Not Quite As Planned...

In case you've never heard the term "African Time" it's used to describe just about anything that is always behind schedule. For some that's 30 minutes and for others it can be up to two hours. When traveling to Africa you can almost always expect things to be slow - it's just how it goes.

Unless, however, you were on the flight that went from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Bujumbura, Burundi yesterday. That flight left promptly at 9:30 AM, leaving many of it's connecting passengers behind.

On Saturday morning we left DC on a jumbo jet and departed a little over 30 minutes late. You'd think that with almost 13 hours of air time they would be able to make that up. Not so for us, as we touched down a good 45 minutes after we were originally supposed to land and then waited another 30 to de-board. At 9:40 we finally reached the terminal only to be told our connecting flight had left without us - and at least 10 others.

But they put us up in a nice hotel and fed us lunch, dinner and breakfast this morning. It was good to catch up on sleep and enjoy a meal that was not on an airplane. We have our flight to Bujumbura this morning and will be able to hit the ground running, tackling a few administrative items and meeting with partners for the next two days before traveling to the water projects on Wednesday.

Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of central standard time, and Burundi is 8.

Two side notes - the one thing that did make it to Bujumbura on time was Albert's bag. After waiting for nearly two hours at the airport yesterday the airlines finally admitted that it was most likely on the original plane. We'll find out for sure today, or he might be wearing some of my clothes for the trip. Surprisingly he said he would pass on borrowing my running shorts!

He has also been mistaken as Indian, and trying to pass customs they gave him a hard time and didn't believe his American passport. A lady at a convenience store asked him if his wife was also Indian, despite telling her that he himself was American.