The Adventure Has Begun

I arrived safe and sound in Kigali, Rwanda and have already unpacked in my hotel. I'm staying here at the Novotel http://www.novotel.com/novotel/fichehotel/gb/nov/3410/fiche_hotel.shtml, which thankfully has wireless internet in my room. Yay!

Not surprisingly, it was quite a journey getting here. When I was dropped off at Washington Dulles yesterday at 11:30A (thanks Clare!) I waited in line for 25 minutes only to find out at the check-in counter that my tickets were never purchased by the CDC. They had of course approved my trip at the last minute on Friday, but someone forgot to press "purchase now" or something. After a number of frantic calls I was able to reach the right people who quickly bought my tickets So much for the government saving money! I don't even want to know what a same-day ticket to Rwanda costs. I rushed to the gate only to find out that the flight was delayed 2.5 hours. That was only going to leave me 25 minutes in JFK to go from terminal 2 to terminal 8. When I called the CDC back they of course couldn't switch me to the more direct flight from Washington DC to Brussels because it was too expensive. Now they worry about cost! ha. So Delta put me near the front of the plane and amazingly I was able to navigate the JFK airport (which is a mess by the way) and run to my international flight which was already completed boarded when I arrived, but then we sat on the tarmac for an hour. Ugh! Good thing I packed a relatively light carry-on backpack. I slept most of that 7 hour flight trying to acclamate to the new time zone. I had a short layover in Brussels and boarded the next 7 hour flight (with a quick stop in Kenya) ending in Kigali.

Interestingly, on this flight I was seated next to the current US Ambassador in Rwanda. He remembered me and for a moment I thought he would refer to the goats from my last visit! He did mention he remembered that I organized the visit for the HHS delegation and had worked on the CDC budget planning. He mentioned some brief updates about the US programs in Rwanda and that he will leave Rwanda in 3 weeks to go work in Washington DC. I din't ask who will replace him. I guess I will find out more tomorrow. I will be picked up by the driver for work tomorrow at 8AM, which is 2AM ET! yikes. Better go to sleep if I can...