Joyeux Noel!

On the 23rd, just one day after 3 trips to the doctor in one day (and several antibiotic prescriptions), we drove to Paris. I was a little worried about the drive since lately, Lia had been asking, "Are we there yet?" after a five minute drive to church or the grocery store. Somehow, we managed. We checked into our hotel and called Marc's cousin. He and his girlfriend came over and cooked us dinner in our little kitchenette! Marc's grandparents who were also staying in the hotel, came by for a little visit as well. Remarkably, the girls both went to sleep in the same room, and didn't wake up even with all the noise and excitement in the next room.

The next day we went on a little walk around the hotel, enjoying La Bastille and Le Jardin des Plantes which had a few animals (miniature Koala bears and kangaroos). Lia enjoyed chasing pigeons and avoiding Mommy's camera.















































I found a stand selling crepes right by the playground - happy day! - and we chased our ham and cheese crepe down with some real Italian pizza in our hotel room. Naps were followed by a Mass at a nearby cathedral. The kids did well for the first hour, but we left a little early since they were literally running circles around us. That evening we had réveillon* - I like this tradition very much! An exciting thing was that at the mass, Bonpa ran into his cousin whom he had not expected to see, and invited her to join us. So I met another member of the French extended family.

*In France and some other French-speaking places, including Quebec, Northern Ontario and parts of the U.S., réveillon is a long dinner and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond. The food consumed at réveillons is generally of an exceptional or luxury nature. For instance, appetizers may include lobster, oysters, escargots or foie gras, etc. Quality wine is usually consumed at such dinners, often with champagne or similar sparkling wines as a conclusion. (from Wikipedia)

Marc's aunt and cousin had prepared all of these amazing hors dòeuvres (the photo shows only a portion of the food presented), including foie gras, champagne, wine, chocolates and many other delicious treats. We did what we could.

The next day was Christmas day! The cousins and grandparents came to our room to open gifts. Kaia took a little while to warm up to Bonpa, and treated him with "The Look", but eventually gave in to a smile...

After a hurried gift opening, we rushed off to the Seine for our lunch cruise. We were quite early, so Lia and I went on a little adventure to see the tower. Very exciting for Lia - she knew about la tour Eiffel, but unfortunately, only from watching Dora! %Where are we going? Tower, mountain, winter palace! We did it! We saved Friendship Day!%

Oh, Dora! Is there anyone you cannot help?

Lia and I also chased pigeons.

At last we were seated, the boat started moving, and we were served our amuse bouches. Lia was not so sure what she thought about French cuisine. We didn't tell her what escargots are, but still, she passed. Thankfully, there was a slice of meat on top, and that went down without question.

The meal was over 4 hours long, and the kids did suprisingly well. Lia found a Venezuelan friend at a nearby table. They were speaking German and Spanish to each other until they realized they both spoke English, and things went better from there. Besides, they were both able to communicate without words through the magic that is dance.

The food was amazing, the scenery superb and the company delightful - what more could you ask for?

After the cruise, we said some goodbyes, and went with the cousins to see another cousin who is a firefighter in Paris. We hung out, heard some stories, and as we were saying goodbye, he gave his patch "Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris" to Kaia - ripped it right off his jacket (it was velcroed, but still, very cool!)

Then we had Reveillons part Deux (still lots of food leftover afterwards!), and we made a gingerbread house (the Canadian contribution)! All in all, a wonderful time! Joyeux Noel!

Getting ready for Christmas/Weihnachtstag/Noel

Despite trying to fit in with German culture and celebrating new holidays and practices (St. Martin's Day, St. Niklaus Day, etc), we broke with German tradition and set up our tree ahead of the 24th. Weihnachtsbaum were being sold from the beginning of December, but they aren't usually decorated until the 24th. We decided we couldn't wait. We put on our Bruce Cockburn Christmas album (best Christmas album ever, by the way), and decorated our Tannenbaum with ornaments brought from Canada and a few purchased here. Kaia enjoyed helping, handing me ornaments as carefully as she could. Lia enjoyed hearing stories of where each ornament came from, and when Granny happened to call in the middle of decorating, she was treated to a spontaneous and heartfelt, "Thank you for the beautiful ornaments, Granny!!"



