The end.....I think

The girls of the team

Sessely, Lauren, Kelsey....and Kecia to the side.

Mike enjoying the elephants at Kruger.

I guess anyone who has read my last two posts will never want to ride in the car when I'm driving.  I'm not that bad, am I Katie??? :-)  Last week's accident was my first ever in Africa - and we've been here a long time.  In light of all the crazy traffic around here, I think that's pretty good. 

Oh, and I did forget to mention that last Friday (while Charlie and the team were at Kruger) I made an illegal u-turn and had an encounter with a polieman and ended up $40 poorer. *sigh*

I left off in the story with the remaining Arkansas team members preparing to leave.  One of the team members, Sessely, started feeling bad on Sunday night, the night before they were to leave.  Her stomach hurt and she was nauseous.  Monday a.m. she woke up feeling worse.  By Monday afternoon her stomach was not in good condition and she was feeling lousy.  The team boarded the plane here in Maputo and headed to Joburg to make their connecting flight to London.  Poor Sessely got sicker.  She was throwing up and feeling rotten by the time they boarded the plane to London.

When the flight attendant realized that Sessely was sick she notified the airline's medical personnel who then escorted Sessely OFF the plane, saying she could not fly again until she had a letter from a doctor saying she was fit to fly.  Now Sessely is only 18 and Kecia was the leader. Being a good leader, she jumped up and accompanied Sessely off the plane, telling the other 3 wide-eyed students to continue on the trip without them.  Kecia was not going to leave this girl sick and stranded in a foreign country.  

So at 10:30 that night we get a phone call from Kecia (she said she was crying but it didn't sound like it to me!) explaining what had happened. They were waiting for their luggage and she was able to use the cell phone of some nice man who also had to get off the plane.  She "just happened" to have written down our phone number, otherwise she would have been stuck in the Joburg airport not knowing who to call for help.  

We were able to call our colleagues at the Baptist guesthouse that's only 10 minutes away from the airport.  They picked Kecia and Sessely up and got them a room at the guesthouse and even got Gatorade for Sessely and bread and eggs for Kecia to have something for breakfast the next morning.  Then the next day, our IMB medical personnel were able to get a doctor's appointment for Sessely with a local doctor there.  He gave her medicine and a letter to fly the next day.  (He told her to rest that day.)  Then our wonderful colleagues took Kecia back to the airport to work out their flights for the next night.  Thankfully, there was no problem re-issuing the tickets for them to continue their journey home on Wednesday.

As it turned out, Kecia's husband, Mike, and Carter, the kid with the newly repaired knee-cap, flew into Joburg that same afternoon to catch a connecting flight to London.  Kecia was able to meet up with them at the airport and give Mike their van keys since he would be getting home before she would.  

As it stands now, Kecia and Sessely should be landing in Dallas in a few hours.  They have been traveling so we have not heard from them since yesterday afternoon.  We do know that all 5 of the other team members are safe and sound back in Arkansas!  Praise the Lord for that.

And that, my friends - unless something else whacky happens to Kecia and Sessely before they get home -  is the end of my story.