Traveling to Maputo
Dear Friends,
Sorry for the oversite on the last blog. I was under the impression (although incorrectly) that Steve's previous blog had included our travel stories and experiences. However as you know it did not. So I will give you a quick recap. Sorry for the out of order information! :)
Our travels were relatively hassel free thanks to the many prayers of faithful friends I'm sure! Our greatest troubles came at the beginning and end. We spent close to 1.5 hours checking in at the Minneapolis airport. We had more than the maximum number of allowed baggage and were hoping to me checked by someone willing to extend a little grace. However that was not the case and we were charged for our two extra pieces of luggage ($195 YIKES!). Then we encountered another issue when we had to weigh our bags. The maximum weight allowed is 70 pounds per bag. Well unfortunately we had been told 75 and all of our bags exceeded the pounds allowed. So we weighed, unpacked, rearranged, repacked and reweighed ALL 14 bags. They actually allowed us 72.5 pounds per bag which was extremely helpful and thanks to our brother in law Andrew we got the bags all set and didn't have to pay for extra weight! Unfortunately in the process of all this rigamarole two of our bags were sent to be inspected without their final destination tags. So the lovely lady at the checkin counter had to call back and try to find them. After two trips back to the security area (one of which Steve accompanied her) they finally located and identified our bags. We said goodbye (with a few tears) to our family and friends then boarded the plane to Chicago.
We were greeted in Chicago by our dear friend Donald and his delightful daughter Annika. Lucy was happy to hug her friend and we were gratful to have an escort through O'hare. We were late getting in and the connection was very tight. We never would have made it to the plane without Donald. Thank you friend! As a result when we reached the check-in counter they had already given away our seats to London. So they were forced to upgrade us to the next seat class - economy plus which was a bonus. Mom's seat was next to a blind, mentally challenged man who was very talkative and Steve was in the bulkhead. (We recommend that those of you coming to visit book bulkhead seats - great leg room on that long flight). I was seated in a row with the three children. After we took off the flight attendant moved Mom to another seat more condusive to quiet, comfortble traveling. We all had dinner, watched a movie and slept until breakfast. Kaleb and Mia actually slept until we landed in London.
We deplaned into London's cold, rainy weather and struggled to find the right bus at the station to take us to Windsor Castle. We finally arrived in the quaint, delightful town of Windsor. We visited Windsor Castle which was simply amazing. The castle is still being used by the queen for entertaining and holiday get aways. During the week it is open to the public for tours. One of the highlights of the day were the guards who are famous for their serious demeanor. The children were delighted by them as they marched and stomped their feet and returned to their boxes (cages as Mia called them). We also enjoyed the dollhouse room. There was a dollhouse replica of Windsor Castle filled with fabulous tiny little furniture. (Think fairy garden gone wild!) It was great fun! We would all highly recommend you visit next time you're in London.
From London we caught and evening flight to Johannesburg. Again it was nice to board the plane, eat dinner, watch a movie and sleep. It makes the flying much more manageable (especially with little kids) when you can sleep a majority of the time. We would recommend this flight more than the 22 hour trip. The other benefit is you're not quite as jet lagged when you reach Africa. Once we got through customs and collected our baggage in Joburg we were greeted by our friend Pieter Ernst. Some of you had the priveledge of meeting Dr. Pieter in Minnesota last winter. He works with World Relief in Chokwe which is about 2.5 hours from Maputo. He actually does much more than work with WR , he is the director for Chokwe and is responsible for huge progress in the areas of child survival and health eduction. He had come to meet us in a large Land Rover and he and Steve spent a good 45 minutes loading our luggage on top of the car. They had strategically placed and secured the bags with rope (and knots any boy scout would be proud of) only to find out that there wasn't enough clearance for the luggage. So we had to unload everything, get the kids out, load the luggage inside the vehicle and walk to the exit of the parking structure. Then Pieter and Steve had to start all over and reload the vehicle! It was quite a lot of work. Needless to say the Sniders will be notorious within World Relief for the time our luggage didn't fit! Oh well, there are worse things!
