First days

This is going to be a little choppy because I'm rushing to pack for our early departure tomorrow and need to get some sleep too.

Highlight of the day: Seeing Sandrali and Immaculee!

Thanks to Josh and Harry for making the first leg of my long journey so enjoyable. Josh and Harry were my seat-mates on the flight from Toronto to Amsterdam and made a 7 hr flight feel like an hour.

Josh - originally from Ottawa now lives in Toronto and works for World Vision as a project manager. He kept me entertained with good music and Sudoku. Josh thanks for “sharing” your table with me!

Harry - a young father of four from Guelph was flying to Amsterdam to meet clients. He works in the farming industry and enlightened us with his views on starting a farm in today’s modern economy, and the massive expense of following his dream to become a conscious dairy farmer. Harry lost his brother to ALS 2 weeks ago – thanks again for sharing your story with us Harry.

I love that three strangers can meet on a plane and it feels like you’ve known them your entire life. We solved a lot of the world’s problems that night...over a "few" glasses of wine!

When we landed in Amsterdam, I went with Harry and his friend Brian, also a colleague of Josh’s, went to Harry’s hotel for brunch. It was a great way to pass the 5 hour delay to my next flight.

Thankfully I was able to skip the Nairobi portion of my flight and get a direct flight to Kigali. I was on the inaugural KLM flight which saved me 4 hours of travel time and allowed me to arrive in Kigali at a reasonable hour, which I fully appreciate. When we arrived in Kigali we were met by fire trucks – no there wasn’t a fire. They sprayed water along the plane to welcome KLM to Kigali, Rwandan dancers, media, and about 75 people cheering on the tarmac. I guess it’s a big deal to welcome a new airline.

The bad news – no luggage and it wouldn’t arrive for 24 hrs. Good thing I packed an extra outfit in my carry-on.

I checked into the guest house and caught up with Catherine, my colleague form Toronto who decided to join us on this journey.

First day in Kigali, after a great sleep – thanks melatonin- I woke to the sun shining through my window. I got up, had breakfast and then went back to bed for a quick nap. It was a lazy morning with a visit from Sandrali and Immaculee, friends we met in December. There is something so comforting about coming back to a place and feeling at home and I was so excited to see them.

The rest of the morning was spent getting cell phones, exchanging money and sitting at Bourbon Café for lunch. Bourbon Café is a North American style coffee shop that serves American food and they have WiFi so it makes it an easy virtual office.

Our trip to Kibuye (western side of the country) was delayed by a day because we waited for my luggage to arrive. So at 6am tomorrow (5.5hrs from now) Immacullee’s brother will pick us up and drive us 2hrs west to our hotel, but not before we stop at his coffee plantation for a tour.