So did Gary find his elastic band and get the Lysander prop to turn?
Did Macfarland require to do a stuka dive to bump start the engine?
What was the final destination anyway?
Was the intention to come home and was he able to steer the correct course anyway?
The answer to all these questions is NO?!
What happened?
I thought I would spin a good story filled with lies and silliness, but the real story turned out to be so unbelievable, I thought I would give you the wholly true version.
I spent my last hours in Kigali at a church youth rally, then wished Paul, Emmanuel and John Mutesa well. The journey back to collect my bags was the best and most dangerous taximoto of the 2 weeks. Brilliant driving – on the wrong side of the road!
When I turned up at Kigali airport the Lysander was gone. Rumour had it that the Rwandan authorities thought it should not be tied onto the jumbo jet sitting on the tarmac, and dragged it off to be used to water the local crops.
There was a 5 minute panic when I truly thought I had lost my passport, only to find it in a pocket not usually used.
I was forced to take the KLM flight. It was planned for 10.30 but when I arrived they made some excuse about snow in Europe and 3 and a half hours later we left.
Now my maths ain’t good, but since my connection for Glasgow was only 2 hours I knew there was a problem. The KLM rep did not agree, saying that they would book me onto another flight. OK, I surmised, but I know other secret info that they would not have access to, and phoned home with urgency, telling Fi the possible the impending crisis.
The flight was great, I slept most of the way overnight, and woke up an hour before we landed. So far so good.
The Glasgow flight was due to leave Schipol at 10.15, and we arrived at 11am. So, I rushed round to the transfer machine – Glasgow flight left, you have been booked onto the 3pm flight which gets to Glasgow, at 3.40pm
Immediate problem. Fi and I were due to leave for London by Easyjet at 4.15pm. Phoned her. Its ok our flight to Gatwick is cancelled! She is on the case and is trying to get later flight. We discussed options, Gatwick sounded very risky due to weather and concluded Luton was better.
Then as I am meandering through Schipol and looking forward to a quiet few hours, I hear that the Glasgow flight is boarding, - hares round to departure gate, yes you can get on sir, but your baggage will come on 3pm flight.
So I arrive Glasgow, without all bags and am collected by Roger. Message from Fi, - cannot get easyjet to rebook flight to Luton on internet – goes to desk in Glasgow airport, no problem sir, can sort it in a minute – oh dear not allowing me to - but sure I can sort – will see you at 3.30pm when you return to collect baggage and will check then.
What about a flight to Gatwick where our hotel is – oh, I am not sure if that flight will be on, due to conditions at Gatwick.
Roger gets me home for 1pm. Bag packing would start in earnest for our holiday, but a bit difficult when most stuff is in Holland. Instead focus on all my mail and emails and other stuff.
You see it is our 30th wedding anniversary and we are off to the Caribbean for a cruise – lucky sods I hear you say! Flying out of Gatwick at 8.45am on Saturday am. Why do I put myself under this pressure!
I go back to Glasgow Airport to collect my bags off the 3.30pm from Holland – there are long queues of unhappy people - the 3.30pm is cancelled – bags are not coming – no shoes, no wires, no tee shirts etc etc etc. Oh Fun! – ‘Garlic holidays in Caribbean in the nude’ I hear the Blog stories sound!
Anyway the wonderful person at the Easyjet counter gets us onto the 7pm flight to Luton, and the fabulous Roger, determined to get Macfarland out of the country as fast as he arrived, takes us to the airport and we head south – no problems left – wrong!
By the time the train gets into London Bridge its 10pm. No trains to Gatwick sir, try Victoria – no trains to Gatwick sir – try the bus station - 9 minute walk – no buses sir – how do we get to Gatwick – no idea sir!!!
Its now 12 mid night. There is a bus to Heathrow. Perhaps there may be a transfer bus to Gatwick from there. Worth a try, though no guarantee. So at 1am we are now in Heathrow, and get the bus from there to Gatwick, then a taxi for 4 miles and finally we are in our hotel, for 3 hours sleep, before we are up for the flight to Bridgetown, Barbados.
We get up on time, dressed and head for the transfer bus.
Where on earth is my wallet cries out Macfarland, and despite twenty looks through his bags there is no sign. Its fallen out of his pocket (Fleming and Bennie will love this he thinks), either in the taxi or bus the previous night.
So at the airport we not only have to buy black shoes for the formal evenings on ship, and wires a plenty to charge computers and phones, but also have to cancel all cards, that we need for the next two weeks holidays.
I conclude life in Rwanda was much easier and simpler. Please let me get back there soon!
Work on the commencement of the College is planned to start as soon as the planning application comes through. As yet, I have not decided whether I need to go back before New Year to conclude matters – we will see what we can do by email from the Caribbean over the next few days.
Thanks for all your support and prayers for the College and all the work going on to get it built.
Expect an update on Wednesday or Thursday.
Garlic – signing off for now – somewhere off Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles.
Roger will love this one!
You may or may not remember that in the last trip out to Rwanda we spent the good part of 3 weeks getting the deed plan legal. This involved numerous visits to the site from the local district surveyor with his GPS machine.
Finally we managed to get a legal document based on his readings which we agreed with. This in total took about 10 weeks!
Just to make sure these readings were set in stone, we hammered some pretty deep stakes into the ground, sawed them at road level , and knew that they were there forever.
So when Paul said that he thought they were gone I was really doubtful. No-one
could have dug hem up I surmised.
But, of course on my last day I had to go and see, just to make sure. Well I was right, no-one had dug them up, just covered them over - with bitmac!
Why do I get the sense that I will have to get the surveyor out another 3 times to set the exact boundaries?
And no I cannot ignore this one, because we need to ensure that the site boundaries are agreed and the water culvert is being dug to the correct position, or someone will require us to redo it.
And the big question is, why and who covered them over and for what reason.
Oh Joy!
