Travels

From the comfort of a plastic patio chair in an internet cafe in Gitarama, Rwanda I compose the first entry of my online travel journal. 

Flights...

Flying to Calgary was as uneventful as any other one of such flights. Waiting for my international flight I realized I was going to be accompanied by many many people from all over Europe, a very large number of whom were returning home after competing in the World Skills competition in Calgary. On the plane I was seated next to a nice young man from Sweden who was flying home after spending time on behalf of his company at the skills competition. We swapped a couple stories before tuning into some in flight movies (J - I watched the proposal it was everything I expected it to be).

Layover in London could have been better. The airport is very nice but the terminal I was in for the better part of 8 hours was empty for most of that time and I swear everyone kept looking at me as I camped out with my laptop. I was also excited to note that Clinique products are sold in the World Duty Free. There is a very good chance I'll be picking up some of those on my way home :) Heathrow was far less complicated to navigate then I had expected though were my transit from one terminal to another not well signed and assisted by a bus I'm sure it would have been a disaster. 

The Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi found me seated next to a man returning home to Zanzibar. When the plane was loading someone said something and whoever it was sounded sooooo much like Eric that I had to do a major double take. Realizing that clearly Eric would not be on this flight made it click that, hello, I was heading to Africa, and on a Kenyan airways flight so clearly there should be a lot of people on the plane with Kenyan accents!! I watched a biographical show on Fidel Castro and a West African movie that I didn't get to see the end of :( I was soooo sleepy when I got on the plane (I didn't let myself sleep in London as I wanted to do everything in my power to beat jet lag before it started) that I passed out almost immediately and missed the first snack - I hate it when I do that!!!

Layover in Jomo Kenyatta was stressful. I had my booking confirmation with Rwandair for my flight to Kigali but didn't have the actual ticket. After talking with some very helpful customer service agents at the Kenya airways transfer desk they went about setting things straight for me. After a couple hours of doing little more that chewing off what few nails I had left (sorry J) everything was worked out. But not before the guy who was helping me said "You have bags?" with an accent, intonation and facial expression so like that of K.O. (except a little quiteter) that I had to suppress a little chuckle. Pretty sure I sent that guy home with a good "stupid customer"story to entertain his family with.

The last flight, from Nairobi to Kigali, was very pleasant. The plane was nearly empty and the flight attendants were very friendly, having small conversations with nearly everyone. One of them asked me, among other things, "Are all Canadians as tall as you?" to which I just laughed and said no. It occurred to me later that perhaps I should have explained to him that Canadians come in all shapes, sizes and colours. (Aunty Leigh - at no point on any of these flights was I the only white girl. Perhaps times have changed? hahaha)

I arrived at Kigali International a few minutes early and without incident at immigration so I had to wait a few moments before Hannah (intern from UK) and Tina and Alice (AIESECers in Rwanda) were at the airport to meet me. All in all the journey was successful. 

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!