So, by now, a whole 6 weeks after our return from the wonderful country, things have settled and friendships across the country are starting to form
But thats not what I want to talk about...
On our way back from Uganda, we were delayed leaving Entebbe only by a few hours, but it made us late landing in Cairo. The plane in Cairo only waited 50 minutes, and we were left in Cairo along with many others who needed to be in London that night. Very helpfully the men on the trip had taken over and decided to sort us out.
Now begins about 6 hours of rollercoaster emotion, not helped by the fact that some of us had been up for 27 hours. First we were all going home via frankfurt, then we were all staying, then we were all going again. Every time the men came back there was a new wave of emotion (not all positive). Plenty of tears.
I referred earlier to being "ripped apart" from some of the team. This came at about 3pm when some of us were allowed to get on a plane to Frankfurt and the rest of us had to stay. Eventually the remainder recieved transit visa's and headed to a hotel in Cairo. We had two other Ugandan families with us and one lady who was by herself and instantly bonded to our group.
We washed and eat and slept and got on a plane on Monday morning, 24 hours late. It was much easier to be in Cairo Airport the second time around, 'cept it sounded like Egypt Air had had a weekend of it. They asked us if we'd like to fly via Frankfurt, even though we had our boarding passes and passports in hand! I wanted to punch the dude in the face, but had done so well up until this point...
The delay gave us a traumatic experience to further bond over. Much to the point when I headed to the Mission Direct office on Tuesday it was all I could talk about.
And the reason why I've written about it is now we are trying to claim insurance back on the flights, but this comes with conditions and things I cannot control. For example, the insurance company would like proof of delay, but with Egypt Air's track record in communication, I'm unsure we'll get written confirmation of delay. And it sounds like there will be a whole complicated back story to why we were delayed.
So I will keep you posted on how it goes, because any money we do get will go straight to the project!
