Rwanda Vision Trip: Day 1-2-3!

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OK, so I left Portland on 01-09 at 7:59 in the morning, changed planes in Chicago and arrived in London Heathrow airport 1-1/2 hours late @ 9:30 am. I still had a 9-1/2 hour layover, so I decided to take a risk and go out and see the town. I went through "immigration" and customs, stowed my bag at the "excess baggage" counter and took the elevator down to the London underground or "Tube". It took 1-1/2 hours to get to the Tower of London. I walked around and took some pictures. I did not think I had enough time to go through the tower, so I stopped for a bite to eat and then was back to the underground. I got off at the Westminster station and saw Big Ben, the Eye of London (large Ferris wheel - not in operation that day), and Westminster Abbey, and the house of parliament. I took some pictures of the buildings, new right up against old. I headed back to the Tube to go back to the airport to make sure I had plenty of time. It had snowed a bit while I was walking around the Tower of London.
The flight to Nairobi was delayed about 1-1/2 hours due to not leaving Nairobi for London on time. I left London at 7:00 pm and arrived into Nairobi at 8:00 am on today. The only problem is that my flight left Nairobi for Bujumbura and on to Kigali (Rwanda) at 8:10 and I did not make it. I was able to get a seat on the next flight to Kigali at 12:30. After we all boarded this flight we sat at the "gate" for a while. I say "gate" because you have to walk out onto the tarmac and up a rolling staircase to get onto the plane. After a while, a voice explained that the delay was because they could not lock the cargo door. After about 5-10 minutes more an announcement came on that we had to get off the plane. We sat in the terminal for about 30-45 minutes and then boarded the same exact plane (I had left an H1N1 questionnaire in my seat pocket and it was still there) and we took off and FINALLY landed in Kigali at 2:45 PM (supposed to arrive at 10:30 am).
I was met at the airport by Pastor Simon. We have made some brief contact via phone and email after the flight delay. (Let me just say that I was impressed that I was able to have service on my Verizon BlackBerry in London, Nairobi, and even in Rwanda!) Now was the 3-1/2 hour car ride to go ~ 100 KM to Gisenyi. I even had service on the BlackBerry on the road TO Gisenyi (in the country). I had a hard time staying awake on the drive, and my head kept bobbing forward. Once at Pastor Simone's house we had a great dinner, and then I got settled in to my Rwandese room and went to bed.

The end of day #1 in Rwanda (but days 1, 2, & 3 of my trip!)

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