The Journey begins

Saturday, noontime arrive at ATL Hartsfield airport for a 2:45PM flight out to Washington Dulles. Silly me, my checked luggage came in at over 50 pounds (brought some extra gear, a veritable electronics store of goods including a couple of phones, a VoIP phone, a wireless network, gps, palm, computer, camera…and all associated power accessories). After waiting in line for 45 minutes and reshuffling the load, was all checked in. Another 45 minutes in the security line and I barely made it onto the flight.

Established my first Liberian contact while on the flight. James, an electrical engineer by training and now a software developer for Turner was sitting next to me. 12 years since he’s been back to Liberia.

We reach Dulles with no problems, where I meet a couple other Liberians who are returning – another electrical engineer from Charlotte that is going back after 12 years in the States. I speak with several others and there does appear to be a theme – after the long years of the war, people are very optimistic about the opportunities back home. Several of their relatives have established or are in process of establishing some type of business. They are looking at all types of business – sports, Internet, investigative agencies, construction, education…it appears like a gold rush of a fashion.

Flight from Dulles to Brussels was a long one…thanks to great flight booking skills, I had the middle of the middle on the big ol’ plane. Luckily I was between a couple of young ladies on their way to Brussels for a marketing summit – they and a couple of their colleagues from eBay were headed over for the week.

Arrive in Brussels around 7:30AM Sunday morning, flight out at 11:15. I think I spotted Boutheina in a check-in line, but was too far back to make contact…I’m sure I’ll catch up with her soon.

Used the airport pay for Internet service (10euro for 1 hour). 1516 kbps download from DC, with a 313kbps upload speed…not too shabby!