Half-way around the world in 44hours and 32 minutes

***Author’s warning: even though I have cut down this blog my from personal journal on my computer, it is still really long. If you don’t make it through it, its okay. Just about my two days of traveling before I got to Africa. If you want to jump straight ahead to my time in Africa, please see next post (up later today or late tomorrow afternoon)

So yea, the first few days in Africa have been a blur, and figuring out the best way to find and use internet here is also a bit tricky, so bear with me if you’ve tried to contact me or are expecting any sort of a response before, ohh, say, august 4^th! No, but really, I am going to try to look at email every few days while I’m at this guest house (there is about ten days in mid-July where I won’t have any internet access). But please, if you’d like to send me a message or anything like that, don’t email me, just comment on my blog here, that way I only have to go to one place to see what everyone wants to say to me. Right now, I’m focusing more on the blog than email anyway, haha.

Okay, so other than that quick note to let you know I was alive and well, I haven’t told you anything about the actual trip yet. So, like I said, I left Tuesday morning from the house in Greensboro with dad, mom, and jennifer at about 5:50am or so (ugh) because the trip coordinator that was going with us asked us to be at RDU at 7:30. We got to RDU a bit early, had some introductions, and checked bags. Well, because I only had a few things in my first bag (a backpack for hiking/camping), this caused me to stuff an inordinate amount of things (some of which I needed and some of which I know see I only convinced myself that I needed) into my other suitcase, which of course, came out to be over the weight limit for a bag. Rather than dealing with the pain of trying to move things from one bag to the other and make room and ditch things, we just paid the overweight bag charge. And on top of all this, the guy who was checking my bags…it was his first day on the job...or at least I would take a large bet that it was. After all that it was goodbyes right before security (which I made it through without setting off any alarms…I’m 3 for 3 so far on the trip!) and then I really felt like the adventure might be beginning.

So we killed about two more hours before our 10:30 flight, which was a quick one to D.C. Got there at 11:30 and had a 6 and half hour layover, in which I ate a sandwich, looked around inside a “Duty free store” (just because they intrigue me, not to actually buy anything expensive) and semi-slept (I say this because, as you know, it is not an easy thing to sleep while draped over three of those plastic connected gate 19 seats). So we boarded the flight (another United) from D.C. to London that evening at around 6:30.

The D.C. to London flight was supposed to last from 6:30 eastern time to about 6:30am London time (I think). Now, here’s a word problem that I’m sure my mother would enjoy (although I don’t know how well she’ll be able to do it, because apparently her mind is wired for Pythagorean theorem better than it is for simple subtraction):

If you are traveling on a 767 from Washington, D.C. to London, and your flight leaves at 6:30pm, and lands in London (where is it five hours later than D.C.) at 6:30 am, how long will your flight last? (mom…try this one…and you’ll have to tell me later whether you got it right or not)......the answer, if you’re a very logical, literal person, is seven hours. But, if you know anything about flying over the Atlantic overnight, when you’ve never been on a single flight longer than 1.5 hours before, then the real answer is FOREVER. I’ve never really had sleeping problems, but I’ve learned that I’m not good at all at falling asleep when there’s not an ability to lie down. Oh well. At least I had a really interesting and funny seat-mate. This is a pretty good story.

So, when I boarded the London flight, I was headed for my seat and was wondering who I would be sitting next to on such a long flight. Also, I had been praying that I’d be able to sit next to someone who would be willing to get into a spiritual conversation, and that God would pick out who he wanted to talk with me. I’ve never done this before, pray for who was sitting next to me on a plane, but it seems to be something that many super-spiritual people write about and stuff, so I thought I’d give it a whirl (I know, it sounds cavalier, and I’m not completely serious, I promise, but think about it…how many stories have you heard about people praying for who sits next to them on a plane, rather than praying for just the everyday people we will see). Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to have a spiritual conversation with this person, and maybe even get to talk about salvation is it was God’s will, but why don’t you ever hear of people just praying for the cashier they’ll see at the grocery store, or the person next to them at lunch, etc etc but you always hear about praying for the person next you on a flight. I guess part of it has to do with the fact that on an airplane, the person has nowhere to run to if you totally freak them out. Anyway, something to think about.

Back to my story: none of us seven who traveled together as a part of this early group to Uganda had seats next to each other on these flights, so it was always a solo adventure. So I got to 32G on the D.C.- London flight, and my seat, is a window seat (score!) but the cushion is misplaced, sitting out of the chair and has some ominous stain on it. So I walk a few feet to the stewardesses at the back of the plane who tell me that yes, they were looking for me, 32G because my seat had been vomited on on the previous flight, and they were waiting on a technician to replace it. Funny, I think, but I ready the travel-size hand sanitizer which I have already moved to my right pocket like it’s a pistol and I’m in Texas. Anyway, there’s an older man, probably early sixties, waiting back there too who introduces himself as Paul, 32F, my seat buddy. Sweet, I think to myself. An early chance to be forced into conversation with seat buddy, while we are both standing awkwardly at the back of the plane as the stewardess prepare microwaveable dinners for the 300 passengers. We both get some water and start chit-chat, the basic, why are you going to London, etc etc. He hears my story and I learn that he is traveling to London for business, and that he works for an NGO that operates in East Africa (mainly Tanzania, particularly Arusha, which I will be visiting in a few weeks). So our conversation goes well enough to not have any odd pauses until mr. seat technician shouts out the puke-stain or does whatever he did to make me feel better about sitting in 32G.

