We're back!

Hey y'all!

After a 25 hour trek that started yesterday at around 10am Eastern Time, we are finally home. The last 36 hours have been eventful. We began the day (Tuesday, July 31) with breakfast at the hostel and an awesome devotion time lead by Randy. After breakfast, we had a little time to pack up and then had an optional tour of a Maasai Village. About half of our group went and about half stayed back for a little rest and relaxation. The tour was definitely interesting! We walked around and saw the huts where a lot of the women were selling things very similar to what we saw in the market the day before. Then Elizabeth, Louisa, Flora and Ashton rode a camel (yes, RODE a camel), and then we were on our way to visit the rest of the village where we met the man of the village, his 9 wives and some of their children. It was definitely a different experience. We got back to the hostel for lunch and then some walked down to the Cultural Heritage Center. By 2:30 we were on our way to the airport. Got to the airport, split a $6 can of Pringles (after Kilimanjaro anything unhealthy looked good) and then boarded the plane. Rory had the pleasure of sitting next to a overserved Arminian man who kept leaning over to kiss Rory on the cheek. He was pretty uncooperative with the flight attendants and kept unbuckling his seatbelt, waving his hands and speaking in a elevated tone. We couldn't believe it! This was like watching Cops! The flight attendants repeatedly tried to get this guy under the control with the help of a man sitting behind them in a red and white checked turban. We are still trying to figure out the guy with the turban's story (maybe under cover security). They were having no luck and said that if we needed to the pilot could land the plane during the flight and have this guy escorted off. Randy stepped in and talked to the pilot which was a good thing since we didn't have much time between layovers to catch our long flight from Ethiopia to Washington. The man was escorted off the plane in handcuffs after much arm flailing and loud words unidentifiable to all of us. Plane ride #2 was rather uneventful minus the large family of Ethiopians with alot of unhappy babies. That was about a 19 or 20 hour flight, stopping in Rome to refuel. Small world story: I sat next to Curtis Chesney, son of Steve Chesney who was the camp speaker out at Frontier Ranch two summers ago. He had been in Rwanda on business. We had no problems going through customs. We couldn't believe it with a group of 33. It was awesome to be back in the States as far as food was concerned. Randy and I definitely ate a cheeseburger at 9:30 am from Fudruckers. Not sure what we were thinking there. Short plane ride from DC to Atlanta (1 hour and 15 minutes) and we couldn't believe how relatively smooth our trip back had been.... until we got to baggage claim. 15 of our bags did not make the connecting flight from DC to Atlanta. A group of us waited at that point since the next flight was arriving shortly rather than take the gamble and hope that the bags showed up that night to our house. We now have all the bags and are safe at home. Thank you for your prayers. God answered them all. What an amazing experience. It will take a good while to process everything. Keep checking the blog, maybe we can get some more pictures up here. Please continue to pray for Drew and Heath who went on to Zimbabwe to join the Apostles group and Evan who went to Uganda to visit his girlfriend. God is good. It's weird to think that yesterday morning I was riding a camel and I am now sitting on my bed writing on my laptop. Looking forward to Mellow Mushroom pizza tonight!

Ashton