Getting to Africa

July 7th, 2008
The day we had planned and waited for was finally here. I wondered how I would feel on this day, but I have to say, I really didn't have much fear. I was ready to go. I was totally excited. Randy was going to drive us to the airport in the church bus, so we said our "real" good-byes at home. We took care of a few last minute things that day and ran up to Gentry because a wire from Jared's braces was poking him. It was taking forever for him to even get called back and I started getting stressed out. Bad. I went up to Karen and she asked if everything was ok, (she knew we were leaving that day) I told her no, we needed to get up to the church soon, but Jared's wire was poking out and we really couldn't wait any longer. She immediately took control. She called an assistant over and she fixed Jared right up. It literally took less than one minute! whew...
We got to the church and people are all over the place! There's a feeling of excitement in the air. Not really any apprehensiveness at all. We made our copies of our passports and got ready to go. We had a time of prayer and onto the bus we loaded. We got to the airport and thus started the waiting. Everything we did, we had to wait. First, we had to wait for the United people to even open up the check-in desk, we were so early. Didn't matter though. Our plane was late! We finally made it onto the plane and it was so much fun watching Ariel and Larry. Ariel's first plane ride ever, and Larry's on a commercial jet. A couple of others too but they were behind me and I couldn't see them. The whole way to Chicago, we were visiting with the stewardess, because we knew we were going to be late getting into Chicago, and our plane for London was across the other side of Chicago. All the talking didn't help though. We got off the plane and ran. Remember, Home Alone. Oh yeah, that was us. 23 of us. Well, needless to say we made it. They closed the doors right behind Jason. I was so thirsty I went to the bathroom and filled a little Dixie cup with water several times and drank up. Hope it was drinkable water. I sat by Shellie Kindy on the flight over and an Indian lady. She never said a word though. Unfortunately, she was on the aisle seat, so I tried to just stay in my seat, so I wouldn't bother her. Right after take-off, the pilot said he was expecting a smooth flight. Not so. It was an incredibly bumpy ride. It was very hard to sleep on the plane. I know I did fall asleep for a little while, but not much. The food on the plane was actually pretty good. We arrived in London, Tuesday morning. The stewardess on the plane encouraged us to go into London, instead of waiting at the airport for several hours. I was so glad we did. It was a nice little trip into London, and we got to eat at a pub. The different pods all went their separate ways. The pod I was in, joined with another though and we went to a pub called, The Salisbury. I ate some type of steak sandwich. It was literally 3 chunks of meat on bread. Very, very hard to chew. Luckily, Mary had Fish and Chips, and it was huge, so she gave me a few bites of hers. We went back to the airport and didn't have to wait long till we boarded our next flight, using Kenya Air. It was pretty much an uneventful flight. Lots better than the trip across the pond. Food was alright, except for breakfast. I couldn't even tell what part of it was so I didn't eat it. I got to sit by my son for this flight. In the air, during landing, I could see some of the trees that when you think of Africa, you think of those types of trees. Cool. We had made it to Africa! We flew into Nairobi and getting off the plane, we had to walk down a flight of stairs. I thought I was on the last step but no, there was one more! Fell to my knees and scraped one. Welcome to Africa! ha ha While at the airport, we had to change into our skirts, just the girls :o). Women in Africa wear skirts or dresses. They are not allowed to show any leg above the knee. With respect to their culture, us ladies were going to wear skirts during our mission time in Africa. We walked to our next gate and sort of hung out. I saw some post cards in a little shop and asked the owner if there was a place to mail them. He told me you could at one of the gates, so I hurriedly bought several, wrote a quick note on each and headed down to mail them off. It cost $2 each to mail those postcards! Gulp. We got on the plane to Entebbe and arrived on time. I slept very little on all the flights over, but when we landed in Entebbe, I got my second, or was it 3rd, 4th....wind. We had made all our flights safely and everyone is in good spirits. Praise the Lord.