Travels to Africa

When traveling to Africa, one often finds oneself taking a large number of bags/items for someone else. I had four footlockers to ensure reached Africa and only one of them had my stuff in it. I will acknowledge that most of the items were for ICDI programs but all the same only one of four was actually my luggage. Now the airlines only allow two items each for 50 pds, so this amount of luggage would require a little bit more paperwork, grace from the airline stewards, and more money. Needless to say, I was a little nervous so I decided to get there early. To my surprise, it went super smooth and now I was sitting in Indianapolis airport with about 2 hours to wait. There was a flight before mine going to Chicago and I decided to see if I could get there early in case I needed extra time dealing with some issue in Chicago.

Since I made the earlier flight, I was 3 hours 20 minutes earlier than my departure time. My ticket did not tell me which gate so I looked on the departure screen….no Paris. Oh, it must be departing from the international terminal. So, I took a 25 minute jaunt down to that terminal…they promptly informed me I was in the wrong terminal and it is back in my original terminal. Ugh! When I get back, sure enough it was on the screen in a gate very close to the one I just left. I guess the flights are not presented on the screen until 3 hours before departure. Lesson learned.

After my ordeal I was slightly hungry, so I went into the little food court. “Excuse me miss”…”Excuse Me”. An older man with a thick German accent was trying to get my attention. He came up to me and handed me a $10 voucher. He was on his way to Hong Kong and the flight was delayed so United gave him a voucher. He kept talking about how he wanted to help out others and give people a foot up. When he was young and poor, people did that to him and he wanted to do that for others. As a student traveling, I looked like I would appreciate a gift…nothing in return. When I get older and have a real paying job, I won’t need this as much. I like to travel comfortably. I am wearing thin sweet pants, a tee shirt, and a Lancer zip up sweatshirt. I got a small hiking backpack to operate as my carry on. All that in addition to my young appearance must have caused him to think I was still a student. He talked so continually and with such an accent he didn’t allow me nor did I have the heart to tell him I wasn’t a student and had been working for 7 years. It was fun and encouraging in that sweet and powerful way small acts of kindness can be. I found myself thinking that God orchestrated to let me know he is taking care of me…maybe it was just a fluke but I like the thought and I will hold it for now.

We arrived in Bangui at 5:15 am and didn’t get to the Baptist Mission until 8:30 am on thursday…I slept most of the morning. This morning I woke up at 5 am to travel to Berberati…we finally got here around 7 pm. It was a long ride. The first half was fairly smooth but then around 3 it got really bumpy as the road was completely dirt and gravel no pavement to be found.

So, I have reached my destination…it is hot in my room and the electricity goes out at 9:30 so there is no fan. Ah the joys of Africa.