Africa - Part 1

Well, I did it!

I went to Benin Africa and am back home safe and sound.

My travels went well, the equipment that I (and our entire team) took made it into the country with no problems and no one got sick!

It was a wonderful trip :)

I hope you enjoy my recap....

Travel Day 1 & 2 (Wednesday / Thursday)

Wednesday afternoon I boarded a plane from Kansas City to Atlanta with one other team member. Once we arrived in Atlanta, we met up with another team member and ate dinner before boarding an overnight flight to Paris. I took the advice of many people and drank as much water as I could, slept as much as I could and wore compression socks on these long flights.

I had an entire row to myself on one flight :)

One of my teammates snapped this lovely pick of me sleeping on the plane!

Breakfast…”Paris Airplane” style.

And just to show you the course we flew...

We landed in Paris Thursday morning around 10:30am. We quickly made our way out of the airport and headed to the Eiffel Tower! We walked around the entire thing and took lots of pictures. I did not go up in the tower (super long lines, and not much time). But it was really fun to see!

Once we left the Eiffel Tower, we walked by the Seine River and made our way to the Arc de Triumph. This Arc honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War 1.

I enjoyed the walk so much! One, because it was so nice outside and enjoyed the fresh air and the opportunity to stretch my legs and two, because the buildings were so incredible! We found some lunch and enjoyed a Shawarma before heading back to the airport.

This long line made me laugh.

This Shawarma was excellent!

After our sight-seeing we headed back to the airport and met up with 2 other team members and boarded a flight from Paris to Benin.

We arrived late that evening to an airport of complete chaos - Haha! Lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of honking, lots of noise. But we were excited to be there!

This is just some of our luggage.

Out of the 5 team members, we brought in 6 large duffel bags which contained 10 sets of equipment!

These pictures just remind me of the airport and parking lot chaos!

We met up with our hosts and eventually made it out of the airport and to our Hotel. The Hotel was really nice (much nicer than I expected) and even had running water, and an air conditioner! The only problem was that the window in my bathroom looked right out into the hallway. It took them about an hour to find something to hang over my window so I would have some privacy. But after that - I unpacked, laid clothes out for the next day,  took a cold sponge bath (my shower did not work) and went to bed. I slept really well that night and was excited to start our next day!