We made it! We finally arrived in Africa almost a week ago now!
The morning of our travel started at 12:30am. Our *idea* was that the kids would sleep the whole way in the car and at the airport before we boarded at 6:30am, but...yeah right! They were awake most of the time and just as excited as we were! After several cups of coffee, with only an hour delay, our flight landed in Paris at 8am. We had to literally race to catch our connecting flight, but made it just in time.
Due to our mix-up with Opodo, they actually got us much nicer seats, so we flew in style! Ben had no complaints about the leg room this time! He could actually stretch out! I got told off at one point when I went through the first-class area to take Lili to their toilet. (She was desperate and the others were occupied.) It would have been better if I hadn't anyway because the dark chocolate, grapes and champagne the first-class passengers were being served made my mouth water! :-)
Flying over hours and hours of nothing but sand is striking. The desert is so vast. It seems endless. I had forgotten how red the sky is as you fly into Narnia. Not because of smog, but because of the Saharan dust. It’s quite a sight. It looks like an abandoned place at first. There are so few trees and everything is dirty and dull from a distance until you get close enough to realize there is some life here! The lonely planet guide says, “You have to know her (Narnia) to love her”. So true!
We reached "Narnia" about 3pm. It was 100 degrees and we made it through security fairly quickly. While we waited for our baggage (which all arrived, amazingly!), it didn’t take me long to realize we were back into a totally new culture where we are minorities. Two things happened….the first was a local guy who touched Lili’s hair and said, “Oh, so beautiful!” (If he had come any closer I probably would have punched him! J), and the second was a cleaner at the airport yelling into my baby Yan’s face, “Give me a passport!!! Give me a passport!!!!”. Thankful Yan just smiled back in his Yan-like way not having a clue this guy thought he was his gateway to the western world!
We’ve been in Narnia a week now and soon will begin our journey to our home in “Salisbury”. We’ve had a great week visiting friends, shopping and resting up before we travel again. We’ve enjoyed the classic fish and rice dish that most people eat every day for lunch here. Lili adores it but couldn’t quite manage to keep her dress clean while eating with her hands!
Just to give you an idea of what our lives are like practically, here are the things we’ve stocked up on that we can’t get in “Salisbury”….
Coffee
Semolina
Cornstarch
Cocoa Butter
Baby Shampoo
Lasagna noodles
Cumin
Garlic (we bought 40 heads!)
Mouse poison
Powdered sugar
Tahini
Dried chick peas, peas, white beans and lentils (we bought 18 pounds of dried beans!!!!)
Shredded Coconut
Raisins
Soy sauce
Cocoa powder
And…..drum roll….1 glorious jar of rhubarb jam as my Christmas present to myself!
None of these things are essential to life, but they just make life a bit easier and more enjoyable. We are thankful to be able to stock up a little….but when they run out, they run out!
I will sign off now! Need to get some rest before the next leg of our journey!
