Thank you for all your prayers. We got word just after noon yesterday that we were indeed to fly out of Conakry and needed to be at the airport by 1:00. We were all set to go just in case, so ran around giving last minute directions to our guards, throwing in last minute stuff and making sure the house was ready to shut down. There was a caravan of missionary vehicles that we joined from our street and we were off. We were shocked at what we saw. While things looked fairly normal in our area it was not so in other areas of town. We passed roads full of broken out glass with myriads of burned out vehicles off to the side. Gas stations were totally destroyed and looted. Small boutique shops that had been attached to the stations were just three walls and a roof. Pumps were just gone. Some had reported that people were going down into the tanks where fuel was stored and were bucketing fuel out. Bodies were later found in the tanks from people that had fallen in trying to get their share. It was horrific to see. The damage that was done will take a long time to repair. We sped to the airport as fast as possible and met no trouble along the road for which we were very thankful.
Once at the airport we followed the directions of the embassy representative who explained how things would be done. After waiting close to 5 hours we were finally bussed out to the military Air Force airplane that was to take us out. What a thrill to see armed American soldiers waiting next to that big gray plane!! It was a real experience. Definitely “no frills”, canvas seats lined along the sides of the plane. We did get ear plugs to help with the noise. I think we were all just in awe of it all.
Once in Dakar we were whisked right through the airport and taken to a nearby hotel where there were sandwiches and water, a play area for kids, information centers on Dakar and possible flights for those continuing on, and a phone line where we got to call the boys. Good friends of ours here in Dakar had also picked up Katie at school and brought her along so she was there to meet us as well. I think it was then that we finally just relaxed. We were finally out!
So what next?? We don’t really have any idea at this point. Right now we’re just enjoying the feeling of being safe and not jumping every time shots ring out!! Tim was actually scheduled to fly to Togo FROM DAKAR tomorrow, so he may be able to just catch his connecting flight from here and go on, depending on what we find out about how things will work here. We’ll continue to work with our mission on what our long term plans are and what we’ll do in the future. Meanwhile, please do not slow down prayers for Guinea because we are out. We want things to work out so that Work can continue and we can all get back to our homes. There are also still some missionaries in Guinea. Some have chosen to stay, some can’t get out. Please keep them covered in prayer daily.
Will keep you informed as we have news.