Rwanda 2017 | Traveling, Arrival, and Day 1
Now that it’s time to head back to Rwanda, I figured I should finally get around to recapping Rwanda 2017. Since I’ve waited almost 9 months, I’m going to do my best to remember as many details as possible, but I’m pretty sure these posts won’t be as detailed as in years past. You will still get to see a ton of photos of our Rwandan friends plus we added Baker into the mix this year. You really can’t go wrong with that combo. 😉
I want to say that like all of my post the past two years, I keep this blog to journal our life. Gone are the days where I kept a consistent blog presence and was able to respond to comments promptly or even read other blogs. I miss those days, I truly do, but life happens and it gets really busy sometimes. Maybe one day, I’ll have the time and energy to do DIY projects again and write posts about them but until then, I hope you enjoy reading about our mission trip each year and every holiday we celebrate with our Baker girl. If mission trips or foreign travel aren’t your thing, feel free to skip these posts because they will be very picture heavy.
Alright, let’s get this show started…
The Sunday before we left, we had a “commissioning” service in which our church prayed over the team. My family has always been huge supporters of Cory’s and my ministry and this year, we welcomed my cousin Jordan to our team. It fills me with so much joy seeing this picture with our families behind the team (we are kneeling). International missions is truly a family affair. I have been the one who has stayed behind before (twice actually), and it is hard work–emotionally, mentally, and physically, and this was before we had Baker. I know my family had the added stress of us taking our 15 month old daughter along with this being Jordan’s first international mission trip, but to have them lay hands on us, encourage us, and pray us through the difficulties we faced means everything to us. Â Without our families standing behind us, we wouldn’t be able to make these trips. Can I add how incredibly cool it is to get to serve alongside family?? If you want to get closer to someone, go to Africa with them.
And of course, I can’t forget the support of our church. They are awesome and support our crazy fundraisers. They raise us up in prayer and step up when we need someone to plan a fishing tournament or drive us to the airport. We are incredibly blessed!
Friday | October 13th
Yes, we left on Friday, the 13th. We always leave on crazy days. Last time, I left on 9/11. Here’s our team, at the church by 6:00 am ready to roll. We had to fly out of Atlanta this year, rather than GSP, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the airport and through security. This was the largest group we’ve ever taken before and we were traveling with a baby, so there were many unknown aspects. Allowing extra time just made me feel better!
We didn’t run into any traffic on the way to the airport; however, we did go to the wrong terminal. Apparently, if you are catching a domestic flight for an international flight, you leave out of the domestic terminal at the Atlanta airport. That is why we allowed for extra time!
We were at the airport by 10:00am and had hardly any problems getting checked in. Joe, the church member who took us to the airport, was able to help us get our stuff in the door and there were no long lines. Cory and I weigh our luggage probably half a dozen times each, and we knew all of our totes of supplies were under 50lbs. We only had one piece of luggage out of the whole group that was over but luckily, these young guys travel light and we were able to move stuff around.
Also, note to anyone who travels with a car seat… they don’t weigh the car seats! We used a black travel bag for ours and kept all of Baker’s diapers and wipes in there too. We actually have quite few travel tips and I’m happy to share those with anyone who’d like them. Just shoot me an email!
Thankfully, there wasn’t a terribly long line at security either, but since we had a stroller so we got to cut. It was only supposed to be Cory and me but the sweet TSA agent let Donnie and Dorian cut with us. We grabbed lunch on our way to the gate and were waiting on our plane by 11:00 am!
Baker loved seeing the planes landing and taking off. She would squeal and say “oh wow!” every time.
One of the biggest blessings about traveling with Baker for the first time was the group we traveled with. Seriously, having experienced parents and younger bodies to occupy her made all the difference. There was no way Cory and I could have done it without them.
By the time we ate lunch, our flight was boarding for a 1:10pm takeoff. We had Mickey on the plane and that’s pretty much all she cared about! Ha!
Baker did amazingly during all of our travel. Seriously, it didn’t even phase her. I thought she would at least acknowledge takeoff but nope! Didn’t care a thing about it. I’m actually way more concerned about how she will travel this year since she is now mobile.
She clearly didn’t have any issues sleeping.
When we landed in Newark, Baker acted surprised (probably the noise). Her eyes got really big and her mouth dropped open. Of course, it was the one time we weren’t videoing.
Every airport we traveled to, we made sure to get two rows of chairs that faced each other and would barricade Baker in with our luggage. Seriously y’all, we’ve got the tips!
We had about a 3 hour layover in Newark and waited for the first long leg of our flight to leave at 6:25pm to Belgium.
Jordan and Cory were there somewhere but we were ready to head to Belgium!
Baker was a little fussy in the beginning of this flight. When they served dinner, it came with bread and butter and she ended up eating a whole container of just butter. Anything goes on a flight! After dinner, we gave her some Benadryl (literally, anything) and she knocked out until they served breakfast.
Of course, Cory had to get pictures of everyone sleeping.
I love watching the sunrise from the sky. It’s just so pretty!
Saturday | October 14th
When we landed in Brussels, it was 7:45 Saturday morning. I’ve never really freshened up other than brushing my teeth and running a brush through my hair while traveling, but felt like a new woman after changing my clothes, washing my face, and redoing my makeup.
