Almost there

So after the layover in Toronto, it was on to a plane headed for Paris. Then a 3 hour layover and a 5 hour flight to Niamey.

Eiffel Tower and Champs-Élysées From the  plane

The layover in Paris was interesting because in my tiredness, and worry about making sure I got to the next flight, I left my laptop on the plane. Yes I know, what was I thinking? Clearly I was a bit fuzzy headed. To compound matters, apparently it was a national holiday in France, and they were all short staffed. Long story short – the people at Air France did get me my laptop, and I made it to the flight on time. As luck would have it there were two others flying to a different missionary hospital on the same flight. There was another stop after mine in Lome, Togo and they were both going there. She is a nurse and has been to the same hospital once or twice before, he is a general surgeon and is part of a group that all take turns going to missionary hospitals. It made the stop over in Paris seem a little less foreign.

The plane ride was fine, and we landed in Niamey on time. Flying over the Sahara is an experience, and there were a lot of dry river beds.

Flying over Niger

Even when it's dry 29 degrees C is hot! The actually had this big free standing air conditioner in the airport, and I got to stand in front of it at one point through the lineup – nice. They checked my documents for the yellow fever vaccination, and there must have been at least 5 or 6 people that wanted to see my passport. It is nice that I speak the language (French), it made things somewhat easier, although it is clear my french is a bit rusty. There were all sorts of people wanting to be your porter, and the one I was told to look for was not available. He had sent someone else instead. He did find me eventually, and we got my bags. They were slightly the worse for wear, but not seriously so. There was a sign in the airport that would make a lot of people squeamish, so skip the next paragraph if you want to.

So the sign says – if you see this call your health care provider immediately (approximate translation). It was a picture of someones ankle with a long thin white worm coming out of the skin!

Public health anouncement

Never seen a public health announcement like that before. Took a picture, but it didn't turn out so well.

The porter handed me over to another fellow that drove me to the guest house. Typical commute for third world countries, no lines for lanes on the road, everybody makes it up as they go along, lots of horn honking, and scooters/motorcycles in huge numbers everywhere.

So now I am safe and sound at the guest house for the night. Mosquito netting set up, fan running. No internet, so I will have to post this tomorrow. Just wanted to get it all down tonight while it was still fresh.

As I was praying for my laptop to be found and returned to me before my connecting flight, I was thinking of some scriptures. This one seemed to fit the bill well:

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.