Day 827. Last night we were still pretty busy getting everything ready for our departure, and getting the apartment ready for our 2-month absence. I also kept waiting for our approval to travel, which was supposed to come by 7:30, but it didn't.It actually came 17 hours after I sent the documents in, when we were already in Paris.
Just after 11:30 we were done with everything and went to bed for 3 hours. Thankfully the kids had a quiet night of sleep.
At 2:40 the second alarm went off, and we got up. We started dressing the kids, who were soon wide awake and enjoying the excitement. The moment they had been talking about for weeks had finally come! Margit soon came upstairs and joined us. Randy got the car seats up and started taking our 11 suitcases plus carry-ons to the entrance of our building. It wasn't long before our first driver showed up, and a little later the second one. Even a big van alone was not sufficient for all of us and our stuff. Arriving before 3:30 am is surely not easy and a sacrifice from them that we are thankful for.
The kids were excited that they were finally able to take their dogs out. They pulled them on their leashes all the way to the entrance. Randy was taking care of loading the vehicles and putting the car seats in. Margit, Emmy, Tammy and I went in the van, and Randy and Sammy in the car, and off we went, leaving at the great time of 3:50.
It's only a 15 minute ride from us to the airport, when there is no traffice, but because our driver took a wrong turn, it took us a little longer. Both vehicles parked next to each other, and we started to unload. I wished I had taken a picture there! The guys got us three carts, and we were extremely thankful that our drivers helped us get everything to the check-in counter. I had Sammy on my chest, strapped into the baby carrier, which was the best solution, while the other two walked or rode their dogs, with Daddy pulling them.
We had arrived at the airport at 4:15 am, and I still didn't know whether we'd have to load everything back into the car and go back home. That was another reason our drivers stayed, as check-in was already open at this early hours. We didn't have to wait long, before it was our turn. It was a younger lady, and she had an even younger guy next to her, who could have been a trainee, even though their conversations did not seem work-related. I gave her our passports, and she started typing on the computer. She asked about our visas for Mali, and I told her that I had uploaded them. Then she asked for our PCR tests, and I told her I had uploaded those too. And that was the end of our conversation! The guys started putting one suitcase after the other on the belt, and then said their good-byes. Then she asked whether we had carry-ons, and I said yes. She said that the plane was full, and we needed to check them in. I answered that we had three children, pointing at them, she nodded and that was it. We took our documents and left. Praise God! I was so relieved that God had made a way for us to travel!
We were walking towards security, with Randy pulling the kids sitting on the dogs. I soon realized that Sammy's 9 kilos were still enough to make my back hurt after a while of carrying him. Security was a challenge, but one I had anticipated. All coats had to come off, Sammy and the baby carrier too, and I had some liquids, including drinks for the kids that I had to get out of the bags. Plus the electronics of course. I went through the machine with all three kids, and it beeped. A nice lady quickly patted down the kids, and was then more thorough with me. The next challenge was putting everything back in and back on. I had to put Sammy on the floor, which he didn't mind.
We continued on, walking the long walk to our gate. Margit was ahead of us most of the time, while we had to go slowly with the kids. A few times they had other plans than to continue walking, and so they got upsset. We finally made it to our gate and sat down. Tammy and Emmy immediately started running around and playing and having fun. They were going behind the barrier, so I had to get them back from there. Randy first left to change Sammy's diaper, and later to change Tammy's. Boarding started while he was gone, and so we couldn't pre-board or even board, when our zone was called. They finally returned, when all zones were called to board, and we were able to walk to the front of the line. The kids had been excited the whole time.
We got on the plane, where we had the whole row 16 to ourselves. I sat on the aisle with Tammy and Emmy to my left, and Randy on the other aisle seat with Sammy, and Margit by the window. Sammy also had his own seat, but they gave Randy a baby seat belt for his lap, so that he could hold him during take-off and landing. He actually ended up sitting with Daddy the whole flight long, except for when I held him.
The biggest children on this - their third - trip to Mali was getting them to sit down with a seatbelt on during take off and landing. They simply did not want to sit or have a seatbelt just at that time! A big reason was certainly their great tiredness. Sammy slept a little during the first flight, though not very long. Emmy fell asleep first, during take-off, when he had to sit with the seatbelt on, and Tammy fell asleep a few minutes later and ended up sleeping with my leg as her pillow. They both slept pretty long, waking up close to the end of our flight. Emmy ate the little fruit cake they had given everybody, but Tammy didn't want to eat anything. The whole trip long it was hard to get them eat or drink.
