Making it back "home"

After two less-than-positive blogs concerning African travel, I figured I owed it to you readers to write a follow-up post on how it all ended. Especially since my former country director wrote in last week's team letter something to the effect of: "Rene and her fiancé, Andrew, were stranded in Accra when security issues prevented their onward journey to Guinea. Not sure where they are now, but pray for God’s protection." Haha!! Well, Bill, and all the rest, I have made it back to the States, against all odds, but of course, not without incident. Wanna hear about it?

So after a couple days of seeking out internet kiosks and buying cell phone credit to communicate with US travel agents, Ghanaian travel agents, and mom's who all were trying to help me coordinate a flight out of Africa. Easier said than done. With less than 24 hrs to spare, I finally managed to book a flight to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and then from there to Paris-->N.Y.-->Charlotte, NC. So on Friday Andrew and I parted ways in the Accra airport while he headed to Bamako, Mali and I back across the ocean. In Ouagadougou I spent a seemingly interminable 8 hr layover in the less-than-accomodating airport. I mean, I've been in my share of developping world airports...and I've never before feared I was contradicting malaria. I bided my time before they allowed me to check in (and thus proceed to the real waiting lounge (with drinks for sale and a television spewing horrible franco-african dance videos) ), by reading, journaling, and rearranging my skirt to guard against the swarms of mosquitoes. After about an hour when the morning flight took off and I'm the lone passenger they switch to low power mode--dimmed lights and no fans. Ok, enough complaining about the torturous time there. On the flight to Paris I got put in the same row as the only (as far as i could tell) American. We had some good conversation which helped both of us stay up to reprogram our body clocks and fight jet lag. Standing in the security line in Paris I was immediately struck by the dearth of bright colors and elaborate patterns of clothing...instead was just a sea of of grayscale. Perhaps that's why people seemed slightly happier around me...I was wearing a patchwork skirt made of vibrant Nigerian cloth and toted a flourescent green carry-on.

ANYWAYS, my 30+ hours of travel from airports to planes continued to slowly break me back into the "developped" world. Climate-control, water fountains, and car seats...all fantastic ideas. When I rolled past customs at JFK, the heart-winning, delight-filling, smile-effecting Grandpa Peter K. Haile was there to greet me. I was grinning from ear to ear as we hugged and he showered subsequent kisses on my cheeks. G'pa had graciously arranged a ride so he could come spend about an hour with me during my layover there at JKF. What a blessing for such a loving face to be one of the first to see as I stepped on American soil! My mom was slightly jealous:)

Though I only had one more short flight left to CHarlotte, NC, I wasn't ready to give up my transient life of waiting in terminals...so I volunteered my seat on the over-booked flight! They offered flight vouchers and I thought, heck, what's another few hours of self-entertainment in this NICE airport (with coushioned seats, bathrooms, magazines, and CNN)?? AND THEN I got upgraded to first-class for the 1st time ever!!! now, it would have been sweet for that to happen on the trans-atlantic flight, but cruising into my homestate in style wasn't bad either. You know how when you board a plane you shuffle past the 1st-class passengers and think to yourself, "It'd be nice to have the dispensible income to afford such a cushy ride. I wonder what this man/woman does?" Well, I totally got those looks and wanted to put a sign up that said, "Not rich, just work for God."

Ok, last fun episode of my journey happend after I collected my backpack and was milling around the baggage claim area. Someone was supposed to be picking me up but I wasn't sure who or if they would know me, though my attire and smell screamed Africa. While I wrestled with the payphone to try to reach someone who might know, this nice lady said, "Hey honey, just use my cell phone." And then this lovely hispanic lady complimented me on my skirt, which led to my giving my schpill about Nigeria and her offering to give me a ride wherever I needed to go! She waited with me outside until my ride rolled around, what a sweet heart! Her as well as a handful of other people and situations i encountered in transit got me thinking that perhaps God wasn't out to just screw up all my plans. I mean, I know He's not, but I had been really disappointed about not seeing Guinea and leaving Andrew early and frustrated about all the time I spent organizing things. Now that I'm on this end of things, I can see God's loving hand guiding and dropping little gems of blessing into my lap.

Right, that was super d duper d long. Sorry! I might have to do a little retroactive blogging about saying goodbye to Nigeria and then some of Andrew's and my fun in Ghana. You don't mind non-chronological blogging, do you?

ps--see link on right for my video summarizing the past 2 years :)