Above is a picture of part of our new nativity scene. I had seen it in a store in Köln, and then at one of the booths at the local Christmas market. We visited it every time we went to the market, and Marc and I had several "discussions" about purchasing it. I was for, he was not...
One evening Marc and I arranged for a baby sittter, and went to the market by ourselves to get some Christmas presents and have an evening out. We went to see the creche, but it was gone! I was very sad, since I had this little hope that maybe Marc would come around. I looked so crestfallen that Marc very quickly whispered in my ear that he had bought it! The next morning he organized a treasure hunt complete with clues for Lia to find each piece. Then we read the Christmas story from Matthew and arranged it carefully on the piano. This will be a family tradition for many years to come. I can just imagine the treasure hunt getting more and more elaborate every tear.

Also keeping with tradition, I had the opportunity to sing this Christmas season. At our neighbours' church, I sang a couple of my songs which fit very nicely into the 3rd Sunday of advent service (Holy and Sea to Sea). This is a picture of our last-minute band playing a few traditional German carols: Süßer die Glocken nie klingen and Tochter Zion, freue dich. Our neighbours are on accordion and guitar with their little daughter looking on. I also sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel at the church we attend, and was very well received.















I've already written about the Christmas markets and how fun they are. We decided our last visit to a Weihnachtsmarkt would be to Dortmund where they have the world's largest Christmas tree. It was really big (constructed of many smaller trees), but probably more impressive at night, lit up and viewed through a haze of Gluhwein.

Here are a few more fun sights from the Dortmund market - a yummy looking garbage can...and a ketchup cow. Mmm...

Merry Christmas Rose!

So we've been talking about sponsoring a Sudanese orphan who is the same age as our kids, so that they can sort of "grow-up" in parallel. We'd really like our kids to gain an awareness of poverty, and develop a relationship with the poor in some way. (it shouldn't be an "us and them" sort of idea. and we shouldn't simply pity the poor - it's just another way of distancing ourselves. We should participate in lives of people in need (it goes both ways when you have a relationship). Obviously, a sponsorship is a fairly small thing from this side, but it will make a huge difference for the sponsored child (and it seems more real, now that I've seen sponsorship results in person).
Anyway, I contacted Christian Horizons, who organizes orphan sponsorships at St. Bartholomew's orphanage in Kajo Keji, South Sudan. (Lahash International is also involved here). They came back with a little 1-year old who needs sponsorship: Rose!
It turns out that I know her! She is the only little kid whose name I actually learned when I visited St. Bartholomew's! I held her and have tonnes of photos with her - what a great coincidence! It's just an extra feeling of connection that I have to South Sudan now...

Here are some photos...

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 9

My last post from the trip to Sudan itself. I'm sure I'll have at least one other post with more wrap-up kind of thoughts....

DAY 9

My current latitude is 0.15 degrees (Entebbe/Kampala is very close to the equator). We're landing our MAF plane as I speak (didn't get to ride upfront - this time it's a different pilot named Achim - it's apparently against the rule, and a previous passenger nearly crashed the plane once, when they panicked and grabbed/yanked the yoke, just as Achim was touching down)

Here ends the series - thanks for sticking with me. I figured you'd like the as-it-happens reporting, even if it came with all my personal feelings/commentary. I'm going to try and make some edited blog posts with pictures (dradersindeutschland.blogspot.com)

I had one last muddy "shower" this morning, but I'm already coated in red dust.

I said goodbye to the large cockroaches and lizards in the latrine (and gave away the rest of my toilet paper to Lloyd since I won't need that where I'm going).

We gave away Bruce's rooster (which he received from a pastor who knew him, as a wedding present) to a couple that's getting married next week.

My favourite Sudanese dish that I will miss the most is a fresh peanut butter, tomato and onion salad, served with deep-fried flatbread. No one got sick at all on this visit, praise the Lord.

My main biblical association with Sudan is Nehemiah, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall. We read and discussed that a lot, given Sudan's destruction and the current rebuilding.

