Road to Rwanda----Almost

 God sends his angels.  Here and there.  The Brussels Airline helper that we just grabbed as she walked by.  We weren't even scheduled for any leg of our flight to be on Brussels Air, but she made the luggage happen so that we did not have to cart 70+ pound bags all over the airport.  We went down to retrieve our 5 bag from baggage claim.  We had an email from Luthansa saying it was coming in late from Frankfurt.  It was not there, but somehow it apparently made it to our Rwandair flight that we take from here to Kigali.  Could there be any more airlines involved? We were able to access a very nice lounge and took a shower and had nice hot food.  God is good....and I am tired.  I would have loved to have been able to take business class on this leg, but our points are for United, and this is not that.  I tried talking our way on, but it has not worked yet.  Finally found a wheelchair man to take me through security, which is nice. I pray I have a wheelchair in Kigali where we have

Road to Rwanda----Saga Continued

 Saga continued.  So after waiting 3 hours British Airways opened up, but when we tried to check in we were told it was economy and not business.  I really wanted to lie down for part of this flight, but more importantly we would owe tremendous amounts of money for our 4 overweight bags.  I took off running ( or my version of it) back the mile to terminal B to see what could be done.  They have rescheduled us and I am waiting now to get on a flight that will go Boston-DC-Frankfurt-Brussels-Kigali.  Half of it is business class so we can take our bags.  But rather than getting into Kigali at 8 p.m. on Nov. 29 we won't be there until 6 a.m. on NOv. 30.  I will still go straight to school after my 2 hours car ride.  I would not be able to sleep anyway.  One real draw back to this particular itinerary is that we will need to get our 70 pound bags in Brussels and take them to the next airlines.  We could not check them clear through.  At one point in our lives, carting 70 bags around wa

Road to Rwanda----Pray Us Home

 We had friends in Panama who asked us each vacation time what flights we were taking so they could schedule themselves at a different date/time.  The number of times that our flights are disturbed is legendary. True to form, we arrived at the Boston airport after a very restful night at the hotel to find that they had no record of our reservation.  I guess our flight/flights had been canceled, but no one informed us.  We sat at the desk for an hour and they were able to reschedule us out on British Airways to London, Nairobi, Kigali.  So we packed up our huge, huge 70 pound 4 bags and hiked off from terminal B to terminal E.  It was a bit of a walk, but, PTL, I can do walks like that now. (I am talking a mile or more.) Here we sit for a couple of hours until the British Airways desk opens and we can confirm this ticket. With our tickets we should be able to access a lounge and wait even more comfortably then.  We have been told our business class seats are also confirmed. I pray so. 

Road to Rwanda---Up and Away Again

 We had a lovely time with family, but now are on the move again.  Paul and Purity took us to the hotel in Boston, now, the night before we take off tomorrow. If we did not come today, Paul would have had to take time off work, and this is a nice respite before that long flight.  We were able to use points and money given from Rick's sister and husband to upgrade to business class for 2 of the 3 legs of our flight.  It means so so much.  We can lie down and arrive rested, or at least more rested.  We don't arrive until 8 p.m. Tuesday night, have a ride contracted for the 2+ hours to our home, and then I will be at school at 6 on Wednesday morning.  Please pray for rest and even extra special energy to meet the needs of my students.  They are writing saying they hope I am back soon.  We will do Dicken's Christmas Carol for the weeks leading up to break.   We have most of the paperwork ready to sell our RV to Camping World.  We are close, but not quite there.  Just ran out of

Road to Rwanda------In Masschusetts

 Not sure if I am doing really well....or just numb.  After Sister died on Tuesday, my thought was, "Oh, I get 4 days to just sit and rest a bit," because our plane to Paul in MA was not until Saturday.  By Wednesday (the next day) I realized that what I really wanted to do was go be with family, so I got on the phone and was able to trade our tickets to that night ....and got a $200 rebait because it was a cheap 'red eye' flight.  The trip was fine, but by this time we (particularly Rick) were pretty exhausted, and he has pretty much just been sleeping since.  I have spent the days with Peace and the evenings with the rest of the family.  We have almost sold our RV, which was not even on the "list" but is a good thing.  Except a few hours ago, the Camping World sales rep who is purchasing the RV called and said the name on the vehicle registgration is wrong, and sure enough, it is Machlund.  So the hassle of correcting the title and registration.  And then

