Well.... Rwanda is now a memory.

The last weekend in Kigali was a bit hectic as I rushed around trying to tie up some proverbial loose ends.  I ended up with some great contacts in RITA (the Rwandan IT Authority) as well as email addresses and phone numbers of several other influential people in the local IT industry... and the entertainment industry as well.  All of them said I need to go back to live in Kigali and teach English and IT skills to the Rwandans.  Hmmm sounds good to me.

The trip back to Europe was rather nice.  Ethiopian Airlines took me all the way to Brussels.  Since it was New Year's eve, the flights were only about half full... everyone could stretch out and get comfortable.  It also helps that EA flies with older 757 and 767s which means a LOT more leg and hip room.  They are very comfortable, albeit tired (in need of some maintenance on the interior), old aircraft.

The airport in Addis Ababa was moderately busy.  It's not exactly an airport you want to spend a long time waiting around in though.. not much to see or do.  The flight from Addis to Paris was kinda strange... well not the flight itself, but the passengers... almost all were French nationals (Caucasians) who had at least one if not two or three small African babies with them... I assume they were all in Africa as a group to adopt these children.  It seemed that way.  I didn't ask though.

There was also more than the usual complement of numpties on the flight.  Even before the flight left the numpties were out in full force.  When you fly, you have to go through a metal detector... the same process in almost any airport in the world.  You remove your belt, keys, coins, mobile phones etc etc.  You step through... you collect your stuff.  Well... these numpties were all standing in line.  They would step through, set off the metal detector.  Step back.. remove a handful of coins from a pocket... step through again... set off the metal detector... back.. remove some keys from another pocket... set off the detector again... remove a phone.. again... remove more coins... again... and on and on.  Finally they would make it through without setting off the metal detector.  Time for the next guy in line to have a go at it.  Now this guy had been standing there watching the previous guy go through the process of setting off the alarm and removing metal things from his pockets over and over... you would think that this would spark some part of his brain and he would think ahead and remove all the metal things... right?  Nope.  Same process... beeep... remove coins... beeep... remove keys... beeep... and so on.  These people had to have known that they needed to remove all metal.  They flew from Paris to Addis at some point to get there to pick up the children they were taking back to France... they had to have gone through a metal detector to leave France...

Their numptiness was further demonstrated on the flight... particularly as we were coming in to land in Paris.  The announcement was made for everyone to take their seats, put on the seatbelts and return the chairs to the upright position in preparation for landing.  Normally that is your cue to.. ummm.. sit down right?  Well, the Africans, myself, and a few others did as instructed... the numpties though took this as a signal that they should get up and start walking around, collecting their luggage, chatting with friends collecting the children from various parts of the aircraft and so on.  They continued this right through the approach and during the actual touch down.  Credit goes to the pilot who set down the 767 with a feather touch on the runway.  It was the smoothest landing I've ever experienced, and what basically saved these numpties from falling down as they continued collecting their luggage from the overhead bins as we touched down and slowed on the runway.  They were ready to get off the airplane.. queued up at the doors before we even reached the end of the runway!

I continued on to Brussels and then since all the flights from Brussels to Hamburg were canceled due to lack of interest, I took the train back to Hamburg.  Reality slowly settling into my consciousness... the cold seeping into my joints... my tan fading back to my usual pasty white with a tinge of blue...