Through the night and early this morning, we had many meetings, many speeches, lots of breast-beating, interventions, prayer and complicated discussion that was over our head. Enoka called a bunch of the revival centre leaders from around the area to come to deal with the issues that had surfaced. Overall, unfortunately, David characterized the whole ordeal as a "dialogue of the deaf" (I say ordeal because we were very tired, it was freaking hot/sticky, and everyone's speech was long. And translated). Enoka and the Revival leadership couldn't understand the problems with the type of control they are exerting on the "young" members of the water team (they are all 20-35, with multiple kids each). Enoka and the elders all said that anyone could come to them to make a complaint, and they would fire Enoka if necessary, but unfortunately, they are just off-base. (Ie. The team members know that Enoka will never be fired, and that's not what they want anyway. They just want the ability to run day-to-day operations for the water project as respected, capable individuals, which they are).

Our time ended with many apologies for having to witness their internal problems. Much thanking of the donors for their ideas and advice. Godfrey was quite conciliatory in his speech, saying nice things about the leadership and Enoka. But afterwards, I asked him what changed - and he said, oh nothing has changed. But the situation was becoming worse, so I'm just saying what everyone wants me to say (out of respect for us). In the end, Godfrey is sticking it out a bit more with the team.

We visited the UN (who will discuss buying our water in 2 weeks at a meeting of all the NGOs in the area). We also visited DRC (Danish refugee council) and they are coming by to inspect the bottling first. If bottling water becomes a "pull" instead of a "push", then maybe there's a chance. It felt good to get out of there (our plane decided to come at 2pm, instead of 10am). My negative feelings are tempered by the 24hours of diplomacy/discussions (both formal and informal). It feels like leadership training is desperately needed to help people work together. I spent a bunch of time one-on-one with the various team members, who were speaking to me quite freely now (not really to anyone else though). I've included an email from Josh below which I thought was quite insightful - please read past the end of my email to see it.

Lots of love to all!

Marc

---

From: Josh MacFadyen
To: Marc Drader
Sent: Tue Nov 25 07:30:31 2008
Subject: Re: Day 8 - crisis in leadership

Yum, fresh peanut butter :)

Thanks for writing so carefully about this. It actually helps bring reality and humanity to my own 'out of body' experience, lived vicariously through yours! :) I was as shocked as you when I read this, only it's a lot more personal for you after working so hard there this week.

It's probably a very important side of Sudan to see. Part of the attraction of 'missionary' or relief work for Westerners is that one gets to invest in simple solutions for real problems in an environment where our work will be appreciated more than anywhere else in the world. But what you had to experience today is reminder to me that these folks are just as human and just as complex as anyone else, and likely more complex given the poverty, war, and spiritual oppression they've had to endure all their lives.

Some of us need to (and should) believe that life is somehow simpler there and that a short term missions trip with IT will have guranteed results for the local people. But it seems the ones who really change their lives on those missions trips are the missionaries; the ones who really do the blessing are the local people. And in that way, diverting the year's all-inclusive-resort monies to a missions trip is entirely beneficial.

The other missionaries (and I include you guys here) should be very aware that even a lifetime of service or the relief efforts of an entire church/NGO can only change or help a community so much. Sometimes these monumental efforts are partially or even completely reversed during their lives or shortly after they end. It's not surprising. Imagine trying to do something as simple as convincing/teaching your neighbourhood to compost, or encouraging a congregation to pray, and then compare that to convincing/teaching an impoverished, polluted, war-torn community to actually do something difficult (like leadership) with their limited resources. Seeing as though we are quite human; it should be considered a miracle when it works. Only God can change our hearts. We plant, someone else waters, but he does the growing.

Every minute you spent in Sudan will have temporal and eternal benefit. God will bring the increase, and will not let his Word return to him void. I hope this is encouraging and doesn't sound moralizing; you know way more about this than I do. I'm just coming to terms with my own sense of mission and relief, again, vicariously though you.

Safely home now,

Josh

P.S. Cameron says "Maaaarc! I got trains for Christmas."

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 8

Things went kind of sideways on day 8 of my Sudan trip. I've edited out some of the specifics, but left a lot of details still. Keep in mind that there are many sides to every story, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm an outsider with very little cultural knowledge...