We had a completely uneventful 7 hour trip from Joburg to Maputo. The border crossing went very smoothly thanks to Pieter's experience and God's provision. We didn't have to pay any money for bringing all our things in or pay any bribes. It was unbelievable. We were all very grateful. Thank you all for your prayers!
So that's the travel recap. We are so grateful for the ease especially considering the possible complications. We got all of our luggage and nothing was damaged. Our children were complete troopers during all of the travel. We couldn't have asked for a better experience.
Our first morning here we were awakened by a phone call from a man delivering our new Volkswagon Van to the hotel. It has proved to be a spacious, reliable vehicle so far. We are incredibly thankful to have a car. We have put many miles (kilometers here) on the van so far and plan on driving it for a long time. It was quite an experience to drive for the first time - left hand shift, right hand drive, left side of road! We've adjusted now and actually Steve is already a pro! The next phone call we received was from Lourdes announcing she had found a home for us to rent. She told us we could go to see the house that afternoon. We did and were quite pleased. We agreed with the lady to rent the house and she said she would be moved out by the next Sunday. Unfortunately she called two days later to say she'd changed her mind and they would be staying in the house. We were disappointed, but God provided an even better house for us with more space and a seperate guest house out back. Our landlady even left some furniture for us to use. It was a classic case of God knows best. So we signed a contract and moved in a week later. We are happy to be living here on Rua J!
So I think you're all caught up now. We have had a wonderful few weeks and are grateful to feel somewhat settled. We began our Portuguese lessons today! WOW! Challenging is the best word I can use. I'm grateful for my childrens sake that they are young and will learn easily. It is hard to learn a new language at 32! I guess I will be believable when I tell my children I know learning is hard work, but necessary.
We miss you all so much. It's hard not to pick up the phone and chat. We miss your smiles, hugs and presence. We look forward to all that God has in store for us in Africa and are counting on you to hang in there with us. We know long distance can be hard, but it has it's upside too. Hopefully we'll see you all soon.
Ate a vista (until we see you again)
Sorry for the oversite on the last blog. I was under the impression (although incorrectly) that Steve's previous blog had included our travel stories and experiences. However as you know it did not. So I will give you a quick recap. Sorry for the out of order information! :)
Our travels were relatively hassel free thanks to the many prayers of faithful friends I'm sure! Our greatest troubles came at the beginning and end. We spent close to 1.5 hours checking in at the Minneapolis airport. We had more than the maximum number of allowed baggage and were hoping to me checked by someone willing to extend a little grace. However that was not the case and we were charged for our two extra pieces of luggage ($195 YIKES!). Then we encountered another issue when we had to weigh our bags. The maximum weight allowed is 70 pounds per bag. Well unfortunately we had been told 75 and all of our bags exceeded the pounds allowed. So we weighed, unpacked, rearranged, repacked and reweighed ALL 14 bags. They actually allowed us 72.5 pounds per bag which was extremely helpful and thanks to our brother in law Andrew we got the bags all set and didn't have to pay for extra weight! Unfortunately in the process of all this rigamarole two of our bags were sent to be inspected without their final destination tags. So the lovely lady at the checkin counter had to call back and try to find them. After two trips back to the security area (one of which Steve accompanied her) they finally located and identified our bags. We said goodbye (with a few tears) to our family and friends then boarded the plane to Chicago.
We were greeted in Chicago by our dear friend Donald and his delightful daughter Annika. Lucy was happy to hug her friend and we were gratful to have an escort through O'hare. We were late getting in and the connection was very tight. We never would have made it to the plane without Donald. Thank you friend! As a result when we reached the check-in counter they had already given away our seats to London. So they were forced to upgrade us to the next seat class - economy plus which was a bonus. Mom's seat was next to a blind, mentally challenged man who was very talkative and Steve was in the bulkhead. (We recommend that those of you coming to visit book bulkhead seats - great leg room on that long flight). I was seated in a row with the three children. After we took off the flight attendant moved Mom to another seat more condusive to quiet, comfortble traveling. We all had dinner, watched a movie and slept until breakfast. Kaleb and Mia actually slept until we landed in London.
