Waiting for our first flight, meant, to us, that we were almost in Benin, little did we know that it would feel like forever until we arrived! The travel plan, as some of you may know, was intense! It honestly felt like we had traveled for at least a week and a half, even though it was only a 32-hour flight plan.
Right off the bat, we had troubles did not falter, since we had troubles with putting the guitar through, and names being wrong on tickets, or bags or I don’t even know, but it all worked out! Our first flight was to Salt Lake City, which was only 1.5h, so it was quick! Still, we all managed to catch some shut eye. The layover until our next flight was 6 hours, and felt much, much longer because I fell asleep at random times, so I never knew what time it was haha! We moved around a lot too, went adventuring, and ate, so it felt like we had spent a whole day or two in that airport! WE ALSO SAW THE RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TEAM IN THE AIRPORT! They were chilling there with all their gear on and everything, it was awesome!
Our plane had finally come to the terminal and we were all waiting, until we had gotten a message that something on the plane was broken and being fixed...that was a little concerning, but we are alive and well, so it’s all good! The Paris flight was a little over 10.5 hours, and I was exhausted and ready to sleep, but also starving, so I stayed awake for an hour or 2 watching this weird movie till the food came, then conked out. I actually managed to sleep for like more than half of the flight, which was awesome!
On était finalement atterris à Paris! We had reached Paris!!! I was so excited to be in Paris again, because I love it there! The whole time I was like smiling and really excited to order food in French and just be in that environment! Yay for France!
Our flight to Benin had been delayed because they had to change the plane...again, a little concerning, but it all worked out. We waited another 2 hours or longer for that, and we ended up being shuttled to our flight. It was FREEZING outside, like freezing freezing = snowing! At that point, I kind of regretted being in shorts and a t-shirt, but knew that on the other side of the flight (Benin), I would be so happy that I was wearing what I was wearing! That flight went smoothly, as all the others, and we were finally on our way to Benin! When we got off the plane, you immediately felt the African weather, it was like instant humidity and heat! I instantly started sweating, and basically haven’t stopped since then haha, but I’m getting used to it. We immediately got quite the experience, only being in the airport. It was crazy, jam packed with people (sweaty people hahaha!), all going through customs and getting our yellow fever vaccines checked out. If you did not have your yellow fever paper, they immediately took you aside and gave you the vaccine! It was intense, but gladly we had prepared our papers in advance. :D When we were all crowded together, attempting to grab luggage through like a million people, the power went out in the airport! It was really exciting though haha, we got to experience a lot right away, not even out of the airport! On the other side of baggage claims, Patrice and Olivier were waiting for us in this huge crowd of people (HUGE), so we pushed our way through and made it to the car, packed our stuff in, and we we’re off!
WE HAD FINALLY ARRIVED! :D
P.S. Patrice is our contact here in Benin, he works for GAiN, and Olivier is one of the DRIME members here, that the DRIME team that came here in May for 2 weeks helped start and train, and when the DRIME team left, they totally took it into their own hands and have still been practicing since May, which is very exciting!
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