DAY 8
Today, we had a final planning session with the team. We set out a progression of priorities for increasing their salary, based on whatever money is generated by the water bottling, and internet cafe. We also bought 80% of a biosand filters for each of the 7 members of the team. They'll each need to pay the remaining 12,000 shillings ($8) to get the water filter for their family. Everything seemed well and good, but then it got a bit dramatic:
Godfrey (the project manager) has been quite stressed and made some tearful accusations about the lack of transparency by revival movement leadership, unfair demands on him and his team, and he voiced fears that everything would fall apart once we leave. We haven't heard anyone speak from the heart like this. Mostly we get pretty formal speeches from people.

Unfortunately, Godfrey is the most educated, most gifted leader we've met here. He really gets it. (He's trained a medical tech, so the bottling, testing, filters, etc is right up his alley). He says his friends make fun of him because he makes so little at this job (he has been offered higher salaries by several organizations). He is considering leaving the project (he said he cried last night while falling asleep). It really sucks because this is the guy I like the most and respect the most here, and I'm sad to hear all this.

I got separated from our traveling in the afternoon and got a chance to speak with Godfrey alone (I also spoke with some of the workers in some depth - although the main leader took them aside and told them not to talk to us). I sent some detailed notes to IT, because there's some pretty serious issues here.


Godfrey has told us that he cannot stay with the water project. And all 6 of the workers will leave when he goes. They are just staying as long as Godfrey is shielding them from the Revival leaders' control. Two things are holding him back from leaving:
-relationship with Bruce
-involvement in the Episcopal Church

Godfrey's closest friend is pastor Kaya (head of a 300 person baptist NGO that sponsors evangelism, education). Kaya feels sorry for his best friend Godfrey. He offered him 3x more money/month to test and work with borehole wells (water harvest international). Godfrey gave his CV today.

In parallel, the hospital asked him to work fulltime as a lab tech. Currently working part-time as a tech trainer (4hrs/week and he makes more than with his 30hrs/week at the water project). A few months ago, a Japanese NGO selected him for 3 month course in Japan and job to bring plumbing to this area. He is waiting to see if they come back (delayed due to Japanese elections).

Godfrey feels like instead of developing his life, he is losing out due to the abuse he takes while working with Revival. After another big discussion, Godfrey seemed like he might stick around for another couple months if something changes rapidly. So now we're in a meeting the revival leadership to convince them to turn over more day to day control to Godfrey (like the keys to the truck, or the ability to buy supplies without asking). Bruce will recommend to IT that someone come here for a couple of months to manage the situation as it is quite fragile. Bruce stated to Godfrey that the allegations of fraud will be dealt with by IT, and to have patience with that. (We're not tackling that one so far. What a mess!)

Wow. Tough day. I don't know if my crazy notes made any sense, but it felt as if everything was crashing down around us. IT has a big mess on their hands here, and I'm still reeling from some of my conversations today. (I was the only one that these guys talked to, since I got away from the main group of "visitors"). It's the age-old issue of young leaders chafing under the older leaders' control. But it's also allegations of fraud, and our work seems to be in jeopardy. Personally, I am reconsidering everything I've thought about everything here. It's definitely more gray and complicated.

It doesn't make me like this part of Sudan any less, but makes me lose a bit of hope for the Revival Movement and the water bottling that we've implemented this week. Even the internet access is at risk - the team believes that they will lose access as soon as we leave... :( :(

Is this my "welcome to the real world" moment, at the end of a pretty amazing out-of-body-experience week? I'm checked in for my KLM flights home. Pray for us tomorrow. More meetings and then a lot of travel.
Love, Marc

PS. Turns out that we've had a team of 5 women cooking for us this whole week. We're very high maintenance. (Consider the amazing eggplant and peanut butter dish we had: just making the peanut butter takes hours to roast the peanuts, shell them and grind them with a rock. And we have fresh peanuts and peanut butter every day!). They also have to kill chickens or whatever meat and prepare them for us (remember there is no refridgeration anywhere, so the only way to have meat is fresh).

PPS. Yesterday, I burned my other thumb and hand (!) when the lid came off a thermos that they were using to pour tea for me. The burn was not as bad this time. But it makes me very nervous when I see those thermoses.

