After 20 hours in a plane and 30 min from Kigali Rwanda, our plane changed direction by more that 90 degrees. After 15 minutes heading the wrong direction they said the power was out at the Kigali airport and we were heading to Entebee Uganda. If my dad's career in aviation taught me anything it is that airports are important enough to a country and the world to have backup generators. As it turns out, most of the people on our plane were journalists or humanitarian aid workers. I sat next to a BBC reporter who was flying to Rwanda for its 20th anniversary of the massacre that occurred. (Watch Hotel Rwanda if you haven't yet). So... That puts a unique light on our trip we actually hadn't thought of.
So we are now sitting in the Uganda airport, they are getting us on a 1:00am flight back to Rwanda. There were enough passengers on our plane with enough experience that they knew there was no power outage. As it turns out it was likely a dignitary coming in and they diverted all other flights, without warning. A person in front of me in line waiting for our new tickets said when she has been on the ground in Rwanda and they are preparing for dignitary, they actually round up all the homeless children and put them in prison, beating them and not feeding them. One time she was with some homeless children, the police came to get the kids, one kid ran and they shot him 8 times in the back. The Rwandan government told the US embassy if she said anything she wouldn't be allowed back into the country.
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