We arrived in Paris before 8 am, half an hour early, and so they were not ready for us, and we had to sit on the plane for a while. Then we let everybody off the plane before gathering everything up to get off ourselves. Margit was ahead again, and Randy had the kids sit down on their dogs, so he could pull them. By the way, their dogs were full of snacks for them to last for a while in Mali, so they have some food to supplement what they get there, and some familiar food.
We started walking in the direction of the connections and were soon very thankful that we had several hours as it took longer than I've ever experienced in Paris, and I don't even know why. It's not because of any Covid checks. When we got to a big board with flight information and a big bathroom, we made a stop. We used the bathroom and changed two out of three diapers, then we walked on.
And soon had to stop at the end of a long line of people that went all the way to the bottom of escalators - that they had turned off. I didn't look how long it took us to go through this line at passport control - that's all it was - but it took at least an hour. It moved slowly, and we had a big distance to cover. One challenge was to keep Tammy and Emmy closeby and not have them run off. And then Sammy started crying, early on during our wait. He had only slept a few minutes on the plane and was extremely tired. Nothing I did made a difference; he just started crying harder and harder and harder. People were looking, but there was no airport staff anywhere that would take us to the front of the line. Some people encouraged us to cut the line a few times, which we ended up doing. Once we were in the first row, a staff person did notice us and took us straight to a counter for the passport check that does not take any time at all. Why was there such a long line, and why didn't they open more counters? As you can imagine, I saw many people run to their gates after we left there.
Thankfully we had plenty of time. We ended up being in Paris for 5 hours. We slowly made our way to our gate, and I was extremely thankful that we bypassed French security instead of having to go through it again. You just never know, as I've had to go through it again many times. When we got to our gate, we found a comfy spot to sit down. Sammy had screamed all the way there and only calmed down once I got him out of the carrier and handed him to Daddy. I had taken some our leftover food with us, which I was very thankful for at that time. They all ate some bread and finished off a whole pack of salami.
We had only had a moving belt once to get us to our gate faster, and one ended right where we were sitting. Tammy and Emmy went to its exit and enjoyed all the movement and played there for a while, having much fun. Thankfully one ended there, and the other one was not moving, or they could have left quickly. They were all eating some, when they already started the boarding call. We really hadn't been there that long. It took us a little time to gather everything together, and then we went to the front of the line. They hadn't actually started boarding yet, but were checking people's passports and PCR tests. He looked at one test and then said he'd trust my word on the others. They scanned our boarding passes, and we went through to the jetway to the plane. However, people were lining up there, as they didn't let anyone onto the plane yet. Sammy was crying again and could not be stopped. Tammy and Emmy were having fun with Margit. Then the line finally started moving.
We got on the plane and found our seats in row 27. This was a bigger plane with two aisles, and I had the three seats on the left again, with Tammy and Emmy, with Randy and Sammy on the other side of the aisle. Margit was sitting in the middle seat right in front of us. In a way it's nice to have 3 seats with two toddlers, as it gives you plenty of space. The kids were immediately interested in the big movie screens and started tapping and moving their fingers across it. They don't often get to watch anything on my phone, but it's amazing how they know exactly how I touch my phone, what movements I make, and copy me. Sometimes when Tammy gets a hold of my phone, she even succeeds in unlocking it. And today she succeeded in picking Chinese as her language and then go to movies or music or something - I couldn't read it! I asked the flight attendant how to change the language and then figured it out by comparing it with my own screen.
They were also interested in everything else that was on their seat - a pillow, a blanket and a headset. It didn't take long for the headsets to have completely been taken apart. But they didn't want to use them anyway. They were perfectly happy to watch what was happening on the screen without hearing anything. Emmy loves sheep, and so an animated sheep movie was on a lot. Then there was a horse movie that was on for while, but their favorite one was with wild animals in Africa ("Duma"). And their favorite there was a tiny monkey. I had to replay one scene, where the monkey swims and then jumps over and over again, and they were laughing every time.
We were sitting on the plane for about an hour, before we finally took off. It was hot, and so Tammy soon had her shirt off, though we did put it back on later. Later I took Emmy's stockings and winter shoes off and put summer shoes on. Tammy would not let me take her stockings off, so we just put the summer shoes on. They were all short-sleeved, when we arrived on a hot Mali afternoon.
