Well.....it was a long trip!
Plus I was stressed about checking in all the bags in KL. Melissa, my vet friend, and her mum, came out to the airport to help me with my two trolleys of bags and to generally see me off. So sweet!
Actually, I think the trip was about the same amount of time as flying to Canada from KL, just more stress trying to deal with Nooks. At Schiphol, I found a great bathroom with floor to ceiling walls and door, so no escape.....but all others I came across were open at the bottom, so Nooks didn't get so much out-of-the-carrier time. Used the baby change room a couple of times and a handicapped toilet once to let her out, see if she would drink some water or eat some food, or use the makeshift cat box. Man...did I get dirtly looks coming out of the baby change rooms without a baby in tow. Nooks was really good until about half way through the last leg....5 hour flight from Paris to Bamako...and got really restless, trying to get out of her carrier. Once I put the carrier on my lap, she settled down so that's pretty much where she was for the last flight. She did not eat, drink or pee until we got 'home' about an hour ago. Amazing. Mostly she is exploring the house (yes!! I got a house instead of an apartment! yay! with a couple of lovely patio spaces...that I think I share with the woman who lives upstairs...). Looking forward to seeing the house and yard in the daylight. I set up Nooks' scratching post right away so that there was something very familiar for her. (She had her own suitcase with the fancy scratch post, cat box, bags of food and kitty treats, toys, vitamins...and a few of my things, too!
Our director, Brad, and his wife, Renee, met all of us newbies at the airport to help us with our visas and immigration forms, and collecting luggage.
Small little airport with what seemed like thousands of people in it, lined up at immigration, waiting for visas, waiting for luggage on the carousel, then waiting to have baggage tags checked against the bags before leaving. I wanted to take a picture of it but my phone battery died earlier in the day, and my camera was tucked away. I'm sure I'll get another chance for something similar....it seems like it was a pretty normal state.
Anyway...considering the appearance of chaos, it all went quite smoothly and all 9 of us (and 4 kids) even had all of our luggage arrive. Mountains of it. Including my 7 (yes, seven) large suitcases. We were out of the airport in about 2 hours. Then it took about an hour and a half to deliver us all to our respective homes.
Such an amazing welcome! First of all, having the director and his wife meeting us at the airport and delivering us to our homes. Then...the fridges are stocked with some basic starter foods....fruits, bread, cheese, eggs, butter, milk, juice...plus there's coffee, tissues, toilet paper, soap and bug spray. And each house had a bottle of wine waiting. Brad even brought along his corkscrew so that he could open our bottles for us. My kind of people!
The houses are already set up with internet/wi-fi and each of us received a cell phone (that we will have to set up).
Pics will come. I'm only unpacking bare necessities tonight. The whole enchilada will be done tomorrow. I have a 3 bedroom house (so open for visitors!!), with a living room, dining room and kitchen. It certainly is not as beautiful a house, nor is the furniture as well-made as my KL house....or even my Vientiane house, but it does have a third-world charm about it, and I will do lots to make it better, too!
We have received a schedule for the upcoming week....some school orientation, finalisation of visas, shipping/baggage reimbursements, other admin, shopping, dinners each night (courtesy of the school or Brad) and a couple of recreational outings to a park and a resort. Now that's the way to look after incoming staff!!
And now, methinks it's time for bed. It's 2 a.m. and we have a 10 o'clock pick-up to start the day! I'll have my camera with me tomorrow to start the photo journal!
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