First Day of Travel: Delayed in Brussels!

Members of the Rwanda Travel Team (from left): Terry Semsick, Boyd Edmonson, Betty Grunstra, Donna Doutt 

September 14, 2007

It is just short of a day since our first visit into Rwanda.

The day started great with everyone arriving on time for our departure to the Pittsburgh airport. Jack Loucks, former Rwanda traveler, and Dave Semsick, husband of Rwanda traveler, Terry Semsick, had agreed to drive and drop us at the airport. Families and friends of Betty Grunstra, Boyd Edmondson and Donna Doutt were on hand. Many Presbyterians arriving for Acts 16:5 at Calvary gave us their blessings as well as we gathered in the parking lot at neighboring Graystone church in Indiana.

The flight to Atlanta was a little bumpy with some buffeting and holding while the Atlanta airport cleared out backed-up planes. The weather had been so bad, that the airport had been closed for a while and needed some time to clear out and make room for incoming flights.We arrived only a few minutes late with no problem and plenty of time to make our connections. As we found our seats, suddenly, everything we dark for just a moment as we lost all power. Thus begins the rest of the story….

Mechanical failure. Air conditioning gone. The next four hours were spent sitting on the runway. At first we weren’t too concerned, but after the second hour dragged by, we knew we were in jeopardy of missing our connection. Finally at 9:45 p.m., we took off for Brussels.

Fearing the worst, we snagged a flight attendant and explained the repercussion of missing our connection. Flights only go to Kigali, Rwanda several times a week. If we didn’t make our connection, we would be stuck in Brussels until Tuesday. Showing mild alarm, the attendant promised to do what they could. In the end, promises did not help us.

As we feared, the worst happened. Even though we made up very good time getting to Brussels, the flight to Kigali left without us.

Heartsick and disappointed, we started trying to develop a plan B. Delta didn’t want to help us and Brussels Air wasn’t doing too much either. Our options were few. One was to sit in Brussels until the next flight on Tuesday and try to recoup our lost days by ramping up our schedule, or try to find an alternate way to get to Kigali. The alternate route to Kigali involved traveling through Burundi (a neighboring company of Rwanda) and then taking a local plane into Kigali. This posed several problems: 1) no visa for Burundi; 2) significant additional expense; 3) an overnight in some little town in Burundi that we couldn’t pronounce; and 4) our counsel advised us that he felt it was too dangerous. We chose the obvious option…wait it out.

Step 2 of plan B required finding cheap lodging, which we managed to do with some advice from the desk clerk at the airport. But of course, as would be expected for this day, when we got to the hotel, there was a miscommunication and they could not house us until Tuesday. Fortunately we found another hotel nearby that could house us and we settled into to our spartan, but clean and safe rooms. Terry, Betty, and Donna all are bunking together, and Boyd luxuriating in his own space.

Next step was to make contact with the Rwandans preparing for our arrival. Quite a bit of time was spent trying to figure out country codes and figuring out how much a phone call to Pastor Eugene would cost. After several false starts, we succeeded. When we finally reached him…there they were…all of our Rwanda friends…waiting for us at the airport. We had to tell them the disappointing news that they were waiting in vain. We quickly advised him of our new arrival time and he assured us they will be there for us on Tuesday.

So here we are, 36 hours after leaving home, no sleep, no euros (who knew we’d end up in Belgium?), hungry, disheartened, tired, discouraged, but trying to make the best of the situation. We are together. We are safe. What’s going on tomorrow? Who knows? Check back for reports. At least while we’re here, we have internet!