After an exciting journey here, I have made it safe and sound to my home in Cape Town. Before leaving Atlanta, Ryan and I had wasted all the time we could in an effort to wait for the Kavu bag he had bought and have overnighted to my house. Since my flight wasn't until 9:20, we thought that it surely would have been delivered by 7pm when we needed to head out...but no. Low and behold, 10 minutes after leaving my house, it arrived. Well my luck couldn't have been any better that my roomie's boyfriend had already agreed to pick up one of his friends at the airport at 9pm. SO, they left a few minutes early to swing through the new International Terminal at the airport, literally pass off my package through the window, just before I ran through security and boarded shortly thereafter! Thank goodness I have the sweet gift that Ryan gave me to use every day while I'm away! :)
Then I wasted a LOT of time in London for the 9 hours that I was there - reading magazines, doing sudoku & crossword puzzles, eating and drinking junk food, journaling, people watching, etc. It was a flashback to the bathrooms in the youth building when I used the bathroom in the London airport because it had the little tissues you pull out rather than a roll! Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Cape Town...then we sat on the runway for an hour!!! SO frustrating, but hey, I made it safely and for that, I am grateful. As I made my way through Passport Control and Customs, I was anxious to get my luggage and make my way to the hands of people I knew would be with me for the next 6 weeks. Sure enough, I walk out and hear, "Mia!" Before I knew it, I was in the arms of sweet Danielle, who I had just met briefly while she was in the States over Christmas, but hugged me so good I started crying! It was so amazing to see a familiar face and be hugged like that after such a long travel day all alone!! She was with 3 other Living Hope/ACTS people and then a girl who was on my flight and doing the same 6-week program as me.
We all piled into a big van and made our way to the lodge where we are staying, which is beautiful! I have a wonderful roomie from Samford University, and we both freshened up before heading to lunch with Danielle. Before eating, we ran by the market for each of us to buy a power adapter (and some cookies that taste like Samoas!). Then we headed across the way to quite an interesting restaurant in the mall. Danielle described it to us as a Chuckie Cheese meets Applebees, and this couldn't have been more accurate! I was craving fresh whole foods after yucky airplane food for over 24 hours, so I had a standard chicken, avo, and bacon salad that hit the spot!! I had to laugh because I had totally picked on Ryan last week when he had raved about how good his "avo on toast" was, and referred to South Africa as calling it "avo" and sure enough, I ordered it for my first meal here! I also learned at lunch that I will be working in the township of Red Hill, which is SUPER exciting for me because that was Ryan's stomping ggrounds much of the time he was here. Yippee, now I get to see it and share in his stories and experiences!
OK, I'm getting super tired, so I'm gonna wrap this up quickly! When I got back home, I took a much needed shower before opening up my computer. I immediately had 2 Skype calls from both Ryan and my parents, and it was amazing catching up with them after a long day of travel. I was beaming both because I was able to speak with them, but also because I'm in AFRICA!! The rest of my evening has been super low-key (which is why I can write such a long post!) and I've just been trying to stay awake so that I will actually be able to get a good night of sleep tonight. I have no doubt in my mind that I will be successful in doing so! I'm just grateful to have a couple of days to recover and adjust before beginning work in Red Hill on Monday - the first two weeks of which will be helping with what they call "Holiday Camp" and is ultimately like VBS here in Cape Town. Stay tuned for more later! :)
Then I wasted a LOT of time in London for the 9 hours that I was there - reading magazines, doing sudoku & crossword puzzles, eating and drinking junk food, journaling, people watching, etc. It was a flashback to the bathrooms in the youth building when I used the bathroom in the London airport because it had the little tissues you pull out rather than a roll! Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Cape Town...then we sat on the runway for an hour!!! SO frustrating, but hey, I made it safely and for that, I am grateful. As I made my way through Passport Control and Customs, I was anxious to get my luggage and make my way to the hands of people I knew would be with me for the next 6 weeks. Sure enough, I walk out and hear, "Mia!" Before I knew it, I was in the arms of sweet Danielle, who I had just met briefly while she was in the States over Christmas, but hugged me so good I started crying! It was so amazing to see a familiar face and be hugged like that after such a long travel day all alone!! She was with 3 other Living Hope/ACTS people and then a girl who was on my flight and doing the same 6-week program as me.
We all piled into a big van and made our way to the lodge where we are staying, which is beautiful! I have a wonderful roomie from Samford University, and we both freshened up before heading to lunch with Danielle. Before eating, we ran by the market for each of us to buy a power adapter (and some cookies that taste like Samoas!). Then we headed across the way to quite an interesting restaurant in the mall. Danielle described it to us as a Chuckie Cheese meets Applebees, and this couldn't have been more accurate! I was craving fresh whole foods after yucky airplane food for over 24 hours, so I had a standard chicken, avo, and bacon salad that hit the spot!! I had to laugh because I had totally picked on Ryan last week when he had raved about how good his "avo on toast" was, and referred to South Africa as calling it "avo" and sure enough, I ordered it for my first meal here! I also learned at lunch that I will be working in the township of Red Hill, which is SUPER exciting for me because that was Ryan's stomping ggrounds much of the time he was here. Yippee, now I get to see it and share in his stories and experiences!
OK, I'm getting super tired, so I'm gonna wrap this up quickly! When I got back home, I took a much needed shower before opening up my computer. I immediately had 2 Skype calls from both Ryan and my parents, and it was amazing catching up with them after a long day of travel. I was beaming both because I was able to speak with them, but also because I'm in AFRICA!! The rest of my evening has been super low-key (which is why I can write such a long post!) and I've just been trying to stay awake so that I will actually be able to get a good night of sleep tonight. I have no doubt in my mind that I will be successful in doing so! I'm just grateful to have a couple of days to recover and adjust before beginning work in Red Hill on Monday - the first two weeks of which will be helping with what they call "Holiday Camp" and is ultimately like VBS here in Cape Town. Stay tuned for more later! :)
