Successful Return to Africa

After spending an incredible summer in the U.S. visiting friends and family, Lucy and I left New York at 6:30pm on September 1st for our 30 hour return trip to Africa.  Between our reunions, weddings, and book stamping adventures this summer, we had accumulated quite a bit of stuff to take back with us including a home theater projector, camera, 5lbs bag of chocolate chips, and two canisters of garlic salt, among other things.  We successfully packed all of the stuff going back with us into three checked bags (we had six last year) and four carry-ons.

We landed in Amsterdam at 8:00am local time on September 2nd with a layover just long enough to buy a reasonable supply of duty free cheese (remember: no cheese in Africa), pastries, and chocolate and take in a riveting art collection from the Rijksmuseum on Dutch Cows.

In Amsterdam we went our separate ways with Lucy flying straight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (our new home) and me flying to Nairobi and on to Kigali to pick up our stuff that we had left there.  Lucy arrived at 10:30pm local time on September 2nd and settled in at the Swiss Garden Hotel, a bed and breakfast where she had stayed when she first arrived in Dar in January 2006.  I arrived in Kigali at 2:10am local time on September 3rd and am staying at a friend's house where I am staying until I head to Dar sometime this week.

All in all, a stress free trip back, minus almost missing our flight out of New York (who knew it took two hours to get to JFK on a Wednesday afternoon!).  Once again KLM was a pleasure to fly with good food, free drinks, and plenty of entertainment (I watched six movies, Lucy slept).  They also seem to love America!

Today is I think what is known as a Lazy Sunday and I am catching up on email and other things I have been meaning to do.  Since arriving in Kigali, I have met up with a handful of friends, checked in at the Technoserve office, ran with the Kigali Hash House Harriers, and gone to see our seamstresses at Kimironko (they hemmed all my new pants and fixed all my old ones that were ripping for ~$8.00), among other things.

Tomorrow is the Presidential Inauguration in the National Stadium right by our house so that means the whole country will be shut down and people will be celebrating in the streets.  Apparently it hasn't rained since we left but there was a bit of a downpour today so the short rains must be starting.