09/24/2010 L’aventure commence.
I am at SFO now, waiting for my Air France flight to Paris. Everyone starts to show up about 3 hours early to load the 30 or so boxes of equipment and supplies, plus our own personal stuff. How will the plane get off the ground?!!
Six of u
s came from SFO; the box mafia!
Travel these days is becoming more and more homogeneous. Even Air France is using the same crummy commissary, the flights are full and over booked, and everyone is getting too large for the seats.
After being up all night flying to Paris, we are all tired.
Landing in Africa always stirs deep feelings in me. There is an earthy, ethereal smell and feel, plus the smoky smell of open fires. It is a bit humid, but nothing like the SE or NE of the US. Just enough to be rich and, well, loamy.
Hotel is nice, as I remember. Mali just finished celebrating the 50th year of independence, and there are still signs of the event around town. Along the main road are lights in the ground – the curbs, the lane lines, the center dividers. '
This is a very cohesive team. Many who have been to Mali before, many who have worked together in other locations, many who are Interplast veterans. Streamlines the team dynamics. Nice to see everyone here again, to speak and hear the Africans speak French, and I think we are all ready to dig in.