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 6 & 7

If you're just starting to read this blog now, you'll need to go back a couple of posts to the beginning of Marc's trip diary for a visit to Sudan that happened in November...Almost all photos are from Lloyd Hipel

DAY 6

We had a group meeting with the Sudanese water team. We brought shirts and hats which they are using as uniforms (which got them fairly excited. They have 2 t-shirts each, so every day they will wash the other shirt for the next day.
The water team (all 7 people who work 9am-3pm) earns $840/month. The problem is that this isn't enough to live on. And it's not paid on time or at all, depending on whether International Teams has money in it's account. And everyone has other responsibilities raising their siblings or kids and making more money :( But they are still better off than lots of people I guess...

We call it an "incentive" as opposed to a salary, but it was tough to hear everyone's story about how this incentive was not enough to meet their needs:
Matt has two sisters who's school fees are 80,000 each (he gets paid 150,000) so that's his contribution to the family (he also has his own wife and kid).
Pony is a mom who has to get her kids off to school, then come work on the water project before going to the market to sell clothes (she's a tailor in the late evenings) and cook for her family. I don't know how she makes enough money to supplement her 200,000 (just a big bag of flour that lasts a month costs 75,000. Obviously you need more than flour though. Also maize and sorghum for pocho - the local porridge).
Three of the guys use their own bicycles to pedal >30kms to the Revival Centre. They each leave their homes at 6am, arrive at 9am and then get home around 6pm. The catch is that they don't eat all day until they get home. They were asking if there was any chance that the water project could supply breakfast (they have no money to buy breakfast somewhere, assuming that someone would sell them breakfast). They also wondered if they could use the two bikes that are owned by the project instead of their personal bikes. None of the team members is drinking safe water at home (it costs 60,000 to get a biosand filter).

Overall, I kept wanting to jump up and make commitments that I couldn't keep. The temptation to try to find a quick-fix is_so_ strong (and a quick fix is so elusive/impossible). I'm going to do something though.

No bottling this morning - the generator was down (needed an oil change). We visited an orphanage where Christian Horizons is now sponsoring all the children due to Bruce's efforts on a previous trip (and a UK guy has setup a foundation for the babies house). Most babies are dropped off because the mom has died in childbirth and the dad can't raise the baby. At 5 years old, they ask the dad again if he can take his child back - but if not, then they stay in the orphanage until they can take care of themselves. They actually have to screen the parents who are dropping off kids pretty carefully. The orphanage has developed the reputation of having better conditions for children than in their own homes in the village... There are 85 children at the orphanage.
We held the babies and toddlers and played with the bigger kids and looked around. I miss my kids. I really want them to experience this too. There was lots of singing and dancing to welcome us. Apparently the kids busted out their best clothes to see us, and they looked pretty sharp at 10am this morning (we only arrived at 3pm though, so things were starting to fall apart :) We had 1 hour of various speeches (including some tearjerkers, like how the kids aren't orphans anymore thanks to us, they are known as children of God instead). I feel a bit worn out emotionally, and on the verge of wanting to disconnect and not think about it anymore. Or invest my life/lifestyle into this "true evangelism". Either way, the situation demands a strong response (literally - people are making us aware of both their triumphs and their many needs and demanding a response :)

Cool practice here in Sudan: at the beginning of every meal, someone comes around with a pitcher and basin for you to wash your hands. This happens again at the end (since you eat with your hands). It's a cool experience/habit and makes it feel like we're all connected in service and love.

Driving around: when you see someone you know, or someone you want to talk to, you just screech to a halt in the middle of the road (others will go around) and have a chat. It's the main method for spreading news (ie. We found out the president is now coming on Dec 1, instead of Tuesday :) a guy from Water Harvest International was driving by and wanted to meet us and say hi.
When you stop to talk to someone, it's African handshakes all around. Lots of "you are welcome", "hello", "thank you".

Other favourite habit: sitting around talking on plastic chairs. Everywhere you go, a certain times of day when people aren't working (waiting for dinner or whatever), everyone pulls out a plastic chair and sits around at the side of the road, in front of their tukuls, in front of stores, etc. I've seen very few non-plastic chairs :)

Tomorrow is church (we're going to several services, so it will be a churchy day. I'm anticpating a lot of cool music/drumming)

PS. We heard tonight that the Kajo Keji "hospital" (such as it is) is being closed. The NGO operating it has run out of money. The county dug up enough money for salaries for the staff until the end of December. But after that, it's closing for good. Nearest hospital will then by Moyo in Uganda. Not good.

DAY 7

"the place of convenience is located over there" (ie. the latrine).

