It's all part of the adventure!: The many flights home

We are home. I woke up by 4am this morning because my body's time clock is very messed up!

After resting at the guest house in Bamako, Anco took us to the airport. We were there too early (approximately 2 hours early), so they wouldn't let us in. We asked what time they would let us in, and their response was that they didn't know. We noticed several Muslim prayers inside the airport, so I think they were waiting until after prayer time to let us enter. Going through security was pretty easy. I did make a minor error (Andy might not say it was minor). We bought some letter openers at the market, and I meant to put them in the checked luggage, but accidentally forgot. They were in Andy's carry on, and he got pulled out of line for the security officer to go through the bag. The security officer found the two letter openers and even made the motion of jabbing one at Andy. Andy looked helpless, and the officer just threw them away and let Andy through. I think Andy thought he was going to jail for sure. Oops! Also, once again, our last name was spelled incorrectly on our boarding passes, and we still made it through all the checkpoints in Bamako. Once we were back on Delta flights (starting with Dakar to NY), the spelling was correct. Good thing -- pretty sure we wouldn't have gotten through security in the U.S. (or even Dakar) with our names not matching our passports.

We arrived in Dakar, and things got interesting. I don't know what was going on, but there were thousands of people everywhere. It was almost like going through a riot, but it wasn't a riot. We stuck together, walked fast, and had death grips on our luggage. We had to go outside, walk across the parking lot (among all the people), and re-enter a different building. No one tried to take my luggage, but I know someone tried to take Steve's luggage, and I'm not sure about the others. Our team put Rachel and me in the middle. I was behind Adam, and I didn't let him get far from me! We had to push our way through lots of people to get into the next building. At one point, a person was shoving his baggage cart into Jason's ankles, and a child climbed over Jason's luggage and asked Jason to hand him his own luggage. It was a mess!! We made it inside the building, but couldn't check in for about 5 or 6 hours. We found a large area near the check in counters and sat there. Many people played cards to pass the time. Adam watched The Proposal with me on my dvd player while he also played a game of cards (impressive). There were a lot of mosquitos in the building, and they were swarming us. We had to put on bug spray while in the airport. Several of us also fell asleep on the nasty floor. Those that didn't sleep were entertained by a lady who was trying to check in and was arguing with officials for hours! Her three kids kept piling on each other and falling asleep. The restrooms in Dakar were disgusting, but I later realized that American restrooms really aren't much better! The difference was that a woman stayed in the Dakar restrooms and begged for money as you were leaving. Annoying.

Once we were able to check in at Dakar, I was actually impressed with security. We had to go through several checkpoints. First, we were questioned, then we checked our bags and went through security with carry ons (similar to the process in the U.S.), then, before we could enter the area for our gate, we had to go through a checkpoint where someone opened and went through all our carry-ons, and we were also patted down. Security in Dakar was actually tighter than in the U.S., but I think it was because we were going to the U.S. It looked like other people didn't have to go through the final checkpoint that everyone on our flight had to go through.

We arrived in JFK, and everything was back to normal as we went to Minneapolis, and finally to Omaha. I had a hard time feeling like we were in Africa when we arrived in Africa, but I definitely felt like we were in the U.S. on our return.

God was with us during our travels. It seemed like we always would just beat the crowd before our security checkpoints. The line at the final checkpoint in Dakar was very long as we boarded the plane. I know that after we made it through Customs in JFK, the line got so large that there was over a 2 hour wait, and a few people nearly missed their flights (some were on our flight to Minneapolis). Our team made it through Customs within half an hour in JFK. After we left JFK, the weather got very bad and flights out of JFK were delayed by at least 2 hours. All of our flights were basically on time, and if we were delayed, we always seemed to make up time in the air. Plus, we miraculously received all our luggage both going to Mali and coming home.

Oh, one final note. I mentioned that we might be able to visit Sababu on our trip. When we were almost to Bamako on our trip home, I asked Ewien if we'd be able to go by Sababu, and she said they shut down. Sababu would import material, and I guess they are having problems getting material from the Ivory Coast. Eventually, Sababu had to shut down. Pray that the importing issues are resolved, and they are able to re-open. It seems Customs causes a lot of problems because the containers that are sent over from the U.S. often get held up for weeks/months as well.

I still wish I was in Africa, but I guess it's time to get back into my crazy routine. Belle and Sophie (my dogs) were very happy to see us, and I was happy to see them. I have nothing planned for this weekend, which is nice (and unusual).

Many of these pictures are a little blurry because Andy discreetly took them on his phone. They are at the Dakar airport (not supposed to take pictures so none of us got an actual camera out).