reported a problem with one of the generators, but said they had parts and a mechanic there so not to worry. We were on the ground for about 2 ½ hours during which we loaded a few more people and then were off again. The flight into CKY from Dakar is only about an hour and 30 minutes and as we started to make our descent into CKY, the pilot announced that we needed to turn around to Dakar, as the problem had returned and there was no one to fix it in CKY. At that point, there was much frustration, because of being so tired and after 2 weeks of being delayed by visa issues and 30 some hours of traveling, we were 30 minutes from home and we had to turn back. OY!!!

They offloaded us at the airport to “wash our faces and hands and relax in the lounge” while they fixed the problem. It was 7 pm at that point. By 11pm, we were told that the problem was not yet fixed and they were going to feed us and take us to a hotel. So, off we went to the restaurant in the airport – dragging those carry-ons up and down stairs until I thought my arm was going to fall off. They finally found seats for everyone and about 40 minutes later, showed up pushing the carts of airline food – which, frankly was a great option because the one plate of food we saw at the place contained a fish (head and all) and I was fairly certain that I could not face that at 11 something at night. They fed us and then transported us to the hotel.

With every move from place to place, there was much pushing and shoving and jockeying for position. It was a little frightening! The hotel was okay – it had electricity and air conditioning and only a few roaches. We fell into bed exhausted and, except for a quick phone call at 8 am to find out about the flight, we slept until 12:30pm. We got up, had lunch that was provided by the airline and then slept a few more hours. The kids swam, we ate supper and then were off to the airport and left after a fairly short wait.

We arrived in CKY at 11:45 pm in the pouring down rain. We have this part down fairly well by now and have a guy who helps us navigate the airport, so, after customs, Hannah and I waited with the large pile of carry-ons while the guys waited for the trunk. And waited. And waited. Pretty soon the airport was empty – not a good sign. We went to fill out a claim – giving the information to a man not used to using the computer program – so he typed n the information and then deleted it and then typed it in and then took it out. By this time, I was near tears again. There was another man who had his luggage gone through and stuff was stolen. He was told “that happens sometimes – it has happened before.” It was probably a good thing that was not me because I probably would have slugged someone.
Bruce was there to meet us. We arrived at the guesthouse and fell into bed. We were blessed by internet access at the guesthouse that allowed us to send a plea to our HQ and Josie to help with the baggage situation – they were wonderful. Thankfully, they all arrived on Saturday.

When it is all said and down, we are no worse for the wear – and will be a little more cautious in the future about checking bags. We even got to meet that great Lebanese family and we hope to contact them when we come back to CKY the next time. We survived another trip to Africa!!! PTL