Whenever I think, wow, everyone should come visit South Sudan and get involved here, I am reminded that it takes a certain je ne sais quoi to use the squat latrines (those splashes on the wall are from the mortar, right?) and to "shower" with a plastic bucket of brackish water.

The smell of grass fires is has been strong for 2 days now - the air is more still in the evening, so it's a bit heavy. Any low-lying areas tend to fill up with the smoke from these fires - not very good air to breathe all night while you sleep (during the day we breathe red dust instead, kicked up by any passing vehicles (we followed a truck for an hour today, so my clothes started turning red :)

%We are proud of our school. It's best in the county%
This was part of the singing-welcome by the Jalimo community. This is where IT is hoping to build a secondary school next year if there is interest/funds. Again, the school is operating outside, and in mud huts under pretty tough conditions. They have 211 high school students. 69 are billeted with individual families since there not dormitories. There are 21 staff in total). Next year, they expect 300-400 students to register. This school took everyone in the county by surprise because they placed highest in testing, and they have the worst facilities - no one expects anything good to come from here.) The school was originally founded in 1948, despite no support from the northern govt for education of the southern population. (Churches run all the schools here as a result of this). It was demolished and rebuilt several times throughout the wars. When we walked around the falling-apart mud/grass buildings (which we were built 3 years ago), we saw lots of high school students studying for upcoming exams. Apparently lots of them disappeared into the bush to study since they knew there would be lots of distractions today). We had a big meeting, and the hope of building permanent facilities next year was the main topic of many speeches. It's impressive because everyone values education a lot, and knows that it's the only way out. But the support for education isn't coming from govt sources for now - just communities banding together and trying to make it work. They even have a science teacher and a couple of shelves of beakers and a couple chemicals. All the classrooms have wood benches that were donated by the Jesuit Refugee Service (a big upgrade from the mud benches).

As we drive around, we're seeing the Samaritan's Purse Church Reconstruction Program (CRP) churches everywhere - it's pretty cool! Jalimo just got one, and it's being consecrated by the archbishop in January. The Anglican services here are similar in form to Canada, except the prayer book is in Bari (language of the Kuku people) and the songs are a mix of Bari/English. Lots of singing and all the leaders and visitors sit up front around the table. Just a bit north from here, arabic is the trade language, along with some English.

David preached at two churches today (Wudu and Jalimo). He tried an illustration that almost backfired: he asked if everyone liked mango trees, and why. The answer: "shade!" (He was expecting "fruit"). Eventually some people also said fruit :) The mango trees have fruit in December and May here (we're just missing it - but this is definitely the place to be during mango season - there are so many trees!)

When we arrived in Jalimo, we found out again that everyone (hundreds of people) waited all day for us yesterday, and then again all morning (we finally had a service/meeting at 1pm :(
We're outdoors under 4 _giant_ mango trees (threatening us with fruit) The church in Jalimo kicked off a fundraiser after the service for a youth conference run by the Revival Movement in a couple of weeks. They were asking for donations from 50 to 2500 shillings ($0.03 to $1.80). Turns out the money is to buy a goat, so that the conference can happen. (I put in enough for a half a goat on impulse :) Poor goat. (It was good though because church offerings and this fundraiser were done in a way that the amount given is anonymous. We don't want to show up and be seen as giving away tonnes of money).
At the end of the service a weird thing happened which we haven't debriefed yet: during an alter call, someone brought up a flailing teenager, who looked like she was having a massive seizure. After some praying by the pastors/leaders. Either it was an act, or it was a medical condition, or it was spiritual. I don't know what to think - it was hard to take.

After the long service, I broke out the balloons we brought with David, and made a lot of balloon "animals" (actually, snakes - I'm not very good at these). It was pretty tough - we had a lot of balloons, but there were way way more kids. I kind of wish I hadn't done it - kids don't like to share, so there was starting to be some pushing/shoving. Lesson #1 - always bring enough gifts for everyone. I should've learned this from Daryl and Sabrina's experiences in Namibia.

Tomorrow is our last full in South Sudan. On Tuesday we fly to Kampala (4 hops on an MAF route). We'll arrive in the afternoon sometime, and then Bruce and I are catching a KLM flight home at 10:55pm.