The crazy first 48 hrs

Well, we finally made it to Rwanda. Finally. We’ve got a great story if you’re willing to read until the end, a story of mishaps, our journey through five countries and what was supposed to be 3 flights that turned into 6 flights, all in the 48 hours since we left the Dallas airport.

First let’s start with the first steps we took getting out of the car at Terminal E (which is the Terminal for Delta) at the DFW airport. We were told that we actually needed to be at Terminal D, which made no sense to us since we had Delta tickets. So the first of many battles began as we tried to figure out why we had been moved to Terminal D. Simply trusting the Delta representative behind the counter we hopped on a tram that would take us across the airport to Terminal D. Upon arriving at Terminal D, we stood in line for about 30 minutes only to reach the point of checking our bags to find out that there were problems with our reservations. When I (Maegan) booked our tickets, the man misspelled Jessika’s name the first time, and apparently never cancelled the first reservations. So instead of having 3 reservations for 3 flights, we had 6 reservations for 6 flights. So the ticket he printed for us was not a valid ticket, and that is why it said Delta on it instead of KLM. After an hour of working on the ticket situation, we find out that because of the mistake, our tickets that included seat reservation had been cancelled and we no longer had seats together. We decided that we would not be upset and we would get through security and go on with our mission. So we grabbed dinner at McDonald’s and went to sit down to wait for our flight. Upon arrival at the gate however, we find out that our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. So we finally board the plane and a kind gentleman allowed us to switch seats so that we could sit next to each other. Praise God, the tide was turning, we had hope.

We arrived at Amsterdam only an hour late which was no problem for us because we had a 13 hour layover. We rented lockers to put luggage in, so that going into Amsterdam we could just take one purse. We got everything in our lockers, got through customs, got stamps on our passports (Whoop) and just as we walk through customs, Jessika remembers that she forgot the map in the locker that she bought specifically for this one day in Amsterdam. As we left the airport we found it to be much colder than the weatherman had predicted, and raining. Both of us still trying not to get frustrated, we headed to the train station where we purchased our roundtrip tickets out to Harlem so Jessika could finally visit Corrie Ten Boom’s house, one of her biggest hero’s. The significance of this, is that when I went to purchase our plane tickets months in advance, I made sure to have the long layover in Amsterdam, just for the purpose of this house visit for Jess. We arrive in Harlem and immediately love the small streets and historic buildings, Jess is like a small child on Christmas morning as we get closer and closer to the house. We did however notice that the streets were strangely silent. As we approach the museum/house, we find that no lights are on, doors are locked and everything is deserted. We hang out trying to figure out what’s going on, when an older couple happens upon us. We ask them if it’s a holiday and the man exclaims, “Yes, it’s the day they celebrate Jesus ascending to Heaven!” Oh man, Jess’ dream of seeing Corrie Ten Boom’s house that day were crushed in an instant. She was extremely disappointed but settled for walking down the streets photographing surroundings that Corrie had talked about in her books. Freezing cold, we decided to admit defeat and get back on the train toward Amsterdam. Across the street from the train station, we found a small café (not coffee shop) that was warm and served Dutch pancakes and coffee. Finally, there seemed to be hope that things were turning around. We waited for our pancakes for almost an hour before I finally realized how long it’d been and went to inquire. As it turns out, they forgot to put our order in. Awesome. But once we finally got our coffee and pancakes, the tiredness and coldness seemed to fade away. Until we walked back outside to find out that the rain had picked up while we were inside. We figured out that Anne Frank and Van Gogh’s museum’s were on the opposite side of town, and we were much too tired to walk that far. So we began walking around town, taking pictures of buildings and just generally observing everyday life in Amsterdam. We came across Madame Tussaud’s and decided we were there, we had the money, why not go inside and check it out. (It’s a wax museum of celebrities and well known world leaders). Expecting a leisure walk through the museum, we were faced instead with the history of Amsterdam, which doesn’t seem bad, but included “the dark years,” aka, a haunted house. Let’s just say I was less than amused and by the end, had a heart rate that seemed as if I had just run a race, not walked through a museum. The rest of the museum was enjoyable but by the end we decided we were so exhausted that we just wanted to get back to the airport. We had 5 hours until our plane was scheduled to depart, but we knew our bodies couldn’t handle much more. We sat down on the train headed to Schipol airport, only to hear that the train had been cancelled and would not be going. So we waited and got on the next scheduled train out. After sitting down, this train was cancelled as well. We find out that an accident had happened on the line, and no trains were departing from Amsterdam Central and going to Schipol. We found out that there was another way to get to the airport by train, but instead of taking the fifteen minutes it was supposed to take, it would take an hour. We really had no choice, we could either stay in the cold at the train station, or we could get inside the warm train and ride for an hour. On the train ride we got to see the tulips that we’d heard so much about and they were definitely beautiful. We made it to the airport 2 hours later, but still early since we had decided to leave so early in the first place. It was almost a blessing in disguise that we decided to go early. We had an uneventful hour in the airport, and loaded up to head to Nairobi, Kenya.

We get to Kenya and find out that there is a stop during out flight in Burundi which was never on our ticket and something we knew nothing about. We had a window and middle seat in a row of three. Jess sat next to the window, and I was lucky enough to sit in the middle, right next to a woman that cared very little how much of my personal space she took up, or how much her elbows, arms, and blanket connected with my body. It was rather interesting trying to be nice to her and having a cold shoulder and a couple jabs in the ribs (quite literally) in return. We landed in Burundi and the people staying began exiting the plane so the people that would be departing with us could join. Well, the flight was overbooked, but no one realized it until everyone was boarded on the plane, with their stuff already stowed beneath. And so began the process of getting some people off, as well as finding their cargo and retrieving it as well. We finally leave Burundi heading toward our final destination, Kigali, and only an hour late. The flight is much more bumpy and filled with turbulence than the previous flights, but I was so excited that it didn’t even affect me. Plus, the overbearing woman was replaced by an older man that had a deep love for literature and an uncanny ability to recite many, many things from a clearly fantastic memory. It was a much better flight indeed. Until we began to notice that as we descended, the light outside our windows also began to fade, and it turned darker and darker outside. Next thing we know, the pilot tells us that the weather in Kigali is too bad, so we will be returning to Burundi for an hour or so and then we should try again to go to Kigali. It was during this trip back to Burundi for our waiting period that I began to feel sick for the first time on this trip overseas. I decided I should probably cut the conversation with the nice gentleman and sleep instead. So for the remainder of the flight, I slept, as Jessika had been the ENTIRE flight—missing everything.

Coming off the plane it was time to get rid of the last 48 hrs of craziness and begin to prepare what God has called us here to do.

It’s now Saturday afternoon (this is Jessika now) I hope you enjoyed maegan’s story of our first 48 hours leaving the country. We love the lady we are staying with Audrey, she was an MK in Uganda growing up and now has this wonderful home in Kigali that she has opened up to us. We have already met up with the head of the orphanage that Maegan will be working at. She actually runs 4 different orphanages including one that is made up of 99% Genocide survivors. We had some time to share with her our hearts and our stories as well as here hers. We cannot wait to really get into the swing of things. This whole next week I speak 2x a day and it will definitely only be through the grace and strength of God! I spoke this morning at a ministry called “Together as One” and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maegan was taken by surprise as they called her up to give a word too! I was proud of her though she handled it well. We are about to leave to go on a tour of the city and also visit the Genocide Memorial. I’ll cut this off because I know it is soooo long!
Jess and Maegan