Going on 46

46 hours that is - of travel.  We left Nairobi at 930am (EST) Sunday, July 31st and should arrive to downtown TO at approximately 4pm EST - about 55 hours from when we started.  I thought the 36 hours to get to Nairobi last time was my limit.  Apparently this is my limit.  Everything went smoothly on our first two flights. 

      We even spent another lovely evening in Doha, Qatar where it was about 45 degrees celcius and humid.  I thought the desert wasn't humid.  Warning:  it can be.  We didn't arrive to Doha until around midnight so most of the city was closed but the restaurants in Souq Waqif stay open late - some until 4am during Ramadan.  So we hunkered down for some beloved Qatari food (thyme and flatbread + goat cheese and flat bread + mint lemonade) and practiced drawing animals.  We made them all into Masai animals with shukas, the traditional plaid blankets, and beaded necklaces.  We then wandered through the closed market and ended up at another restaurant where we sat on the roof overlooking all of the city lights and languished under their fans drinking soda that quickly got warm and partaking in another social tradition.  When we arrived two local men asked us to sit with them but the restaurant was almost empty and we felt somewhat uncomfortable so we turned them down and sat at a nearby table.  We got a creep vibe.  We ended up making friends with the restaurant workers (mostly from Nepal and some from Egypt) and spoke in gestures and incomplete English.  They gave us free soda and shared their chicken sandwiches with us at 2am.  When we went to pay our bill we were informed that the two "creepy" men had paid our bill for us on their way out.  Ouch.  A big thank you to them, we are sorry we never got to thank them in person.  Qatar has amazed me each time with the friendliness of the people and the safety of the city (we walked alone along the boardwalk at 4am without drawing any attention).

        We made it through the 13 hour Doha - DC flight without a hitch (except for my inability to sleep on a plane.  Hi-C was log-like before the plane even took off.  With two of three flights done we were excited to be nearly finished our journey.  We raced through all the checkpoints in the DC airport to make our TO flight on time only to be told it was delayed.  No big deal, we sat and read.  Flights were being canceled all around us due to lightning but the storm was clearing and they boarded our planes.  Poor suckers going to Syracuse.  After a half hour on the tarmac we were informed that our flight, too, would be canceled and we were ushered off the airplane.  They booked us on another flight - at 8:53 pm the next day - more than 24hours later.  Finally with some finagling we got a seat on the 1230 flight and here we sit.  I slept in the airport lounge in two hours spurts.  This is the second day in this outfit (yes, even those, these are my extra undies) and I just washed my face and armpits (in that order) in a public washroom.  Toronto will not be seeing my freshest side.