Emmy fell asleep first on the flight, and he was asleep, when they brought him a kids meal. Tammy was awake, and I'm very thankful I only had one child to do this with, as I could not have prevented of everything flying every direction with two children. I was sitting in the middle seat at that time and Tammy by the window, and I started opening her food so she could eat. She ate absolutely NOTHING! Just a few sips of the juice. No chicken, no potatoes, no bread with cheese, no muffin. I myself was hungry not having had anything and was thankful for the food. The adult food came a while later, and I was still trying to keep her from throwing off her tray or food items. Still, the flight attendant would not take the tray with him. I managed to eat my own food and keep all the trays on top.
It wasn't long before Tammy fell asleep, and she managed to lie flat on the seat. I was pretty tired myself, but Mommys don't get to rest. Once she was asleep, Emmy woke up and was looking at his tray of food, but it was the same story. I couldn't get him to eat anything. Sammy fell asleep on Daddy after they had both eaten, and Daddy got a good nap as well.
The flight was 5 hours 15 minutes, but it seemed so much longer, with the kids getting antsy to arrive. A few times they went into the aisle and moved around a big, interacting with some people. One African man had Emmy sit in his lap a few times, and another time a man was playing with them and making them laugh. The lady sitting behind our window seat was a grumpy African lady who was bothered by everything the kids did and so I tried to keep them from turning back and putting their hands through the gaps between their chairs. Still, Emmy threw his little dog back there twice.
When our arrival was finally approaching and it was time to sit down and put their seatbelts on, neither one wanted to do so. And by now it's impossible to do so against their will. They just open it again or slip out. The flight attendant came, and together we managed to sit down Emmy and put his belt on. He calmed down and sat still after that. Not so Tammy. And so the lady left to get a baby seat belt so she could sit on my lap, and then she calmed down and was okay sitting on me, even though she had to turn her back to me.
We landed about an hour or so late, around 5:30 pm local time, which is 6:30 pm Austrian time. Both Tammy and Emmy once during the course of the trip were so cranky and tired that they asked me to put them to bed! That shows you how tired they really were. A lot of people passed us to get off the plane, before we were able to get our stuff together and get off ourselves. Sammy was again unhappy in the baby carrier.
I'm glad that the new airport part opened 2-3 years ago, so that we don't have to take a bus to the terminal any more but walk straight into the jetway. A white airport worker helped Emmy and Tammy to step out of the plane, and Emmy gave his big smile to the other (Malian) workers standing there. We walked on, behind a crowd of other people, and got to the first checkpoint. They looked at our boarding passes to make sure we were supposed to get off the plane, as the plane continued on to go to another African city. We moved on - already feeling the heat - and got to the second checkpoint at the end of the jetway. I had to show them our PCR tests and yellow fever vaccinations. Even the kids needed to have a PCR test here, even though would not have needed one in Europe. I did notice that they were not checking people's body temperatures any more, which they had done these past 7 years, first because of Ebola and then Corona.
We continued on and got to the third checkpoint. This time it was passports and visas. Paul had done our visas in Bamako and sent us photocopies. When they saw us with three little kids - and Sammy screaming at the top of his lung - they handed our passports to an officer who took them downstairs to the visa department. As for us, we went to the elevator, where we waited for Randy who was pulling Emmy and Tammy on their dogs, which doesn't go that fast. Downstairs we walked to the visa department, where they processed us pretty much right away, taking a picture of each of us. Once again I noticed a change when they did not take our fingerprints which they have ALWAYS done in the past. Once we were done, I was told I could go outside to get the original visas.
I handed Sammy to Randy and left them, hoping they could keep Tammy and Emmy from following me without them being too upset. Already they had both wanted me to pick them up, when I had Sammy and could not. They were really tired by then. Thankfully I saw Paul immediately, when I got outside, and returned with the visas really quickly. A few minutes later we received our passports and could go on. I do like the system a lot, as I don't have to mail my passport in Europe anywhere, and I don't have to stand in the long line for the passport and visa checks upon arrival.
We moved past those people and stood in the baggage claim area. Thankfully one of the senior luggage guys was right there to help us. Before we had kids, we refused help as they expect to be paid well, far above what would be appropriate in Mali. But now we really need their help. They took our 11 luggage tags and went off to pull our suitcases off the belt. They had three carts for everything. I don't even know how many guys there were. We were standing by them and by our carry-ons, with Sammy crying and Tammy and Emmy also getting pretty cranky and tired. Especially when Daddy tried to keep them from running around.