So, I know, you’re like, why all this detail. Well, because I learned a lot about this man on our flight to London together. After dinner we both stopped talking, he to do some work, and me to watch a movie on my personal tv screen on the “seatback in front of me.” Then we both tried to sleep. He was more successful than me, but we were both a bit annoyed with the large group of high schoolers, who, for the entire time the seatbelt light was NOT illuminated, were out of their seats, basicly doing arobics. And of course, their main hangout spot was somewhere between 33C and 35A. Paul even go annoyed enough to jokingly ask one of the stewardess if they could crush up some benadryl in the kids’ drinks. I learned later that this was only a tasting of the interesting and entertaining sense of humor that Paul had.

Well, in the morning, after breakfast, which was served about an hour and a half before landing, Paul and I talked straight thru until landing. First it was about how the steward had been curt with Paul when Paul informed him about their musical selection malfunction on the airline. This included a very funny anecdote from Paul which I wish I could remember completely so I could recite it. Maybe I’ll remember later.

But, the rest of the time, I got him to talk about his NGO, why he got involved, whether his catholic background or faith had played a role, and then we just talked about catholics, protestants, and the Christianity and its core beliefs in general. He said that he wasn’t very religious anymore, but that he had a good friend who was, who also happened to be an evangelical, and he mentioned that they had had a similar conversation recently. Even though we never got to an incredibly personal faith conversation, we did talk about faith, works, and salvation, and scripture, and I think God had a purpose in it all, at least I’m trusting he did, and I’m glad I was comfortable enough to keep pulling the conversation back to God long enough to talk in depth about Christianity.

Well, that conversation in the morning, plus my two cups of coffee with breakfast (because I knew I wasn’t falling back asleep), had me so energized, despite the fact that I hadn’t slept more than four hours in the last two nights.

LONDON TOUR IN 13 hours

Well, when we landed in Heathrow, we went straight to KLM, the dutch organization that covers many African airlines in Heathrow (apparently) to get our last two boarding passes for the last two legs of our flight (London to Nairobi, Kenya and Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda). Some of my classmates had talked to those loud highschoolers from the flight the night before, and found out they were also on our London-Nairobi flight, and the next one to Uganda, but then they were going one more step to Zambia. Well, both our groups headed to KLM, got the boarding passes, and jetted downstairs to the desk where you can store “extra luggage” there in the airport, to be picked up at a later time. This basicly means you can pay for the airport to secure your carry-on stuff for you, in case you don’t want to take it out with you into London while you are on a layover, which is exactly why we used it. See, in the six and a half hour layover in D.C. the day before, Steve, a neurosurgeon from Duke and also Jenny’s (the lady who organized the entire trip for all 50-some people from Duke and UNC who will be involved in Uganda by the end of July) husband, had planned a whirlwind tour of London for us, since only one of the 5 students among us had ever been there before. He had told us we’d be walking fast, not staying anywhere very long, because he was trying to fit in so much so we could really see a lot of London. We said, okay, fine by us.

In London, we caught the Underground after getting off the Heathrow Express. Well, first, let me tell you what I learned about London which was unknown to me, and has completely changed my view of the place: London is FAST. Like, crazy, maddening, infuriatingly fast. I was really pissed off at Londoners in general by the end of the day. Down in the underground, its like a madhouse. People walk so fast that I’m pretty sure they must wear through shoes in like, a month. I could never walk the normal pace I would walk in North Carolina, and it’s even crazier than the pace I would walk if I was touring a city and had to walk fast. It’s way worse than D.C., Atlanta, Boston, or any other large city I’ve ever been in. Uggh. Makes me angry just thinking about how fast people walk and shove past you there. Very different than anything I’ve ever seen.

Sorry to you folks who really love London, but it really annoyed me more than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the city. It’s a great place to visit if you ask me, I am VERY glad I went, I enjoyed it and think parts of it are absolutely beautiful. BUT, between the extremely high cost of living (and cost to my pocket personally that day) and the fast pace of the city people, I am not a huge fan. I’m a fan, I’ll give you that, and I would visit again, but definitely not on my top-ten list.

