3:45 am, Saturday July 11th... Leah and I roll out of our beds. Thankfully most of our stuff was all together to grab and walk down the block to meet the guys at the Servant's of the Word house. The taxi was right on time and we easily made it to the airport.
We stood in a long line for a quiet a while, until we got pulled out because we'd done online check in. After that it went smoothly checking our bags and getting through security. Sadly Dallas had his peanut butter taken from him.
Some got coffee or breakfast, and we chilled in the airport until we boarded. Flying to Amsterdam takes about an hour. Flying over the Netherlands was cool.. you can see all the dikes!
We had a quick stop over in Amsterdam. It was odd because they have security at every gate. We couldn't figure out if it would save money or not. For the flight to Nairobi I sat next to Mark, with Leah on the other side of him. PM and Dallas were elsewhere.
Flying over the Sahara was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! It was over 3.5 hours over the desert! And there were farms... and mountains. It was amazing. I have a rather chilling story about that as well, but it's not the type you post on a blog. Feel free to ask me when you see me.
The flight was over 8 hours... the last hour and some I always get antsy. So I went and talked to PM for a while.
Once in Nairobi we had some time. We were all tired, so we walked the length of the terminal we were in several time and then found a spot to camp out. Mark and I both slept some on the floor, the rest of just talked and read. The boarding calls were a bit confusing... so we went to our gate and once again were routed around the line and into the security area. Apparently our flight was before the others.
While in line we found Martin! Martin is a member of the Servants of the Word, a group of single for the Lord men. He was going to Uganda for 2 weeks to work with the community that we also were going to serve with. His roll was very different than ours... we were running a conference. He was helping the conference center (Emmaus Community) to develop. However, he was an invaluable help for the whole time we were there.
Once through the not so secure security we waited in a big room with a lot of other people. After a bit, Martin went to check that we were in the right place. We were't ... we just crossed to another connected room and walked out to our plane.
It was my first time standing on African ground!!! :D (We weren't allowed to take pictures in Kenya's airport)
It was late by now... I think we got onto the plane to Entebbe, Uganda at 10:30 pm. We'd been up since 4 am! But PM and I managed to have a great conversation as we flew to Uganda... another short flight.
Once in Uganda the five of us stuck together and got our visas as a group. It took a little extra long because they had a swine flu health check before going through immigration. Immigration was a breeze... just give them $50 and they let you in the country!
We met up with Martin again at baggage and everything came through! Some things were stolen from our luggage... but it could have been much worst than it was.
As we were walking out of the baggage area Martin turns to me and said "So Noelle, you made it"
I looked over at him, did a little dance (which Leah and Mark had to witness on the plane) and I said
"Martin, I feel like I've come home to a place I've never been." And that was the truth.
We came out, stood for two seconds, and then suddenly there were arms around us, hugging us, grabbing our bags, and welcoming us to Uganda.
10 of us piled into a mini bus taxi and we were off.
At 2 am we were in our room in the Emmaus Center, Uganda.
(We flew KLM/Kenya Airways... AMAZING!!)
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