February 27, 2009
Finally made it to Kigali, Rwanda!
Dear loved ones,
Well…we finally made it to Kigali, Rwanda! What a looooooonnnnnngggg trip. We left Dallas Tuesday evening and arrived Rwanda Friday afternoon! I have a lot to catch you up on since I sent the last email.
Thursday morning we flew out of the gorgeous Heathrow airport to Nairobi. Steve was able to use his frequent flier points to get me upgraded to first class (the other women did the same thing.) Oh my goodness!!!! What an experience. I’m almost embarrassed to describe it…aren’t I supposed to be on a mission trip?! First of all, the British Airways First Class lounge was decadent. So beautiful and with little platters of pastries and tiny shot glasses of fruit smoothies (my favorite) scattered about. First I ordered Earl Grey tea since I was in England, after all. Then I ordered a cappuccino. (I know this is way too much detail but everything was so special…even the coffee…it looked like something out of a magazine.)
Then we boarded the flight and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven (or at the very least, I was flying on this plane to get there.) The flight attendant asked me if I would like a pair of pajamas! Yes, she really did! Of course, I did! (On a sad note, I accidentally left them on the plane when we landed. L) I then switched seats so I could sit across from the other women. I was on the left side window. Marilyn was on my right in the middle, with Luci to her right, and then Mary on the other side of the plane by the window
(I just realized that I have two days to catch up on and at this rate of detail I will have nothing to write about tomorrow except…”I wrote an update email to you.” I will scale back on the verbosity.) Dinner was a four-course delight. My favorites were the assortment of tiny appetizers. And dessert was some kind of apricot/almond scrumptiousness.
After dinner, I had “turn down service!” Truly. The flight attendant, fixed my seat into a full blown bed complete with a mattress pad on the bottom and fluffy comforter. While she fixed my bed, I changed into my new pjs, complete with velour slippers and eye mask. I took a two-hour nap and dreamed the most colorful, complicated and significant dream ever. When I woke up, I told Marilyn my dream and she “shrunk” me, which led to the most delicious two-hour conversation. It was even yummier than the dessert and cozier than the new pajamas.
The flight attendant informed us that it was time for High Tea. She suggested that Marilyn and I could fix our trays and seats so that we could share ours and have our own little tea party. Oh my goodness!!!! Everything was delectable. All of us agreed that this was our favorite part of the whole flight. After tea, I changed back into my clothes and nestled into my seat to read some more of my book until we landed.
We were all grateful for the rest and refreshment…little did we know that we were going to need all of that fuel to make it through the next many hours. We arrived Nairobi and immediately ran into roadblocks. We were stuck at the airport until after midnight as Mary valiantly did all she could to fix every problem. Needless to say, we missed our connection to Rwanda. But, as Chuck Swindoll says, “God is not almost sovereign.”
While I was sitting in one area of the airport talking to Luci and watching the bags, and while Mary was juggling details, Marilyn was being Marilyn and meeting people and asking them if they knew Jesus. The young man who was helping Mary from British Airways asked Marilyn why we came to Africa. Marilyn explained that we were working with World Vision. This wonderful 20-year-old boy exclaimed, “Oh, they saved my life!” Come to find out, his parents both died of AIDS when he was 14. His younger brother became a sponsored child and since World Vision helps the entire family, this boy, “Sospeter,” was also sent to high school to get an education. He graduated and took a two-year tourism course and has changed the direction of this family tree for generations to come. He was remarkable.
He helped get us to a hotel in town. (That sentence sounds so benign considering this, in itself, was a two-hour ordeal.) We finally all piled into to the van that looked like something you would find abandoned on the side of the road and prayed that the men driving us were not taking us somewhere to steal our almonds and Tootsie Pops from our suitcases and discard us by the side of the road. They turned out to be just what they said they were, very nice and helpful men, and we pulled up to a lovely hotel.
But the drama didn’t end there. It didn’t end until almost two o’clock in the morning when we finally all gave Mary all the cash we each had and paid the bill up front. 4 hours later, we were meeting downstairs in the lobby to eat breakfast and head back to the airport. Sweet Sospeter was there waiting for us even though it was his day off. He helped us get through all the myriad of lines and forms and luggage issues (turns out Kenya Air didn’t care that the 20 pounds of candy were for the children of Rwanda…our luggage was too heavy and we would need to find a solution.) We stuffed candy and snacks in all available pockets , including my pillow case, and made it through to the gate.
We hugged Sospeter goodbye and Mary handed him a tip. His eyes filled with tears and he said, “Oh no. This is the least I can do. You saved my life. I will not take that money. I am doing this to thank you and God and please tell World Vision that I want to help anyone who ever comes through this airport. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.” I asked him if we could at least pray for him and ask God to bless him in ways that our measly money couldn’t touch anyway. He agreed and as I said Amen, he looked up from our little impromptu prayer circle, and he had the sweetest, most grateful tears in his eyes. We all lost it. And we all knew that this had been a divine interruption.
We boarded the plane and Marilyn and I had another deep conversation high in the sky. (I consider these wonderful connections such a personal gift from my Father who knows exactly the way to my heart.) Flying into Rwanda, I was surprised at how green and beautiful the land is. We were met at the airport by the World Vision representative and taken to our hotel. We immediately met for lunch but it was all I could do not to fall asleep in my (very foreign tasting) meal. I had to excuse myself a little early and go to my room and take a nap. I so didn’t want to get out of bed two hours later but I knew I had to or I’d be up all night. So…here I am now, writing to you and counting down the minutes until I can get back in that bed and get back to sleep. By the way, it is eight hours later here.
We will be here for two more days and my plan is to write each night. After that, we will be in the villages for a couple of days and, of course, there won’t be any Internet service. But I will write again before we leave to come home on Wednesday.
I am so grateful for this opportunity and my life has already been changed and enriched but it does come at a cost…I miss my family very much. It is so hard not being able to talk to them on the phone. I pray the days go slow enough to soak up the moments and fast enough to outrun the ache of being away from the ones I love.
God is so big,
Me
P.S. I attached some pictures, too.
| Click on this picture to see more pictures from the day! |
If you are interested in learning more about World Vision and the possibility of changing a child’s life forever, then click here. | ||
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Posted by weblion at 06:29 PM
