Mbóte
Thursday, September 29, 2011It has been a bit of a struggle to get pictures up on the Blog and you all know how I dont like to do a blog without pictures but I was able to get 3 up for you so I thought I would just share anyways ^_^ We have officially been here for 4 days. Wow what a couple days! It has been alot of learning but lots of fun at the same time. First off we had 3 days of travel time. We flew last friday from Edmonton to Toronto with my family who are in Peru right now! Check out their blog if you would like here. It was very nice to be able to have some good time with my family before we left and they left on their trip. And even had lunch with them before they left on their next flight. Then Nick and I got picked up from our good friends Pam and Ron and they brought all of our stuff to a hotel and we stayed over night in Toronto. I had been sick for a couple days before and it seemed to have just got worse this day. So I wasn't very much help when Nick was finishing up all our totes, but everything got all done. (I love my husband! )
The next day, the 24th we went to the airport 6 hours early, but apparently you cant check your bags more then 4 hours in advance just in case any of you are going to go to the airport really early anytime soon lol. But it was good that we went early, we talked to a lady for a while, when you have 11 pieces of luggage it takes a little while to put you in the system. And this was an amazing lady, she actually gave us about 500$ off what we were paying for extra baggage. So after about 3 hours of being there we got everything checked all the way through to the Congo! Wooooo (Other then I found out not long after I accidentally put my headphones in my suitcase)
So at 4pm Toronto time we left for Brussels, which actually had a layover in Montreal, then we got to Brussels at 8am (Brussels time which was 2 am Toronto time) and then at 10 am we left for Kinshasa, which also had a layover in Angola. So we finally got to Kinshasa at about 9 pm Kinshasa time Sunday the 25th (4pm Toronto) So that was a good 3 days of travel. We got off the airplane visited a little bit with a nice fellow from Ireland, and off we went through customs which was quite friendly, then to the crazyist baggage claim I have ever seen in my life! Everyone off this Airbus was crowded around this TINY carousel with carts and trying to get their bags. Haha it was quite the sight, I stood there with the carts while nick got all our stuff. Which thankfully all came and in one piece! Which is very awesome.
Then the craziness started, as I was struggling to push two carts of luggage out of this place, 4 guys decided that they wanted to take all our cartes with our luggage and I was like oohhhhh No Watttt is this legit!? Then this other guy started telling us to put all our stuff on this thing and I didnt know why, and I am trying to tell these 4 guys that I don't want them to push my carts and trying to figure out why this guy wants our stuff and then telling Nick and he has to get rid of these guys which at this time are white knuckled onto our carts. I then could see Ron (Our program manager) through the window, Oh gosh I wish he could have come inside... but ok so Nick figures out that the guy apparently wants to look in our bags, but after he looked in 2 of them this other guy starts yelling at me telling me to leave, that looking in 2 bags was enough, so these 4 guys that still have ahold of our carts start going outside then another guy starts yelling at the guy that told us to leave cause he wanted to look in more or something and I'm just standing there very confused and I look outside and Ron is trying to tell me to just come outside... So out I go, the guys are well on their way pushing our carts to the car and going quite fast as we are trying to keep up. Nick got out stuff back together and is not to far behind.
We got to the car other then one cart falling over nothing got stolen, Ron informed us that we had 'hired' them to take our stuff and he payed them since we didn't have any Congolese money haha... We got in the van, took a breath and started toward our new apartment.
My first impression was of just how many people there were; everywhere. In cars around us, hanging out of taxis, walking in the road, on the side of the road, just tons of people. About 50min on the beautiful roads of the Congo, we got to our new apartment! It was set up and ready for me to go to bed! We brought everything in, got the tour then everyone graciously let us go to sleep!
6 comments
It's wonderful to hear from you & see pictures. FYI - Oct 15th we're conducting a viewing of the video 'Crisis in the Congo'. Our goal is to build awareness of the political situation & pray for the upcoming election.
ReplyDeleteWaiting to see more of your posts.
Dan Bender
So glad you arrived safe and sound! Jocelyn, you are such a good writer! I can't wait to share your experiences with you both vicariously over the intenet. My mom says Africa gets into your soul...xojodi and bruce
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog via the MAF blog. It was very interesting to read your post. Our church just sent a couple from our church to Congo on September 26th. They are in Kinshasa for a few months before heading to Dibaya-Lubwe.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more of your blog and praying for you.
~Cheryl
You guys rule! So glad to hear about your trip and that you've arrived safely...we're still having Friday night BBQ's in ol' Nampa - just with some folks missing:) So good to see you before you left. Keep up the posts!
ReplyDeleteWe (Judy & I) can relate to your first N'Djili experience, having arrived there ourselves for the first time in Nov. 1979. Back then we put our passports in a tiny hole in the wall -- never seeing the person who grabbed them -- and then moved down the wall to another hole where eventually they came back to us with our arrival stamp. Sounds like nothing has changed much in the baggage and customs area. Fortunately, we had a MAF agent who was able to enter the baggage area and assure us that those who were grabbing our bags were "OK". Keep journaling your experiences because after awhile they dim until one reads another's story like I did yours.
ReplyDelete~Rich Olenik
MAF Advocate
Thanks for the update Jocelyn. Your both in my Prayers...God is Good and has great things in store for you both. Aunty Kathy
ReplyDelete