TIA

TIA stands for "This is Africa".  It's a term Barton and I learned while recently watching the movie Blood Diamond, with Leo Dicaprio.  The term essentially means that nothing is easy in Africa and what can go wrong probably will.  Well- TIA! Now, bear in mind I am not drawing the comparison that our trip is similar to Leo's character who was smuggling priceless blood diamonds through the war-torn countryside of Sierra Leone.  I recognize that we are only trying to smuggle politcally correct babydolls, crayons, coloring books and the occasional Kung Fu Panda DVD into a relatively happy and stable Rwanda- But you get my point....

So, upon arrival into Amsterdam, we discovered our flight that evening into Nairobi, didn't exist- or is called a Ghost Reservation.  I'm still not sure what that means, but I did understand that it wasn't happening.  Our rather unfriendly Dutch reservationist was able to squeeze us onto another flight that left about 1.5 hours later into Nairobi.  This killed our day in Amsterdam, which I think disappointed Barton, and left us arriving in Nairobi last night and spending the night to leave the next morning (today).  Of course, we had no where to stay and I was soured to Nairobi last year during that whole tribal war debacle where I was almost stranded in the airport for days during their tribal conflicts last year (see old emails).  In addition, Nairobi has earned the loving name "Nai-robbery" for it's reputation towards petty theft.  Nonetheless, we flew in last night and managed to actually have a lovely experience staying at the Hilton.  So far so good!

Our biggest concern at this point is that we have no idea where our bags are...but we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will appear at the airport in Kigali.  Hope y'all enjoyed your holidays and vacation time with your families.  More soon!