Friday –
- 4:47am – Can’t sleep
- 5:35am – Get up
- 6:00am – All packed up, bags outside.
- 6:07am – Load up taxi
- 6:09am – eat really quickly – jam and bread. Final hugs and goodbyes.
- 6:17am – Leave home.
- 6:32am – Arrive at bus station. Say goodbye to Moses.
- 6:56am – Leave the station. Sitting between Brandon and an African man who is almost on my lap. Leg room = zero. This gives me flashbacks to times on the basketball bus when the cheerleaders rode along and we ended up sitting three post players to a seat. Not a pretty picture.
- 7:15am – man beside me drops something between the only tiny crevice there is. It lands on my toe.
- 9:40am – A crazy old African lady gets on who continues to shout behind me for the next 20 mintues.
- 10:02am – Crazy lady is dancing in the aisle before she is escorted off the bus and left on the side of the road.
- 10:28am – Praising the Lord! My friend to the left gets off and I quickly move over so Brandon and I can stretch our legs.
- 11:30am – 9:40pm – Lots of time to hang out in a church with the other teams as we wait for our night bus. Time spent catching up with friends, watching movies, attempting naps, playing Bible trivia, playing guitar, making Google phone calls, eating peanut butter sandwiches, braving the “toilets” and other various activities.
- 10:02pm – Get on bus. Excitement and buzz all over…ready to go!
- 10:07pm – Leave for the border.
- 10:17pm – Arrive at the border of Kenya and Uganda. Mike and Rachel do their thing with logistics. We fill out forms, give our passports and wait.
- 11:37pm – Through the border.
- 11:41pm – Police stop the bus, we have no idea why.
- 11:47pm – Sleep on and off.
- 2:38am – Wake up to lots of lights and a big fountain – Kampala, Uganda.
- 2:47am – Bathroom break for “20 minutes”. A man tries to charge me to use the “toilet” aka a hole in a brick room with spiders, geckos and absolutely zero sanitation. Did I mention there’s no light? (That’s why you always have a headlamp on you or a good friend who will let you mooch theirs once in a while.)
- 2:59am – back on the bus. Remember I have a letter from the wonderful Blair Austin to read!
- 3:39am – Leave the station more than 20 minutes later.
- 7:56am – Gas station for bathroom break/breakfast. Eat a yummy apple, banana and peanut butter.
- 8:40am – leave station, start reading Harry Potter 1.
- 10:16am – attempt a nap.
- 11:15am – reach Uganda/Rwanda border. Let the chaos begin.
- 12:03pm – everyone off the bus to get fingerprints taken. They open up a new line for the 40 of us and tell us to come to the front. We didn’t ask for special treatment but lots of angry Africans think we do. Shouting from many perturbed people.
- 12:33pm – Haggling with a man over exchanging Kenyan shillings for Rwandan Francs. He thinks I’m a moron and leaves out 20,000 Francs after he tries to give me a ripped bill.
- 12:37pm – officially “leave” Uganda. We still have to enter Rwanda.
- 1:07pm – Let the search begin. We have to remove all of our things, including big bags from underneath. We must take out our laptops and give up all of our plastic grocery bags? Then we sit on the side of some random building while two guys ride with the bus to get it scanned.
- 2:17pm – finally back on the bus. Another border worker comes on the bus to check that we’ve had our passports stamped! Seriously?
- 2:25pm – leave. We made it to Rwanda.
- 2:50pm – Finish Harry Potter 1 and start in on number 2.
- 3:58pm – arrive at bus station in Kigali.
- 4:17pm – meet pastor Robert who was waiting for us since 9am.
- 4:22pm – In the bus to go to our new home.
- 5:20pm – reach our destination but there is lots of mud from the rain. We have to walk down a steep hill with our bags. I’m last. I trip and get a bit dirty as my big bag keeps pulling me forward.
- 5:27pm – Pastor Robert welcomes us to his home and we meet Regina, his wife.
- 5:30pm – Pastor Robert washes each of our feet, slaps us on the ankle and shouts “be blessed!”
- 5:35pm – dinner (what was meant to be lunch) is ready.
- 6:00pm – fall onto the mattress. Sleep through tea time.
- 9:00pm – Steph wakes me up for dinner. I have no idea who she is or where I am. Good food follows.
So we are here in Kigali, Rwanda. We’re ready to serve and to celebrate Christmas in a few days!
