"Another Flight 'From Hell',...flying back to Bukavu!"

Sept. 2, 2012: "Another Flight From Hell",..aka flying back to Bukavu!"

     Sunday dawned partly cloudy, after it had rained HARD two times during the night.  The roof over my 'bed' leaked, & the bed got wet down at the bottom.  So, just slept with legs drawn up,.....Up around 6:45am,..& waited for something for breadfast,..which never came.  Back to the good old 'power bars'; we're eating the last of those, too.  The African did bring us boiled water we used to refill our bottles, & make some instant coffee. 

What was left of a black Mamba snake(very poisonous)

     Tom was showing the glasses & watches he had brought from the USA to some pastors.  Since we were going to take ANY cargo flight out,..we decided to not attend church,..rather, to await word from the airport, & be ready to go at a moment's notice.  Suddenly one of the pastor's phone rang, with a message that there was a plane leaving for Bukavu in 15 minutes, & the pastor would come to get us.  We rushed around, rather 'like chickens with our heads cut off',.....to get things ready to go!  As usual, the messenger took 35 minutes to show up!  So, we finally started our walk to the airstrip,...maybe 2 miles.  Upon arrival, we noticed the Lett M-410 was the SAME one that had broken down the night before!!   This would be our plane for that day!!,  Everyone connected with the cargo flight ASSURED us that even though the plane had broken down the night before,..it was fixed & ready to fly!!!,...well,-what could we do?????  .In fact, the plane was already loaded w/cargo & a few people,..& just waiting for us to show up!  Thank God, they waited.  Immediately, we each climbed up a  STRAIGHT UP, VERTICAL ladder,..which was BARELY big enough for us to make it up & into the plane's belly. PTL, Someone had totally taken care of our Passports, visas, & Go Passes,...remember this is the place where on the way into Downcountry we had been hassled for over 3 hours!

      Once again the inside was totally STRIPPED, & made into a cargo plane.  There were two African pilots in the front, with no bulkhead nor door between them & us!!   We just sent up some silent prayers for our safety!  This plane had 4 seats,..occupied by Congolese soldiers!!!  The pilot came & told the soldiers they would have to move to sitting on the cargo/floor,..& let the "paying passenger's" have the 4 seats!  The soldiers were NOT happy.  We all agreed we'd rather have the soldiers 'happy', & just let them have the seats,...but, the pilot wouldn't do that.  So, the soldiers sat on the cargo & the floor,..looking quite upset!  That was ALL we needed, at the beginning of another 'adventure' flight,....!!!!!!!

     A young male African businessman/student sat beside Kathy, & couldn't keep his eyes off of her.  She was quite uncomfortable,....& Tom & I sat right behind them,......OH,..you wanted SEAT BELTS????????    As    they say in New York,  fugetaboutit!!!   Some barrels of something were rolling  freely around toward the back of the plane.  Of course, the bathroom was gone, too.

    The pilot started each of the twin turboprop engines separately.  Altho' they had insisted everything was fine with the plane,....I was comforted to notice he ran each engine up to high rpm's, ...for longer than usual!!  Satisfied that all was well, he released the brakes, & we lumbered down the dirt strip.  Amid much NOISE the plane lifted off, & the crazy thing actually FLEW,  PTL!   Our trip was just about 45 minutes, to Bukavu,(border town),...punctuated by a very good, soft landing!  (When flying into the Congo interior, one is able to see wreckages of numerous of these flights that went down in the jungle,..the planes are usually just left where they crash!).

     At Kavumu airport outside of Bukavu, Immigration was a breeze, with no problems.  It maybe took 15-20 minutes.  It felt so good to be back to "civilization",...such as it is, that is,.....Upon arriving by taxi at Tom's apt., we discovered there still was no water, no electric, & the emergency batteries were getting low! We were able to charge our International phones off the batteries,....so we could make some calls & texts to let loved ones know we were ok.  Remember, we had been out of any communication for 9 days!

     Since it was Tom's birthday, we went to a restaurant within walking distance of the apt.  It was clean, & we shared a nice meal there.  Tom had a fish entree,-& I mean the whole fish, head & all!  Kathy had tilapia(meat only) & potato fries,..and I had pork chops with fries.  I treated Tom & Kathy to the meal,..and it was only $45US.

     We needed some bread,..but didn't find any on our walk back from the restaurant.  All 3 of us took a much awaited, long, nap,..until 6:30pm!  Then we ate leftovers from the restaurant meals for dinner.

     A BIG, WINDY, noisy thunderstorm came thru after dinner.  Had to batten down the hatches,...Emile, our Immigration friend came over & true to form stayed til 10pm!

     Even after the long afternoon nap, I was 'wasted',..so I went to bed around 8pm.  I loved hearing the rain on the metal roof,..especially now that we were out of the Downcountry,......in just two days l would be reversing my steps from Congo thru Rwanda, Uganda, Amsterdam, Detroit, & Dallas,.....to the good old USA!!  Meanwhile I was giving away clothes, shoes, jackets, etc.,...with a goal of getting EVERYTHING into just my backpack.  And, this was making several Africans extremely happy with my gently used stuff!!,.....

Rogers/Banuamazi

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