Tell that baby to be QUIET! (News from Rwanda)

We have arrived safely in Kigali and without any major incident. Our first day in Rwanda was quite nice and now that we're on our second night here, I can safely say that we're going to have a great summer.

We left D.C. together on Saturday night (6/6) at 10 PM which was no small feat. Keep in mind that when we booked our tickets back in March, we were forced to travel separately for a portion of the trip. (The joy of using airmiles to fly anywhere.) That might not seem like a big deal to most people but for someone (me, Liz) who finds air travel somewhat anxiety-provoking, it was a challenge. Earlier on the 6th, I spent more than 2 hours on the phone with different airlines to see if there had been cancellations which would allow us to be on the same flight.

The two legs of the trip where we had previously been separated were on Air France. With the devastating and still mysterious crash that Air France had over the Atlantic less than a week before, some seats had opened up.

This airline crash of course, seemed to color our own trans-Atlantic flight. People were clearly edgy. Or maybe they were just irritable and French. It is hard to say. I don't mean to stereotype, but at the same time... there was a certain entitlement espoused by several of the French passengers which would make it east to stereotype. If I were trying to.

Ryan and I were seated together watching everyone else board the flight, when suddenly a commotion sprang up just 6 or 7 rows in front of us. A French man had gotten to his seat only to find out that someone had put a bag in the compartment directly above his assigned seat. (Gasp!)

It was entirely unacceptable to him that he could not store his bags directly overhead, even though the flight attendant showed him an empty space in the overhead bin just one row behind him. But no. He started a mini-rampage that could be heard by everyone in our section of the 777 and certainly the sections on either side of us. The offending bag was removed by its owner and the Frenchman settled into his seat looking disgruntled.

(My thought at the time? Wow, that guy is cranky and ridiculous)

Just as the Frenchman was seated, another commotion arose one row in front of us and to our right. A family of 6 were traveling together and needed the compassion of other passengers. Four of them had two of the three seats on the right side of the plane, and one seat in the middle section of the plane. The challenge? There happened to be an older couple who had the aisle seats which essentially split the family. See below:

What the family proposed was to have the older woman give up her aisle seat and sit next to her husband so that the family could have 3 seats in a row. Yes, they were a family of 6 traveling together spread throughout the plane. 4 of them, the mom and dad were trying to sit together in 3 seats with a 7-year old and a 2-year old on their lap.

The family was pretty staunch in their request and kept begging the old woman to move.

When you think about it, the most positive outcome for ANYONE in this situation is to make the switch. If the couple kept the aisle seats they would have been disrupted most of the night by the family getting up, kids crying, or whatever families do on planes.

But, NO. The older woman, who I will now refer to as the "Crabby Old Woman" or COW for short, was infuriated. "We have been in our seats for a very long time! Why are you just now coming to sit down?" she barked? (She was either unaware that many people were still boarding the flight or simply flailing about a very poor excuse for not wanting to move.)

The haggling went on and on. Finally, the older man, now referred to as the "Crabby Old Man" or COM, said in the most exasperated voice to the mother and father "Well if we DON'T move for you we're going to wind up feeling like hell!"

What he failed to realize, was that his wife, the COW, was going to make everyone around her feel like hell even if they did make the move. It was inevitable. Finally, the COW moved, but not after telling the flight attendants who merely watched the exchange, "Ce n’est pas juste!" and sat down. (Translation: "This is not right/just/fair!")

The COW continued to grumble in her seat, looking for ways that she could assert herself. As the family got settled (and espoused many times their gratitude and thanks to the COW) they family stowed their bag in the overhead bin, where the COW's things remained. The COW shouted "They are crushing my hat! Look at that bag! (then jumping up and hitting the family's bag) That bag is too big for this! Too big!"

The attendants settled that matter but the adventure was not over. Why? Because the very cute 2-year old boy started to cry. And the COW became enraged.

As the safety video played, she screamed (yes, she literally yelled) at the mother. "We switched our seats for you and now your baby is crying. TELL HIM TO STOP CRYING!!!"

At this point, I couldn't help but step in. It is my nature. So, I tried to raise my voice gently enough to be heard by the COW and the COM. "Ma'am, please keep your voice down!" I said. And then myself and another passenger quickly pushed our call buttons to get the attendants on the scene.

There is nothing to raise your heart rate before a flight like having passengers scream at someone right before taxiing. I have never had it happen before but it was enough to make me want to run screaming from the plane. Erratic and volatile behavior does not bode well on a transatlantic flight.

Eventually the COM and COW got moved to seats elsewhere, which worked out quite well for the family. Their 2 other family members took the empty seats. The baby? He slept the entire flight and never made a sound again.

If that weren't enough to make the flight interesting or noteworthy. There was the other crabby Frenchman sitting behind the woman next to me. As soon as she reclined her chair, he began to hit it with his fist. My French lessons didn't prepare me well enough to understand him, but he clearly hated the idea of having an airline seat in his way. Even though that is the norm on any flight. The woman next to me had been living in Paris for the last 3 years. She barked back at him and then turned to me saying "The French. They argue over EVERYthing!"

Think the chaos is over? Nope. About 75% of the way through the flight, the crew all seemed very interested in the lavatory right behind us. Why? Some idiot decided to smoke in there. Can you believe it? Who smokes on an airplane these days? And, by the way, in case you are wondering...if that cigarette had somehow caused a fire on our plane, and the cabin got heated up, you, as a passenger, have roughly 90 seconds to get yourself out of there before you die. And you wonder why I don't like flying?

That particular flight was quite turbulent and I think everyone, including crew, were quite stressed out. It is easy enough to see why. Not only had their very own airline lost a plane in very heavy turbulence 6 days prior, but THIS plane was full of crazy people. Or maybe most of them were just French. (Sorry - I could not resist that stab.)

After landing in Paris, napping for 2 hours, then flying to Amsterdam and wasting another 4 hours, we boarded our flight to Nairobi. We landed in Nairobi and waited for 90 minutes to depart for Kigali. But wait? What is this? We must stop in Burundi first? You'd think that by this time another flight would put me over the edge. But, I even though I was really ready to be done with all of the airline travel it seemed like one more tiny punch in the gut that I could handle. Maybe I'd already been pushed over the edge and thus no longer had the energy to fuss. After all, we'd been traveling for more than 48 hours and hadn't been outdoors or had fresh air since D.C.

Once in Kigali, we were met by two IJM folks who took us to our house to unpack. They said they would return in a few hours to take us to the market and then have dinner. It was hard to stay awake during those hours, as you might imagine. But I did my best to try and get the unpacking started. Everything went well until I came to the bag we'd borrowed from our friends the McWhorters.

They had offered us the key to the suitcase when we left, but figuring that you're not supposed to lock suitcases anymore, we decided to leave it behind. What we hadn't considered was that the lock was an approved TSA lock which they CAN unlock when they decide to search your bag.

Lo and behold, TSA checked only one of our bags. And it was the bag we did not have a key for. And what did TSA kindly do for us after searching the suitcase? They locked it up. Thoughtful, no?

Other than these small adventures, everything has been smooth sailing. Here is a photo of us with Lucy at dinner on our first night in Kigali. That is our kitchen! Maybe when I get back I can upload the video showing the "How to catch a cockroach" tutorial our other IJM friend, Liz, gave us earlier that evening in the very same room.

Wish you were here!