Our journey really began in Newark, DE with a rented car to JFK. We gave ourselves lots of extra time in case of traffic etc, but made it to the airport in about three hours; then we had lots of extra time till our just-before-midnight departure on Sunday. Just as we were leaving we heard the news about the two simultaneous bombings in Kampala; how to bring the World Cup to an end in that way and what would we have done if our workshop was still scheduled for Kampala? Later we learned that the one American killed at the rugby field graduated from UD in 2008 and was there with the group Invisible Children.
We managed to sleep overnight to Paris and then somehow managed to make the long time pass in the Charles de Gaulle Airport without too much pain – a couple of meals (for exorbitant prices), massage chairs, our netbooks and dsixls. Mave decided she had to change into her ‘European’ clothes, which meant a scarf, a headband, and long black sweater. Since we were in Paris we had to try some croissant, café au lait and so on……we also enjoyed watching the beautiful people in gold and brocade boarding their flights for Bamako and N’djamena. Some people in Africa have lots and lots of money, as we know.
Then, finally, the very long flight to Johannesburg; this time I did not insist on sleeping the whole way and so Mave and Kuno took in a couple of movies each, making the flight a little more bearable. But really you are just like cattle squeezed into a kraal; there must be a better way. Once at the airport in Johannesburg some evidence of the World Cup still, including lots of vuvuzelas for sale of which Kuno quickly picked out two. Most importantly we needed to charge some of our electronics and get some decent food. Of course it was very cold, as it is now winter. In Gaborone we touched down at the new and expanded Sir Seretse Khama Airport. It is still not finished and promises to be quite grand, certainly in comparison to before.
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