Day 1 - The Trip

Day 1 – The Trip:

12/4/11

As I type, it is currently 2:03 am, Sunday morning. In the states, it’s about 6:00 pm, Saturday evening. I’m typing to the serenading sounds of an oscillating fan that’s sitting about 2 feet away from my bed, and I’m currently surrounded by a mosquito net that hangs from the ceiling. It’s been over 24 hours since we left Charleston.

Yesterday, Darryl showed up at my house around 8:30 am. His car was full with luggage already. I added mine to the mix, then we headed into work. Our morning consisted of answering questions about our trip, how we were feeling, etc…We then took some pictures and left.

As we arrived at the Delta check-in counter, we were concerned about how heavy our bags were. Darryl and I packed 3 military duffel bags full of clothes, soccer balls and a variety of other stuff. They were slammed to the top and flirting with the 50 lb. weight limit. All three were just a few pounds over 50 lbs, but the Delta girl was awesome and let them slide! From that point, it was just Darryl and myself on an epic trip to Uganda.

Our flight route was: Charleston -> Atlanta -> Amsterdam -> Rwanda -> Uganda. We had two long flights, both clocking in at about 8 hours. In both situations, I was in a middle seat. You could imagine how comfortable that was! But, with the help of sporadic naps, on-board movies, games and conversation, I made it out alive. We didn’t hit any delays or problems…until we got to Uganda.

We successfully got our visas and moved to the baggage claim. We loaded up our carts with our bags as they made their way off the plane. The first three came out pretty quickly. We proceeded to wait another 30-45 mins for our last bag. After accepting reality, I got in “line” to file a missing bag. After standing in line for over an hour, I finally filed my claim and we met our driver outside. His name is Shalvin. He waited at the airport for almost four hours, before we arrived. We loaded up our gear into Shalvin’s van and drove about 15 or 20 minutes to the Sunset Motel, where we are staying the night.

f you’ve read this far, you’re probably my mom or dad. If not, then you must be a good friend! Thank you for following along with my trip. I hope to have more exciting things to talk about in the days coming. I am so grateful for everyone’s prayers and support! Please post any questions in the comments below, I’ll try to answer them as often as I can!

Grace and Peace!

Kyle