The Journey
A couple days after the commissioning service at the end of Boot Camp, our Zimbabwe Medical and Eyeglass team headed to Orlando International Airport. In the days in between commissioning and our flight, we packed, weighed, and repacked all of our luggage. We had to bring all kinds of things with us! From all of our food (canned mostly), to our supplies and eyeglasses; everything came with us. We packed them into our Teen Mission-issued duffel bags, which were incidentally incredibly difficult bags to handle, 50 lbs per bag (about 25 of which were our own clothing and sleeping bag, etc.). Once we left Merritt Island, we were all so thrilled that a cheer rose up inside the bus. Finally! We were going to go do what we came for. We couldn't be more excited! It's only about an hour to Orlando International from Merritt Island, once we were there, we had the daunting task of dragging all of our baggage to the Ethiopian Air check in desk (dragging our baggage places would become a theme, we'd soon learn).
After being secluded at Boot Camp, the airport with it's touristy stores and fast food chains was actually super exciting. Our first flight was pretty quick -- we had an overnight layover in (lucky me) Washington D.C. All during our training, the thing that was holding me together -- what I was really looking forward to -- was this layover, because my family had promised to meet us at the airport. I didn't realize how much I needed my family after being through something as challenging as our training was. They were there as soon as we got to baggage claim, I was overjoyed! The rest of the team was pretty thrilled too because my mom brought food and was able to give everyone mom hugs which they seemed to need.
We left early the next morning for our flight to Addis Ababa, it was 14 hours long and I could hardly sleep at all, but the flight went quickly enough and we got to Addis Ababa around sometime in the morning the next day (timezone really messed us up at first). The Addis Airport is crazy! So full and unorganized, that's for sure. We saw so many people from different cultures and countries in that airport. Luckily, our connecting flight was in the neighboring gate, so we just sat there for an hour before hopping on our flight to Johannesburg; I was exhausted after a night of no sleep, so I slept through the entire 5 hour flight. We arrived in Johannesburg and we were all so cold! After being in a humid, tropical, warm climate, cold, bitter, and dry South Africa was quite the shock. We spent the night there and drove to the Zimbabwe Border in the morning.
Before we even got off the bus, we were told to stay together, to not let anyone handle or 'help' us with our luggage and to not talk to anyone. Once we stepped off the bus, we were surrounded by curious people who wanted to talk to us, steal from us, or ( as one of our girls learned in a very brief conversation), marry us girls. It was crazy, slightly frightening, and definitely physically challenging because of those duffels. I kept repeating Philippians 4:13 and Isaiah 41:10. We'd go on to carry those bags nearly a mile throughout the evening, which may not sound crazy or tough but those bags were heavy and so awkward! It took hours and hours to get through the border, and by the time we left, it was dark and definitely sketchy. The rest of the night we drove till we got to our Teen Missions base in the bush. It was 1 am and the stars were absolutely incredible. Like nothing I have ever seen before! It took us four days in all to get to our home in Zimbabwe.
( The journey back was the same thing backwards, but with far lighter baggage, less waiting and mostly during the day (everyone appeared far more friendly in the light). )
After being secluded at Boot Camp, the airport with it's touristy stores and fast food chains was actually super exciting. Our first flight was pretty quick -- we had an overnight layover in (lucky me) Washington D.C. All during our training, the thing that was holding me together -- what I was really looking forward to -- was this layover, because my family had promised to meet us at the airport. I didn't realize how much I needed my family after being through something as challenging as our training was. They were there as soon as we got to baggage claim, I was overjoyed! The rest of the team was pretty thrilled too because my mom brought food and was able to give everyone mom hugs which they seemed to need.
We left early the next morning for our flight to Addis Ababa, it was 14 hours long and I could hardly sleep at all, but the flight went quickly enough and we got to Addis Ababa around sometime in the morning the next day (timezone really messed us up at first). The Addis Airport is crazy! So full and unorganized, that's for sure. We saw so many people from different cultures and countries in that airport. Luckily, our connecting flight was in the neighboring gate, so we just sat there for an hour before hopping on our flight to Johannesburg; I was exhausted after a night of no sleep, so I slept through the entire 5 hour flight. We arrived in Johannesburg and we were all so cold! After being in a humid, tropical, warm climate, cold, bitter, and dry South Africa was quite the shock. We spent the night there and drove to the Zimbabwe Border in the morning.
Before we even got off the bus, we were told to stay together, to not let anyone handle or 'help' us with our luggage and to not talk to anyone. Once we stepped off the bus, we were surrounded by curious people who wanted to talk to us, steal from us, or ( as one of our girls learned in a very brief conversation), marry us girls. It was crazy, slightly frightening, and definitely physically challenging because of those duffels. I kept repeating Philippians 4:13 and Isaiah 41:10. We'd go on to carry those bags nearly a mile throughout the evening, which may not sound crazy or tough but those bags were heavy and so awkward! It took hours and hours to get through the border, and by the time we left, it was dark and definitely sketchy. The rest of the night we drove till we got to our Teen Missions base in the bush. It was 1 am and the stars were absolutely incredible. Like nothing I have ever seen before! It took us four days in all to get to our home in Zimbabwe.
( The journey back was the same thing backwards, but with far lighter baggage, less waiting and mostly during the day (everyone appeared far more friendly in the light). )