Coming Home

So, I've gone and done it! I've went back home. Wow... it took so long to get over to Uganda. So my flights were supposed to be KC to DC; DC to Rome (for gas); Rome to Adis Ababa; Adis Ababa to Entebbe. All that and I was supposed to arrive by midnight on Monday.
First off let me just say that 5 hour layovers are NOT such a good idea. And the Washington DC airport is fairly boring. Just saying...
I got to sit next to Izzie (I am calling her that cause I can't pronounce or spell her real name! lol), on the flight from DC to Adis Ababa. She was a very dear girl going back home because her father was sick and we talked and slept and looked out for each other, which was a huge blessing to me, because by this time I was getting lonely.
As much as I just adore traveling all by my lonesome, I don't think I am yet cool with navigating African airports. I said goodbye to Izzie at the airport in Adis with a big hug, and continued to try and find my flight number which was not on the board. By the time that I realized I had been issued the wrong boarding pass for my flight to Entebbe, the flight I should have been on had been canceled. The airline graciously put me up for the night in a motel with supper and breakfast provided.
Let me just say that I sometimes get stressed about these sorts of things. Yeah. So take my natural propensity towards stressing, and add to it the fact that I am traveling all by myself, in a strange country, and now am having to find my way out of the airport and to a motel for the night!!
I was very near tears and definitely had a "bunny in the headlights" look on my face. But God is sooo good. There were 3 different angels which helped me out. The first was a sweet lady that directed me to the buses. The second I am calling "Hosea". I don't think that was his name, but he just looked like a Hosea. He works for the airport I think, but was near the buses and helped me find the right one to take. I hesitated for just a second... because the buses were off a little ways from the main flow of people, dimly lit, only the driver was on board, and the bus was unmarked... can you say sketch? I took a deep look in his eyes though for a minute and decided that there wasn't anything malicious there. He was sweet enough to come and sit with me for a while on the bus while I calmed down to where I wasn't freaking out. Anyway, at some point when you are in a foreign country, by yourself, and you don't know the language, you have to trust somebody!
I made it to the hotel safely. Actually the ride was kinda soothing, because most of Adis Ababa looks like Kampala, (except of course that Ethiopia is largely Muslim so dress is different, and everyone is lighter skinned than Uganda. Oh and speaking of which, I had worn my second shortest skirt on the plane ride. Yeah, I felt a little bit scandalous in a country where everyone wears long skirts or pants. Oops.)
At the Dreamliner Hotel I met my third angel. His name was Emmanuel and he was my server at the restaurant. Since I was his only customer for a while (it was like 2130 which is a bit late for supper) we got to talking and laughing. Which is good, because by that point I was very near to tears. Its true what they say, that laughter is really healing.
I read in a C.S. Lewis book once (I think it was Prince Caspian the scene where Lucy sees the mergirl that was a shepherd), that sometimes you can see people for only a brief while, but you know that if ever you saw them again, you would immediately give them a hug as if they were an old friend. I love meeting those people. Izzie and Emmanuel where definitely those type of people.
So after a rather restless night at the hotel that was very nice, on a bed that was like a board...seriously... I have slept on more comfortable tent floors, I was off to the airport again.
Made it all the way to UG by 1330 hours. Simon met me at the airport and graciously ferried me all the way to Bugos. He totally laughed at my direction giving, and even knowing names of roads and such. We were going down Old Port Bell Rd. and he was saying that it is sometimes smelly along there because of sewers and stuff, and I piped up that also there are many factories and a butchery/meat packing plant. He was like, "you really do know this place!"
A small mix up with phones and such... but I finally got a hold of Kia, whose house I am staying at, and after a very joyous reunion I am finally settled in here. I love staying up late with her just talking and laughing. She was sooo worried about me last night when I didn't get there as planned and she even had other friends worried to a tizzy. Sweet gal!
I think there are few things more beautiful than waking up in the place that you consider your homeland. Where your heart is fully at home. For some people that is nature; mountains, woods, prairie... For some its a farmhouse, a small neighborhood where they grew up, even the rush of a city. For me its a country on the other side of the globe. Uganda.
So this morning I am content. Just fully and completely content.