It didn't take too long until they had all the bags together, three carts loaded to the brim, and we started walking to the line by the x-ray machine. The head luggage guy asked me whether I had food inside, as they would pull us aside. He said to just give them money right away, and he'd take care of it That had never happened to me before that they would say that in advance! He kept coming back to me several times with this. I told him I knew all about it, and that I also knew what food was allowed to bring. After everything had gone through, he told me that 3 bags had been marked, and I gave him 10 Euros to take care of it. The sanitary guy STILL talked to me about it, asking me what we had in the bags. I told him we had chocolates for the kids to hand out at Christmas. He started saying that it was not allowed to bring food, when I told him I knew the government decree that said what you could bring and what not and that chocolate was allowed. He had to admit that that was true. Then he said that he would let us go without paying. Had I not already given 10 Euros to the luggage guy to take care of it?
We continued on to our last checkpoint. They compared our luggage tags to the tags on the suitcases to make sure we had the right suitcases. It took some time. Then we were allowed to walk out of the building into the hot Malian air. It had gotten so late that it was already dark. Sammy was still crying on my chest. The luggage guys followed Paul to our car, where they helped our driver to put all the suitcases on top of it. In the meantime we decided to get in. Emmy was afraid and kept saying no, but was fine after I got in first. At first he was sitting by himself on the bench with Randy next to him. He had taken Sammy who stopped crying once he was with Daddy, and Tammy sat next to me. All the windows were closed and it was extremely hot. It was 38 degrees (over 100F) outside; at least the sun had gone down. Tammy started crying, asking to go to bed. We opened the windows, which made no difference in a sitting car, but it sure felt nice once we got moving, even though all the smog came into the car.
After a while Tammy moved to my lap, and then Emmy also hoped on, sitting on my other leg. And then he fell asleep on me, and Sammy fell asleep as well. The girl stayed wide awake.
What is normally a short ride took what seemed forever because of all the traffic. The city has been growing, as well as the number of cars, but the infrastructure does not work for that many vehicles. We were barely moving.
I was really glad, when we arrived. We went through our gates, and there were our two pregnant sheep. Emmy had been looking forward to seeing the sheep, but when he saw them in the dark, unfamiliar surrounding, he started crying. I told him we'd not see them again tonight, that we'd go straight into our house.
We parked the car in pretty much complete darkness. It annoyed me that all the outside lights were not working, when I always emphasize that they needed to repair them so we'd have light on the whole property at night. What's the point of having a guard! The kids were a bit fearful, when they had to get off the vehicle in the dark. We walked over to our house and went straight in, while the guys took all our suitcases down and brought them to our house. I tell you, arriving is always hard, the time of transition, returning to your house that you haven't lived in in months. The bathroom light wasn't working, the toilet was leaking, the floor wet, and the AC in our bedroom wasn't working either. It was 32.8 degrees (91 F) in our bedroom, when we went to bed.
We were all standing in our living room, with suitcases everywhere, the kids running around, having eyes only for the cats. The nice cat, Brownie, was so happy to see me, as no one else pets her, and our kids tried to pet her as well. Even though she's the sweestest cat, she hit Tammy twice because our kids make these fast, wild movements that scare her. I was impressed, when Tammy still wanted to pet her after that.
The kids were still asking to go to bed, and that was my first priority. Paul showed Margit to her appartment.
Their old sheet was still on their bed to protect the mattress. The desert dust covers everything inside the house, so everything is always dirty, especially after a long absence. They only get our floors cleaned before we return, but that was already great. I took the dirty sheet off and had a harder time than expected finding a clean one that fit. We put it on, changed their diapers and put shorts on them, and put them to bed. All three in one big bed. It was after 9 pm local time, so after 10 pm Austrian time. They were dead tired, but suddenly hyper-active, sharing their big bed together. They were running and jumping and lauhging in their bed. No sign of sleep. It took us a long time to get them to sleep! It was an unfamiliar surrounding and an unknown bed, even though they have slept in that bed since they were born, the last two times we were in Mali. Sammy was crying, and kept crying all night. Tammy and Emmy only fell asleep once they got to lie down next to Daddy, who also went to bed right away. Once they were asleep, I moved them to their bed.
Everyone was in bed, but me. It was only just after 9 pm in Mali, and I still had lots to do. Randy was gonna do the suitcases tomorrow, which put the chocolates needing to go into the fridge somewhat at peril. I wanted to write this report, and do the pictures, as I knew time would be of short supply tomorrow. I started going through the pictures, sitting in our dark bedroom, and soon got really tired. I realized there was no way I could do this. We had slept 3 hours before leaving Austria, and I had never had a nap during the whole trip. So I gave up and went to bed. It was 10:30 pm, but it was close to midnight before I could fall asleep, as Sammy was crying, and the others also needed help.
