We discovered another priviledge that people in developed countries take for granted.....direct flights (or even semi direct). Both teams left Abuja Friday morning at the crack of dawn to make our 8:30 am flight. Our next stop is Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which is another city in a different country within Africa. Seems pretty straight forward, right? Well imagine trying to get from LA to NYC via the North Pole and Toronto. That's basically what we did for the last 36 hours. This was necessary to keep us out of Lagos in the Nigerian delta, where the kidnappings take place. We had to go from Abuja to London to Dubai and finally made it here to Dar this afternoon. We are a little punchy from doing the airport/security march. London lived up to being the busiest international airport in the world. Remind me not to fly through London anytime soon!
Our last night in Nigeria, a couple of the local guys from the office took us to a bush bar for dinner. It was basically a restaurant in a park setting. You pick between fish, chicken or beef and then they grill it wrapped in foil over open coals and bring it to your table. It was good, but really spicy. The two guys we were with knew a group of people next to our table (there were 7 non Nigerians in our group). They were all laughing and joking about how much ransom our group would be worth if we were in the delta region, I think they said 300 million Nira…then Augustin pipes up & says…hey, were worth more than that. I’m like..shut up…don’t give anybody any ideas. The guys we went with were great. The one has 2 boys and his goal is to bring them up in American or British schools and then send them to an American University. The other guy is the project manager for Sister Geraldine’s hospital.
The hotel in Dar is much better than what we had in Nigeria. We now have warm water AND enough pressure to get the water out of the shower head. One of the senior management program directors came to greet us tonight, so we just had dinner here at the hotel. He's from Oklahoma of all places...Bixby (a different suburb in Tulsa) and has alot of family in Broken Arrow. I'm still convinced God keeps flashing Oklahoma in my face to let me know you all are thinking of me...especially John, Nate & Bailey. I can't remember if I mentioned in one of my previous entries that a TV program in Nigeria listed sponsorship by an organization in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I had it on, wasn't watching it, but just happened to glance at the TV about the time that scrolled across the screen.
My cold from Indonesia came back, so I have a nasty cough and haven't been feeling so hot the last few days. I need to get over this so it doesn't slow me down next week. We really need to be productive at work this week since our connectivity in Nigeria was so challenging. We may even run into that here. That's my prayer request for the week. Appreciate it.
I miss you all very much. I'm running on fumes and off to bed. Good night
GO ROCKIES!!!
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2 comments:
Morning Jen,
WOW Everything you write about sounds so interesting. I hope you are feeling better.
I had a very busy weekend helping Steph move into her new house. We got a lot done for her in a day and a half. She still has to get her furniture from the ranch but it will be a nice home for her and Colton. Colton calls me GA (gaugh)
so that made me happy.
WOW The Rockies are 1 win away from going to the world series. We play tonight at 8 and Denver is hoping for a sweep. It has been exciting!! GO ROCKIES.
Mom Bob and I are going to the WY Air Force game this Saturday with Craig and Beckie.
Have a good week!
Stay safe.
You write very well.
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