Anyway, I couldn’t even tell you the names of everything we saw that day between 10:30 (when we got off the last underground train onto a street in London) and 4pm (when we got back on a train to get to Heathrow 2 and a half hours before our Nairobi flight). I have lots of pictures, and I know we saw Buckingham Palace, a few minutes of the changing of the guard, the big park near the palace (James Park I think), Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye (we opted not to take the ride because we were told there were views that we just as good at St. Paul’s Cathedral), St. Paul’s Cathedral (where we climbed the 297 steps to the very top where you can see all of London, even out to Heathrow and beyond), walked across Millennium Bridge, and a few other things. Because of our late start, due to some problems at the KLM desk, we didn’t get to the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, or Tower Bridge, but saw them in the distance. At about 3:15 we went into a small pub on a back street and sat down, cooled down (it was decently warm, with only two short periods of light rain all day long…as all my pictures are of bright sun and clouds), and watched some Wimbledon. Oh, and lunch was pretty cool. I had crepes (French in London, I know) and tea with milk in it…getting ready for the British influence that I knew I was going to run into in Uganda.

After going back through security, and waiting for about another hour after we finished dinner, we finally got to board our 3^rd flight of the trip, from London Heathrow to Nairobi, Kenya, a flight that was about 8 and a half hours total (I will spare you the math problem this time). For the last two legs of the trip, we were on Kenya Airways, which I was excited to see, because I knew that the plane was going to be big, and nice, since it was such a long flight, but it would also have some African flavor to it, I figured. Well, I was right. I found out that I like Kenya Airways flight service even better than United. It was a 777 and it also had a personal tv with movies, television, and music for me, but it also had news, and a map tracker, that could show where the plane was on the globe at all times, its speed, its altitude, the temperature outside the plane, and its expected time of arrival. Very cool.

On this flight, I wasn’t near one of the sides of the plane. In, I was in the very middle of the three seats in the center group, which kinda stunk. The two guys on either side of me were both about my age, Brad and Jace, and were traveling in the same group, WorldHealth, and were headed to Uganda also, but to Gulu, in the northern part of the country. It was their first international mission trip too, and so we got to talk for a little bit, and they told me that they were flying into Entebbe airport too, and hoped to go to the U.S. embassy in Kampala that night for a fireworks show (it was the fourth of July now). I thought that was awesome, but figured that my group would probably be too tired to make it to the embassy that night.

So, we got to Nairobi airport just before 7am and when I stepped off that plane onto the tarmac (they don’t connect you to the terminal, you walk over the tarmac into the building) I got to step onto African soil for the first time! But, the funny thing is I was more excited about the smell outside than about touching the ground. This is because Jenny and Steve, who have both been to Africa several times, had told us about the unique smell in Africa, how its just different from home, not bad, not great, just different. So I was very excited about this, and probably looked like a bloodhound to all the Kenyan airport officials. The sun had just rose about 30 minutes before the plan landed, but I wasn’t near a window, but I had seen some of the thorn trees typical of Africa and it was just so surreal to think that my body was literally transplanted thousands and thousands of miles from home, over oceans, and now sitting upon the land that God created and called Africa. Although I didn’t see them, I knew I shared this land with animals that I had only ever seen in cartoons, on Discovery Channel, and eaten in my animals crackers in elementary school. It was just so mind-boggling.

Anyway, Nairobi airport, even though I thought of Nairobi as a pretty big city, was not very large, and was mainly like a long strip mall, but with an even skinnier isle than Oak Hollow Mall (those of you from the triad) and packed with craft stores, duty-free stores, and the like. The gates were simply yellow light up sings above a desk where some airport personnel sat, so when it was maybe an hour or so before your flight (sometimes earlier) you could start to line up at this desk, creating a line anywhere from 100 to 300 people long down the already small airport, while the desk people checked every boarding pass and passport by hand, only to let these people into another room with security scanning, and the actual airport-like waiting area, where you chilled for another hour or more before you actually got to walk out to the plane. Different.

So basicly, to wrap this up, we got to Entebbe airport, got through customs, and found out that one of my bags hadn’t come through, and had to sit for antoher 20 minutes or so to file a report about the missing bag. Of course, the one I got was the backpack, with nothing in it that I needed for the first few days of my trip. It was all stuff for backpacking, which didn’t come until later in mid-July, and the lost bag had all my clothes (besides the outfit I had been wearing for two days and the spare I had in my carry-on) and all the gifts I bought for the boy I sponsor. I was disappointed, but not angry or really “upset,” which surprised me a little, but for which I was glad. Because the only other big flight trip I’ve been on was to Florida with my family, and I lost a bag on the way down there too, right before my Make-A-Wish cruise, and it ruined my whole night. I think it was the fact that I was REALLY TRULY in Uganda, something I hadn’t even come to grips with until probably only a few hours before. Up Until after my day in London, I didn’t think for a very long time about the fact that I was less than a day or so away from AFRICA, my dream, my desire, and what I know is God’s call on me for right this moment. But now I was there, and though I was tired beyond belief an hour before, it all disappeared immediately, and became sheer excitement once I stepped outside the airport, saw the other four students and our friend who was picking us up, and drove out of the airport into UGANDA!

Will add more pics tomorrow, the connection is too slow now. And info about my first few days in Africa tomorrow too!