We Are Here!

On the road from Kigali to Goma

After the most miserable flight we made it to Goma! We departed 3 hours late from D.C. went to Rome where we never even got off the airplane. We were there for less than an hour then on to Addis Adaba where the airline held the plane because we were an hour and a half late getting there. We were on the ground for no longer than 15 minutes and then onto Kigali about a 2 and a half hour flight. There an Air Serv drive picked us up and we started our four hour drive to Goma. With two bathroom breaks we made it to the border at 5:55 pm and the border closes at 6:00pm. Patrick the other pilot we were with, did not get his passport stamped in Rwanda so as we were leaving Rwanda the border guard had a serious problem with this. We managed to convince her that he was with us and having shown her our itinerary 20 minutes later she let him go. By this time the DRC border was closed to vehicles, but still open to foot traffic. I am not even going to make since of it from now on the explanation is TIA "this is Africa". So we dragged our luggage across the border about 100 meters where another Air Serv vehicle was waiting for us. After doing a Congo shuffle we got our passports stamped and off to the company office and housing we went. I surprisingly got a hot shower which was wonderful and we went to a nice restaurant and visited with all the other pilots. Sunday we took the day to relax have a nice brunch and play a little ping pong. It is very beautiful here and the people are all super friendly and helpful. I can't wait to get started working this week.