Time to Come Home...

08-16 blog

It's loading day! Up early, about 6:00 am, ready to finalize any packing we didn't get done due to the power outage last night. A quick breakfast, the truck rolls in, trunks are loaded and we scurry off to the airport to secure our place in the Air France line. The office doesn't open until 9:00, but in order to not have to get in a really long line and sort of shuffle our trunks along inch by inch, we show up an hour early to get our stack of gear near the front to help facilitate the process.


Everything went smooth, that is if you consider spending 2 ½ hours checking your luggage and getting whopped with an unexpected 3500.00 franks tax per person/couple for taking any wood souvenirs out of the country as smooth, then smooth it was.

Here is the exact itinerary from my tickets which is a bit more clear than what I wrote yesterday if you’d like to follow along.

I’m unaware of our arrival times in each place except that I think I remember we come into Columbus around 6:40 PM, but you’re better off checking on-line for yourselves.

We depart Bangui at 10:15 PM Air France #0883 We depart Paris at 8:25 AM Air France #AF0022 We depart New York at 4:40 PM Delta #DL5487. All times are local times so remember, Bangui is five hours ahead of Wooster and Paris is six hours ahead.


Now it's off for a day of final errands which includes tying up the finances of the trip, a quick nap in a bed, getting that last shower, and wrapping up our last game of Up the River, a game we learned and have been playing throughout the trip.


The final thing on my personal last day in Bangui screen is the emailing of this blog to Ivanildo.


Thanks brother Ivanildo for your tireless efforts in helping keep the information flow going for everyone back home. You'll never know how much your efforts meant to us here and I'm sure to those at home.

Having said that, this will most likely be my final post from Africa, I'm not sure if there will be opportunity once in Paris, and I will at least send a text blog entry for Ivanildo to pass along once we arrive in New York. Either way, be assured we are all anxious to see your faces and from the bottom of our hearts, we love you and thanks for all each of you have done in big and small ways to "give back" to our team and the people of the CAR.

RAD from Bangui, over and out. (This fella in the picture with me is Gustaf he has been our driver all this week).