Arriving in South Africa

Arrival and Day 1                                                                              June 8, 2017

I woke up this morning and realized I was in South Africa and super far away from home- ahhhh time for more adventures! After nearly 38 hours of travel time I actually made it to the orphanage. I basically went straight to bed, severe lack of sleep- blah.

The plan was to fly out of Cincinnati just after 6am on Tuesday.. naturally I arrived at the airport and needed to check bags, go through security, make sure I didn’t miss my flight etc. I got to the airport 55 minutes early- plenty of time right? Nope. They had already closed the one little Air Canada counter where I had to check my bags. I figured someone would be able to help me, that didn’t happen. Obviously I begin to have a meltdown and start crying because I’m for sure missing this flight. I call Air Canada and they said they couldn’t do anything because it was booked through Ethiopian Airlines.. I called Ethiopian and they told me the same thing. Awesome, no help at all. So I went and talked to the nearest counter and they directed me towards Delta- thank god for Delta- I had to buy a new flight to get to Toronto in time to make my connections. Aldo what are the odds that I left my Delta credit card in my purse at home.. ugh. Luckily I made it but it was a much more expensive morning than I had planned! I sat next to a guy on the plane who was a talker and definitely kept me distracted from the disastrous morning I had already had, he also listened to my crazy story of the morning and said he would put me in his prayers- thanks Mr.!!

Arrival in Ethiopia… so first of all long flights are the worst if you’ve never experienced them and I have but they still last forever. I am so serious when I say there were at least 30 different smells around me at all times. Between the aroma of extra Axe sprayed on or some woman’s perfume or hairspray- lets add in a little (read:a lot) of body odor. I was on an aisle seat in the middle three seats and out of the six seats closest behind me five of them were children. Err not what I was going for, having your seat kicked on and off for almost 14 hours and listening to them argue with each other and watching them throw their food on the ground- less than ideal. Add the smell of the guy next to me after eating (SO bad!!) plus a few crying babies and turbulence… hey Dramamine! I managed to fall in and out of sleep for a while but didn’t feel rested at all. When I was served a roast beef sandwich and asked the flight attendant if there was a vegetarian sandwich she said no. I asked if there was since I listed on my ticket “lacto-ovo vegetarian” wouldn’t you know she popped right back with a sandwich for me? Oh there was also free wine.. I only took advantage of that once but it was decent wine considering we were on a plane. When I walked into the airport in Ethiopia I was surprised- not in a good way. It seemed to be a decent sized airport but it sort of felt like a glass cage. There were glass walls partitioning everything and you couldn’t even get water or a snack without going back through security. The restrooms were a hot mess so I pretty much sucked it up and sat around with cotton mouth until it was time to board. This flight was about 6 hours but worked out well because the two seats next to me were open and I could nap a little bit!

Arrival in Johannesburg.. I had very low expectations for this airport based on the last one however it was really nice. The only problem was that I had a cart with two huge bags on it and the elevator wasn’t working. I got on and off multiple times and finally asked someone for help. The guy looked at me like I was crazy and just suggested I use the escalator. I guess I looked like I was struggling because he offered to carry one of my bags down- ah the nicest people! Once I rechecked my bags I had a few hours to kill. There were plenty of shops and places to get food, clean restrooms, decent places to sit down. I walked around and got lost looking for the Ethiopian Airlines counter so I could talk to them about this flight issue. I ended up meeting the sweetest lady named Zaza that showed me where to go. We had almost two hours until our flight so she and I sat around and chatted together. She is a lawyer here in South Africa dealing with family maintenance issues (child support) and she said she absolutely loves her job. She shared some stories and I did as well. Meeting her was a great way to pass the time and I made it on the last leg of my flight and so did my checked bags!

Arrival in Durban.. The last flight had been delayed so I arrived later than expected and this was after one of my flights was cancelled Monday and rescheduled. I basically ran to get my luggage praying it would be there (it was!) and then hoped my ride would still be waiting. Two very nice guys, Martin and Andrew had a sign with my name on it and helped me with my luggage and drove me to the orphanage. I kept dozing off in the car but I think it was about 45 minutes to drive to where I am staying. I got my baggage inside and went straight to bed.

This morning I slept in due to the jet lag and lack of sleep combination. One of the drivers here, Willie, drove me and two other women who work here into town to go grocery shopping. Their grocery was in the mall so we browsed a little bit (don’t worry mom I didn’t buy anything..yet) and then went to Checkers. I bought a bunch of things I figured I would normally eat and attempt to cook. My goal is to not light anything on fire like I did in Costa Rica last summer… One of the ladies with me is a house mother here and she is going to cook me dinner so I can eat with her and her 6 girls most evenings.

When we headed back to MofP I had a meeting with Iris, the directress, and she gave me a tour of the buildings. This place has so much potential! The campus is beautiful and the buildings have been kept up pretty well. Many of the rooms such as music, theatre, the rec room, are all currently closed because there are not enough adults here to run them. It looks like I will be teaching Art, English, Music/Theatre, and Soccer J Should be a busy but fun schedule! I will be working mostly with grades 1-3 here and they are similar ages to back home. I think the teenagers will join for soccer and English might be varying levels as well.

I was so tired after the shopping an tour that it was time for a nap- I have a feeling I’ll need those the next few days until my body really adapts to all the changes. I got to meet some of the kids here (so sweet! I already love them!) and have dinner in the house called St. Theresa. The 6 girls sang some songs for us before dinner and they got me up dancing with them. We all ate together and they had a million questions for me. They are very interested in snow! Dinner was amazing- home cooked vegetables, potatoes, rice, and fish. I think I will be eating very well the next couple of weeks! I’m so excited for what it will be like teaching and working with these kids!