Part 3

Part Three

 

From there, things got crazy again.  Plans to get us on a plane came and then fell through. I think I packed like 5 times. We soon discovered that the hotel had a cafeteria where they had the closest thing we had seen to a hamburger and fries, so naturally every elder went down all at once and ordered one or two....... or three:)  Over all we stayed in the Lungi Airport hotel for three days and on the dawn of the third day when the first light was in the sky we looked to the east (only Cadence will understand that last sentence;).  On the third day we actually all checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. Upon arrival at the airport we were greeted by two very nice and big guards who then checked us for weapons I think, and then doused our hands in chlorine. We then were allowed to proceed to the actual airport. Now the airport looked more like a biological weapons war zone than an airport. It was covered with plastic and there were people walking around in hazmat suits. We took our bags and made our way to the front door and were greeted by a mountain of paperwork and multiple temperature checks. After informing them about every little aspect about my last five months, we were allowed to enter the building. Upon entrance we found more paperwork and more temperature checks. We were all admitted to pass through.  They then took our bags and put them on the plane. We however went to go wait for the plane to be prepared for us. When the plane was almost prepared the crew members came out to the waiting area and kinda gave us the info on how this was going to go down. They told us they were from International SOS and that before we were permitted to board we would be going through a health check where they once again asked us a bunch of questions and checked our temperature. We were all given the green light and we boarded the plane. When we were on the plane we were served the best tasting airplane food ever! 

The ride to Portugal took us over the Sahara Desert, something I thought I would never see in my life. We landed in Portugal at night and they took us to a separate terminal from the rest of the airport. After customs we were greeted by the missionaries for Portugal and by a senior couple who took us all back to a room and gave us some water and crackers then they told us that there have been some changes in our assignments.  We were all shocked.  It was then that I knew that I was not going back to West Africa anytime soon.  They gave us all our assignments, we were being sent all over the United States, and me, I was assigned to Atlanta.  They told us we would be leaving tomorrow morning and that we would be spending the night in a hotel, so we went to the hotel and spent the night in Portugal, another thing I thought I would never do.

This is where I'm going to end the adventure today.

Elder Gebauer