Road to Here-----My sister is with Jesus

 My sister died this morning.  I sat by her side from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.  I pulled this lovely recliner over parallel to her. I could reach out and hold her hand, while I graded online essays, while I talked, while I slept.  It comforted me. I pray it comforted her as well.  She opened her eyes when I arrived Saturday night. That is about the only indication I had that she knew I was there.  There was no more communication with her.  She was peaceful and resting these 2+ days, and we just were together.  There were visitors and time reminiscing and prayers and nurses and repositioning and medicine, but most of the time there was just her and me and sitting quietly.   I worked online and slept and thought and prayed.  She was in a lovely hospice house where she had been for a little over a week, and they had gotten to know her when she was her loving, warm, compassionate self and the staff mentioned how much they appreciated her.  That meant a lot.  I felt supported.

Road to Rwanda-----Waiting.

 We are here in OR with my sister after about a 40 hour trip. The last part was easier than the first 8 hours of Rwanda to Brussels.  Sister is non-communicative, although she did open her eyes a little bit when I told her I was here.  Rick and I will spend the night in hospice house with her. On some levels it is easier on me not to have her responsive, although some people may not realize what I mean by that.  She is surrounded by her loving family, and we are waiting.  I think the second half of our trip was easier because of your prayers. Thank you.

Road to Rwanda----Brussels

 We are sitting in the Brussels airport.  Rick is spread out over 3 seats as he cannot sleep on the airplanes and we have now been enroute for about 22 hours since we left our home in Musanze.  I arrived in Brussels and was able to access online and found my Brother in Wisconsin had died Friday morning.  He deteriorated more rapidly than the family had anitcipated.  His funeral will be Thursday.  I love my brother, but the intent never was for me to go be with him.  However, we suddenly find that my sister has also gone downhill very quickly.  She is sleeping most of the time and cannot swallow, so they are stopping her life sustaining meds.  Our prayer is that we make it in time.  We get into Eugene, OR on Saturday night.  I also expect that just the thought that I am coming is enough for Sister.  We have kept very short accounts and if I do not make it, I will be OK.  The thought really does count. I don't think I am really grieving.  Reality might hit later, but we have an etern

Road to Rwanda---yeah, well, I am going to see Sister.

 After all my declarations that we just couldn't, well, I just got tickets to see my sister, leaving on Friday.  I decided if I left now and was back here right after Thanksgiving, then I only had 2 weeks of school before my nice Christmas break and I would have time to recoup and get ready for next semester.  It took 4 hours (two of them on the telephone to United Airlines) to get the tickets.  If I got return, multi-city tickets, they were literally twice the price.  So we decided that we couldn't do it, but then God prompted me to try one way tickets and, sure enough, it ended up being half the price!  What kind of sense does that make?  But of course the computer sensed that we were in Africa (I assume) and would not accept credit cards, etc.  I ended up using Skype to the airlines to book the tickets. We had the money for the tickets, but just could not bear to spend the extra $400 per leg to get business class, even though we had the points, but we will be OK.  We will fl

Road to Rwanda---Garbage cans (again), ants, and asking for guidance

 So our garbage can was stolen again last night.  Our school insisted that the guard/landlord replace it this time. (Last time we bought a new one ourselves.) However, I told our wonderful school liaison that I did not care near so much about the replacement of my garbage can, but rather about protection from people climbing over the fence into our housing space.  The liaison looked at me quizically and assured me that we were not in danger.  The thieves just wanted to make a little bit of money, but would not hurt us.  I guess I am reassured, but somehow I know we are speaking a different cultural language.   I just stepped into our living room and was greeted by about 10 huge flying ant kind of things.  I was disconcered and am still not sure where they came from.  After I stopped and looked at them, though, I think they are the flying ants we used to fry in Zambia.  If they are that ant species, they only come out at a certain time.  I need to ask around, not that I really am planni