In the Congo…Safe and Sound!! (Part 1)

 Well, today is a rest day for us! We traveled for 36 hours and are pretty exhausted. In retrospect, things went about as smoothly as one could expect for such a trip. Within about two hours of our first leg to Brussels, I had a minor bout with claustrophobia…(it only happens to me when I get in tight places! Lol). I got up and walked around…prayed my ABC prayer (I remind myself of a quality of God for each letter of the alphabet!), and was ok within one half hour. I know that your prayers were also effective, too. That’s why it is so important to be praying, one never knows what you will encounter.

          The Brussels leg to Luanda, Angola, was 8 hours and was even more grueling…after having just done 8 hours. I had a crying baby right behind me, kicking my seat. Did I ever tell you how patient I am about crying babies??? We landed in Luanda, spent an hour on the tarmac, and then completed our journey to Kinshasa an hour later.

          The Kinshasa airport was another matter!! Since none of us spoke French, we had some difficulty in even knowing what to do. There was enough broken English to get us through. When we found the luggage place, there was this diminutive man with a sign held high with “Rev Ausley +2 pass.!! I broke out into a full smile and thought, “this might work after all”!

          Then organized chaos broke out…with emphasis more on “chaos” than “organized”. Picture 300 Africans, Tim, Gordon, and I trying to get our luggage on a 50 foot conveyor belt!! The entire conveyor belt was packed 5-7 people deep. I did have a picture of it, but the stern young man who confronted me made me delete it from my camera!!! I had to show him pictures of our wives at Ruby Tuesday’s before he believed that I had deleted all pictures. I was just glad to keep my phone (note to self: no pictures in the airport!!).

          Two hours later, with all our luggage, we made it to the Methodist Presbyterian House. Taxi guy didn’t speak English but he knew where he was going, so that worked out too! Wired and full of adrenaline, I stayed up until 1am communicating with Lisa on Facebook. Also, talked with Andrew Griffin in Guatemala on Facebook! Nothing like wireless Internet in the guest house. Finally fell asleep inside my mosquito net on a queen size bed! Glad to be safe and here.

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