We deplaned into London's cold, rainy weather and struggled to find the right bus at the station to take us to Windsor Castle. We finally arrived in the quaint, delightful town of Windsor. We visited Windsor Castle which was simply amazing. The castle is still being used by the queen for entertaining and holiday get aways. During the week it is open to the public for tours. One of the highlights of the day were the guards who are famous for their serious demeanor. The children were delighted by them as they marched and stomped their feet and returned to their boxes (cages as Mia called them). We also enjoyed the dollhouse room. There was a dollhouse replica of Windsor Castle filled with fabulous tiny little furniture. (Think fairy garden gone wild!) It was great fun! We would all highly recommend you visit next time you're in London.
From London we caught and evening flight to Johannesburg. Again it was nice to board the plane, eat dinner, watch a movie and sleep. It makes the flying much more manageable (especially with little kids) when you can sleep a majority of the time. We would recommend this flight more than the 22 hour trip. The other benefit is you're not quite as jet lagged when you reach Africa. Once we got through customs and collected our baggage in Joburg we were greeted by our friend Pieter Ernst. Some of you had the priveledge of meeting Dr. Pieter in Minnesota last winter. He works with World Relief in Chokwe which is about 2.5 hours from Maputo. He actually does much more than work with WR , he is the director for Chokwe and is responsible for huge progress in the areas of child survival and health eduction. He had come to meet us in a large Land Rover and he and Steve spent a good 45 minutes loading our luggage on top of the car. They had strategically placed and secured the bags with rope (and knots any boy scout would be proud of) only to find out that there wasn't enough clearance for the luggage. So we had to unload everything, get the kids out, load the luggage inside the vehicle and walk to the exit of the parking structure. Then Pieter and Steve had to start all over and reload the vehicle! It was quite a lot of work. Needless to say the Sniders will be notorious within World Relief for the time our luggage didn't fit! Oh well, there are worse things!
We had a completely uneventful 7 hour trip from Joburg to Maputo. The border crossing went very smoothly thanks to Pieter's experience and God's provision. We didn't have to pay any money for bringing all our things in or pay any bribes. It was unbelievable. We were all very grateful. Thank you all for your prayers!
So that's the travel recap. We are so grateful for the ease especially considering the possible complications. We got all of our luggage and nothing was damaged. Our children were complete troopers during all of the travel. We couldn't have asked for a better experience.
Our first morning here we were awakened by a phone call from a man delivering our new Volkswagon Van to the hotel. It has proved to be a spacious, reliable vehicle so far. We are incredibly thankful to have a car. We have put many miles (kilometers here) on the van so far and plan on driving it for a long time. It was quite an experience to drive for the first time - left hand shift, right hand drive, left side of road! We've adjusted now and actually Steve is already a pro! The next phone call we received was from Lourdes announcing she had found a home for us to rent. She told us we could go to see the house that afternoon. We did and were quite pleased. We agreed with the lady to rent the house and she said she would be moved out by the next Sunday. Unfortunately she called two days later to say she'd changed her mind and they would be staying in the house. We were disappointed, but God provided an even better house for us with more space and a seperate guest house out back. Our landlady even left some furniture for us to use. It was a classic case of God knows best. So we signed a contract and moved in a week later. We are happy to be living here on Rua J!
So I think you're all caught up now. We have had a wonderful few weeks and are grateful to feel somewhat settled. We began our Portuguese lessons today! WOW! Challenging is the best word I can use. I'm grateful for my childrens sake that they are young and will learn easily. It is hard to learn a new language at 32! I guess I will be believable when I tell my children I know learning is hard work, but necessary.
We miss you all so much. It's hard not to pick up the phone and chat. We miss your smiles, hugs and presence. We look forward to all that God has in store for us in Africa and are counting on you to hang in there with us. We know long distance can be hard, but it has it's upside too. Hopefully we'll see you all soon.
Ate a vista (until we see you again)
posted by Sniders in Africa at 8/18/2005 10:53:00 AM
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