May 27, 2009

Now that I have had some sleep and a shower I feel a bit more put together. The flight was fairly uneventful, but not comfortable. I ended up being the one who got motion sick, not fun. The flight from JFK to Marco was loud, the plane was filled with Arabic speakers and they are not quiet yelling across the plain to each other. The kids just ran around the whole time. I had a little girl behind me that kept kicking the back of my seat for almost the whole 8 hours, a little girl next to mean who screamed from about 9 till about 4 am and a little boy in front of us that kept standing on his seat and talking to us (he was missing his front teeth so there was a gross shower involved each time). We were very happy to get off the plane in Morocco. This was our first steps into Africa. Here we were getting off the plane in the dessert at 7 am it was really bright and sunny we were really unprepared for how cool it was. We were expecting heat to hit us but it was nice a cool. We walked from the plane into the building and followed directions to go directly to transfer. Opps, shouldn’t have done that Art had his guitar taken from him before we got on the plane in NY and he needed to stay behind and get it before going to transfer. After we went though security we found what we thought was our gate, it ended up being the gate for a flight later in the morning from Morocco to NY (no the direction I wanted to be going in). He left us there and headed out to try and figure out how to get his guitar. All in all it took him about 2 hours to get it and then get back to us. We then figured out this was not where we were supposed to be and found a comfy spot to sit and wait till our flight would be posted on the board. We had a 5 ½ hour layer over here so it was a long boring afternoon. We were able to doze on and off for a bit though and that helped not be so incredibly tired. Through all of this, Art’s face was getting more and more swollen and painful.

We got on the plane from Maraca to Brazzaville with no problems and the flight was very quiet. It was nice to have a quiet flight. Art was able to talk with a gentleman from Cameroon for a little bit.

We were not at all prepared physically for getting off the plane in Brazzaville. Joe explained to us how it may be but the heat and humidity was not something you can be ready for without ever actually being here. We got inside and Michael and I just stood by while Art tried to figure out how to fill out the immigration cards for us. Thankfully Adolph was there just like Joe said he would be and able to help get us all situated. We got through immigration and the health check with no problems. Security however was another story. Joe said if you say M’Bote they will leave you alone. NOPE! There was a female guard that was not happy with our 14 pieces of luggage and with all the clothes that we had. We were blessed however and able to get through. It is really scary though to have someone screaming at you in (I think it was French) and not understand a bit of it. Throw on top of it exhaustion, heat and needing a shower and you feel very very lost.

We got out to the truck and who’s there but Paul Ohlin!! Talk about a blessing someone who not only speak English but who we know. He was really helpful in getting everything loaded and then unloaded and getting us to Hotel Bravo. He said he would be back in the morning sometime to talk with us and visit for a little bit. He showed us to our room and left us on our own in the really strange place. There was a note from the family that lives here welcoming us to Congo, along with your Doxy that we needed to start taking immediately.