Well, as you may have guessed, we are finally here! We arrived in Guinea in around 9:15 Wednesday evening. Thanks everyone for your comments on our last post, it was a great encouragement! The night after we wrote our last post (Tuesday night) Debra and I fell asleep quickly, we were exhausted. Canaan feel asleep alright but woke up halfway through the night and didn’t sleep well after that. He was definitely suffering from a bit of jet lag.
(Canaan on the way to Paris)
The next morning we woke up at 5am to catch our bus from Brussels to Paris. American Airlines was great to us, they actually booked a huge fancy coach for just 8 people and drove us to Paris. The ride turned out to be a European history tour, the bus driver told us about many European battles that took place in the fields that we drove by. We got the airport around 10am but our flight wasn’t boarding until 3pm so we had plenty of time to rest at the airport. We got to know some of the other stranded passengers who were all West African.We thankfully boarded our flight and took off somewhere around 4:30pm. Canaan did alright on this flight, though it was during the day and he wanted desperately to get down to the floor and explore. Obviously we couldn’t let him and this frustrated him to no end. About halfway into the flight we got our own dinners and tried to feed Canaan some of the food. There was this yellow stuff that didn’t look that great but we thought we’d see what Canaan thought of it. I put a little in his mouth and he promptly threw up. We handled it well and were back up in business a few minutes later. Then he puked again. And again. The third time though was projectile. He sprayed it across both Debra and I and soaked a seat. We sat there stunned, soaked in vomit. I couldn’t tell if Debra was going to laugh or cry. No one seemed to interested in helping either. We had to yell to get a flight attendants attention and he brought us a garbage to put our nasty clothes in. We were over joyed to finally here the announcement that we were landing.
We knew it would be hot there but nothing prepared us for the hot, wet, steaming blanket of moisture that wrapped itself around us as we stepped off of that plane. Before we could even get in the terminal our palms were sticky and our faces were beading up with sweat. Canaan’s poor little face has been beat red since we arrived but he is handling it great, better than we are I think. We were met by Dalton Dueck who helped us speed through the airport with the help of a Guinean friend who knows the system well. Dalton took us by his place to pick up his wife Sue and we were taken to a Guestroom for the night. We slept well and Canaan did alright too. We had a great lunch with the Duecks and before long we started to drive to Hamdallaye, the mission base for NTM in Guinea. The drive was four hours long leaving us plenty of time to question Dalton but for much of it we just stared out the window at our surroundings. I’ve lived in Papua New Guinea for six months and been to Brazil and Mongolia but I had never seen such poverty as I have today. We arrived at the base for dinner with Pete and Faith Olver and are now getting ourselves settled a bit. Canaan went down well and we pray that he sleeps well tonight.
We are very thankful for the opportunity that we have to see the field of Guinea, God is teaching us so much about the realities of Guinea and also the needs here. We are excited to soon come here to stay and help assist those who are bringing the Gospel to the Guinean people. Thanks everyone for being a part of the work here in Guinea through encouragement and support, we haven’t been able to take any pictures since we landed but will soon and we’ll let you know.
On this day..
- YEAH! - 2006
- The Hardest Thing - 2006
I am glad to hear that the rest of your travelling went fairly smoothly (except for cannan throwing up). Looking forward to seeing some pictures and hearing about the rest of the trip!
What a great MK Canaan is turing out to be! God bless your family as you serve Him! You have no idea what a great encouragement it is to see your journey to Guinea via your blog! I love it. :)
Prayers for you continually!
HAPPY 25 BIRTHDAY NORM!!! It’s still the 14th in Canada but its the 15th in Guinea. Have a wonderful memorable birthday. We love you and ask Gods continued blessings on you. Love from Mom and Dad xoxoxo
Wow, what a trip! At least it was a trip you will never forget. Can’t wait to see pictures wish I could have travel over with you. Have a great time!
Well, your flight experience does not sound good. We have friends that left to be missionaries also and their little boy had it coming out the other end and by the end of the flight he didn’t have any diapers or clothing left. It makes me not look forward to flying when it comes our turn.
Lots of Love,
Ang
hey guys! Happy B-day Norm!!! I hope that it is a good one!!! We love you guys and will coninue to pray for your time there. Sorry about the boy and the vomit! That is a bummer, especially that no one helped! Talk to you later and again Happy Birthday Norm!!!!
Happy Birthday Norman, We love you so much and we are sooooo proud of you and Debra for everything yo are doing! I’m glad that you got there safe, we have been praying for you and I was worried about you guys and my little nephew but I knew you guys would be fine. Sorry to hear about the projectile vomiting, that truly stinks!!!!!!! Have a good trip, can\t wait to see you . LOVE YOU!!!!
Yea! Oh man, i am so glad that you are there, but that flight for Canaan does not sound too exciting! Poor guy, AND you both! Yikes! We are glad that you are there safe and sound though, and hope you all had a GREAT nights sleep!! love ya!