The day I got stuck in Paris.

So beginning last night was probably one of the most stressful times of my life. I know I'm in Paris, which should be exciting, but when all you want to do is just go home, it's not fun.

This is how my day has gone. Last night we woke up at 1:30am and headed to the airport(One of the missionarie's sister and brother-in-law were on my flight as well). When we were going through immigration there was a couple there who were trying to get this little girl on the plane. The police official was resisting because they did not have any record that the little girl was theirs. Kinda scary but they did finally get through and took the girl as well. We also saw many couples who were bringing their new adopted child home as well, so great to see their excitement. We finally got to the terminal at 2:30am. In Mali there is only one terminal, so it gets quite chaotic. While we waited all I wanted to do was get on the computer and call my parents so that I could apologize for my poor attitude the night before. I will be honest and say that I did not handle the news well that I would not be going home the next day. I was very frustrated as all I really wanted was to be home. So after we waited for a while we finally found a really nice man who spoke English(yeah!!) He helped translate everything for us and we finally made it on the plane. We were scheduled to take off at 4:15am, but that did not really happen until about 5:30am. I was stuck in the middle of the plane with a family who did not speak any English. I tried my best to speak some french, but it wasn't really working to well. Finally we arrived in Paris and I had no idea what to expect. The night before my dad had switched my flight so that I would fly out a day later. This was the earliest flight that he was able to get. This meant that I would be staying in Paris for a whole 24 hours alone. Kinda exciting but also a little scary. My dad had told me that I would need to find the ticket counter and try and get compensated for the missed flight by asking for a free hotel stay. I absolutely hate doing this, but with only 2 hours of sleep in 2 days I was just ready to go to bed.
I got in line for Air France and waited my turn. While I was waiting I met a very nice Nigerian man who was on his way back to Nigeria for his father's funeral. He has also missed his flight and was very upset. I felt even more guilty for being upset that i missed my flight, I'm so selfish, when this man had a real reason to be upset. I finally made it up to the counter and all the lady did was tell me that It wasn't her fault and said that I needed to go to another terminal. For any of you who have never been in The Charles De Gaulle Airport, it is awful. There are all these different shuttles that you have to take to get to different terminals. So I jumped on the terminal and went to where she told me to go, it was wrong, so back onto the shuttle I go. I finally made it to the continental terminal and the man leads me down this really long hallway and no one from continental was there. I went back to the shuttle stop and tried to ask a man if he knew where I should go. This is where a mini break down began to happen again and no one who worked in the airport knew where anything was.Finally I headed back to the Air France counter and waited my turn. This time I was prepared to fight. Don't worry I was nice, but the tears did make their way out and I left with my hotel ticket. Now I had to find the shuttle to take to the hotel. It amazed me how many people I had to depend on while in Paris to help me find things, that airport is so confusing. Finally after asking many very nice people I finally found my way to the shuttle(5 hours later). A very nice American business man even let me borrow his phone to call my parents and tell them I was still alive. Now I am just enjoying alone time in my hotel room. I even took a bath!! If only I had more time during the day or I would have gone exploring. I will be so very thankful to finally make it home tomorrow. God has been good and provided strength through this all, and once again I have learned many new lessons through him. I need to get a good night sleep...home tomorrow!!