Uganda 2022 Day 18

We made it to Atlanta! We had to go through customs, but the weird thing is they only asked where we where coming from. No extra questions. Destanie mention that I and the lady behind me in line were coming from Uganda as well. When I went up the security guy asked me and I mentioned the lady in line behind me too. He pulled her up with me. Then they took us to a separate area a few feet away and asked Ebola questions and not the normal custom questions. With all the answers being no, they just let us continue on. It was so frustrating that we had to be rerouted just to have them ask us about 6 questions and get our personal info. From there we had to get our checked baggage as they had not done anything to help send us to Seattle. We then went to the main lobby to talk to the Turkish airlines when they opened and see if they would be able to do anything for our flight home. The gentleman we take to was much nicer. He said no, but in a better and nicer way that anyone else. As a group, we decided not to get a hotel and to save the money for our flight to Seattle. Everyone except Neil (but including Brian who we made an honorary team member) made it on the same flight. Neil found one that left earlier, but may have cost more. It has been so fun finding Brian and having him spend time with us. I don’t know if I mentioned it (as I have slept maybe an hour in the last 43 ish hours), but we met Brian in Uganda and learned he was going to Seattle. After that point we hung out together and learned he went to his brother’s wedding in Uganda, he goes to city church/church home and more. We did the 8:10a flight which meant we would be at the airport for about 12 hours total. Thankfully, much of it was taken in the main lobby where we were waiting to talk to Turkish airlines. From there we were shuttled to the domestic flight terminal. We were told they were open 24 hours, but they weren’t. Destanie, Jen, and I got in line for food at Burger King. I was not very hungry, but needed food to take with my malaria pill. The line was long because there was only one food place open and they only had a cashier and one cook working. We read the sign with their hours and they should have been closed at 12a. Their line stayed long the whole time we were there and thankfully Neil, Rachel Y, and Tony made it through. They closed at 2:30a because the system turned off. Many of the team slept on the floor while we ate and for awhile after. The floor cleaning machine even drove around quite a few times and nobody moved. Jen and I walked around a bit to waste time and not sleep. I wanted to, but I figured it would make me more sleepy or even a little loopy. We finally checked in at the kiosk and then waited in line to turn in our checked bags. I decided not to check in my rolling carry on this time because the bags cost to check in. Our group was waiting by where Destanie was checking in her bag. She had mentioned our troubles with Turkish airlines. He felt bad for us and said he wished our flight would be much better. That already was way more that anyone at Turkish airlines had said. As we were heading to go through security, I realized I had 5 cans of soda in my carry on. I was so mad at myself. Destanie stayed back with me as I was going to throw them away, after unwrapping two, I decided I would just pay to check the bag. We were able to check it in with the guy Destanie checked her bag in with. I asked if he needed my credit card. He informed me that he checked it is as a carry on so it was free. The purpose was to make the rest of our trip better and that it did. By the time we got in line for the security check, it was long. Thankfully, it moved fairly fast. When we arrived at the gate, none of our team was there. Destanie and I had planned to drop our bags off with them and then go to a coffee shop that was not Starbucks. As it turned out, the rest of our team was at Starbucks, so we just took our bags with us. Once back at the gate, I played two games of cribbage with Tony. He won the first and I won the second just in time to board the plane. It made me happy because that meant I won the first and last games we played together. We made it to Seattle! Mom came to pick me up because dad had a meeting. I said bye to my team and yelled goodbye to Brian as well. Mom and I went out for lunch and dessert before heading home.