Bon Giorno, Roma

Nope. Not in Uganda yet.

The flight from Los Angeles to Washington, DC was VERY bumpy for the last half hour before landing as we flew through the same storm that landed a tornado up the street from us 4 days ago. Scariest flight I can remember!

After being delayed about 45 minutes, our Ethiopian airlines flight took off from Dulles. I had taken an Ambien sleeping pill as soon as I got on board and I was asleep before the plane even left the gate. Good thing, too. After take-off the plane had to fly yet again through that same storm and the turbulence was more than twice as bad as the flight into Dulles. Not that I knew about it, though, as I was sleeping soundly in a drug-induced coma. Apparently passengers were screaming and phoning loved ones to say final good-byes, but I slept through it all. Scariest flight I won't remember.

On landing in Rome, Italy for a 1 hour refueling stop the pilot announced that there was a bad pump on one of the engines and it would only take a short time to repair. 4 hours later they served us breakfast while the mechanics continued to work on the problem. Finally, after 7 hours on the tarmac they brought buses and told us to take all our carry-on bags and deplane. After 2 hours in the terminal waiting to hear what would happen they gave us meal vouchers for pizza. Now it's 12 noon here in Rome, 10 1/2 hours after landing and still no word. Our crew in Uganda says there's no faster way for us to get there, even if we have to stay over night here in Rome and take tomorrow's flights. Sigh.

It would be a relief if they would just tell us that were re-scheduled for tomorrow, as then we could go into Rome and see the city. I'll post more when I can.