We got the best breakfast at this little kiosk where Jordan specifically ordered a “Belgian waffle”. 😂 The cashier just looked at him and said “you mean a waffle?”.
Notice the barricade again?
After a three hour layover, we boarded the next long leg of our flight to Rwanda with a short layover in Uguanda (we didn’t have to get off the plane). Â Baker got really fussy so Dorian and Joel took over.
She slept for like 3 hours so Cory and I both snoozed!
But when she woke up, she was ready to go and those were probably the most difficult few hours of the whole flight. She was well-rested and ready to party. Thankfully, I had the entertainment bag that I had worked so hard on for her (that she only used this one time during the whole trip).
After our brief stop in Entebbe, we finally had some empty seats and Baker had her own seat for a whole hour.
But she ended up back in her daddy’s lap and I finally got a picture of Cory snoozing. Also, why does she look so small here???
The real fun started once we landed in Rwanda, though. Baker was ready to not be held anymore and of course the line to get our visas was long. They let me go to the front of the line with Baker and once everyone else got through, we collected all our luggage. Ben, Jo, Kenny, and the family were outside waiting on us and we got stopped in customs (I use that word lightly because it’s just an area by the exit door). We’ve never been stopped by customs before but the totes that we bought containing supplies were all the same color this year and apparently that threw up a red flag. Once they searched our totes (just our totes, not our luggage) they found the new computers that we were bringing over for a few students and thought we were trying to import them. We were also told that we had to have a letter of invitation, which was a new law. Long story short, after about an hour of us trying to communicate with the security agents, and failing miserably, they allowed Cory to go outside with an agent and talk to Ben. We don’t know what was said but he worked it out with the agents and they let us into the country. Poor Ben and his family had been waiting outside for us for over two hours. By the time we got all our luggage to fit in the vehicles (we had to take a lot of stuff out of the totes and pack it in like a game of tetris) it was after 11:00pm. We stopped at Ben and Jo’s to drop some of the luggage off, grab a quick bite to eat, and headed to Musanze. We got to the Garden Place Hotel around 3:00 am and had an 8:00 am wake up call for breakfast and church in Nyabihu.
Sunday |October 15th
We hit the ground running, with about 4 hours of sleep and had breakfast as group before taking the 40-minute drive to Nyabihu for church on Sunday morning.
Baker got to experience her first, of many, church services in Rwanda.
Like always, we enjoyed worshipping and hearing all the different choirs.
This dancing, y’all.
And a few of the guys joined in! I have to call attention to Joel’s face in the next few photos.
The services here in Nyabihu are always so moving. Just the way they worship so freely is an incredible experience.
Cory spoke briefly before Joel preached.
And then we had prayer over the church.
Ben asked if there was anyone available to go out to the children’s Sunday school and Donnie and Dorian volunteered. Little did they know that Ben also wanted them to teach a lesson. Dorian did a great job teaching on the fly.
One thing Dorian got to experience was how well behaved this large group of children were. They listened so intently and responded to the lesson she taught.
After church, everyone wanted to see the muzungu (white) baby.
And Baker didn’t mind the attention.
It never occurred to us that some of these children, if not most, have never seen a white baby before. Some of them seem confused by her presence but they were all curious about her.
Some folks on our team got to experience their first encounter with being swarmed by Rwandan children, which is always one of the best parts.
They quickly realized how much the children love seeing themselves in photos.
Baker didn’t want to share her buddies.
Our first-time team members (everyone but Cory and me this time) fit right in. Not that we had any doubt, but it felt like they had been there every year with us.
Many people questioned why we were taking Baker and we even questioned our decision a few times. All my doubt was washed away this first day when I saw the joy on not only Baker’s face but the children as well.
Cory and I have had our picture taken in front of the church every year and what an honor it was to get to add Baker to this tradition.
After church, we had lunch at Onesme’s house. It is always a treat when Mama Onesme cooks for us. We were all stuffed and headed up to Lake Kivu for some coffee and visited the Congo border.
Jet lag hit some of us harder than others.
We’ve been to Serena Hotel almost every year and they have the most perfect cappuccinos. The hotel is very much a touristy location and a treat.
The hotel has a beautiful restaurant that looks out over the pool and the lake and we enjoy relaxing there for a little while. We were losing daylight quickly  so we snapped a few photos at the lake.
For dinner we headed to a restaurant that Ben suggested. It was very much a traditional Rwandan buffet of rice, noodles, peanut sauce, and potatoes. Ben got upset because he knew the owners and they tried to overcharge us (a common thing for Americans in Rwanda but typically not an issue when Ben or Keneth is with us). They eventually came down on the price and after we left, called Ben and gave him even more of a refund. That Ben, he’s a negotiator.
We had planned on moving to a house Sunday afternoon rather than staying at Garden Inn all week but ran out of time and energy so we spent another night at the hotel. Baker got her first Rwandan shower that night, but she had hot water so she really didn’t know how good she had it!  I think it’s safe to say we all crashed pretty hard.
I hope that you will follow along as I continue to recap our time in Rwanda in 2017.
