My first adventure in Rwanda, getting lost at the airport.

So I finally arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on Saturday at about 8:00 am Rwandan time, 1:00 am Central Standard time. I should mention that I am not a good airplane sleeper, it seems like every time I would fall asleep someone would come by and serve me dinner, so I just gave up on the practice all together. It taking 2 days to arrive in Rwanda from Texas, by the time I finally did reach I hadn’t slept in about a day and half, I was tired. Now the trip itself was relatively problem free, so much so I was in disbelief, usually the flights are delayed or I miss a connection, that was not the case, notice I said relatively

My only problem came when I reached the airport. Arriving at the airport I was told that there would be someone to greet me and take me to the city where I would be living, I didn’t find that to be the case. A normal person would have freaked out. I can understand how arriving in a strange country with no prior knowledge of your contacts and no numbers with which to reach them would cause some to turn around and fly back home. Remember I once bummed a hundred dollars off a random Australian; I have been in worse situations. Playing it cool I waited and used the airport internet to send emails to anyone and everyone who wanted to know that there was a very tired person wearing a blue shirt and Khaki pants at the airport…. I actually did describe myself like that in one of my emails; exhaustion will allow you to do funny things. Upon sending my emails I found a bench at the airport restaurant and dosed off for a few hours. Waking four hours later and realizing no one has come for me, I decided it was time to find a hotel room with a phone and wait this situation out, not the card I wanted to play, but the safest bet at the time.

Kids don’t try this at home, really when traveling to a foreign country it’s not wise to let the locals dictate the price going into the transaction, for example you should try and have concept of what a fair price is for a taxi cab and one night in a hotel room would cost, I did not and probably over paid.

Upon booking the hotel at the airport taxi stand, my only requirements were, bed, cheap, safe and internet so I could have a life line. That’s exactly what I got; what I hope was cheap room, with one bed and a working internet cable, as far as safe the door barley locked but it was good enough for my purposes. Arriving at the hotel I continued my barrage of emails until finally Mike ( god bless him) the other intern in country replied back and said that the people responsible for collecting me thought I was arriving from Germany at 8 that night. So there was confusion in the schedule. I have done that, it’s an easy mistake to make, I am willing to forgive that, life goes on.

In his email he provided me with the number for Julius the driver responsible for collecting me. Now, the phone in my room could only accept incoming calls and not place outgoing calls, just my luck. Approaching the front desk, I asked to borrow a phone; apparently the only phone in the hotel that makes local calls is the personal cell phone of the young lady manning the desk and guess what it was out of minuets. In order for me to use this phone I first had to buy a phone card, which I probably overpaid for, but it’s all part of the adventure and makes for a good blog, so I just rolled with it. Finally getting an opportunity to call Julius, I soon began to get a taste, of things I will be learning while in country… namely French. Calling the driver I quickly realized that he spoke French and I didn’t. While he speaks good enough English I only understood about half of the conversation.We communicated well enough that he knew where my room was and that he would be by to collect me shortly. At that point I just wanted the day to end and my direction to be pointed more towards the city in which I will spend the summer, I told the girl at the front desk who is now my best friend to use her cell phone and call him when Julius arrived. An hour later he arrived.

When Julius, arrived he was very apologetic showing me that the schedule he had was in fact misprinted, at that point it was already water under the bridge, Julius suggested that I sleep a few more hours in the room since I paid for it and called him when I was ready to leave town, under normal circumstances maybe, however, these circumstances were far from normal. While I was extremely worn out, the only sleeping I would do was in his jeep on my way to Butare, the city in which I will be spending my summer.