Bookings

I have news!

Got an email regarding booking my flights to staging and out of the country. Staging is going to be held (for my group) in Philadelphia. It's basically our last day in country and first day of training. They get us all together to have a couple of long training sessions at a hotel, and the next day we fly out.

I'm flying out of Lansing on November 11 (bright and early Monday morning) to Detroit, then Philly, then in the morning we bus to JFK. After than it's a layover in Brussels (Belgium), Burundi, and finally to Entebbe, Uganda's national airport. By our itinerary we're getting in at 11pm November 13. After that we still have a long bus ride to our training center.

These flights are going to be long. I have only ever flown once. My university band took a trip to Houston for a bowl game, and that was fantastic, but that flight was maybe a few hours. From JFK to Brussels is ten hours, then from Brussels to Burundi is another seven. I'd like to say I'd be writing or reading that whole time but half of it I'll probably be sleeping. My mom says after we land I'll never want to see another airplane again. I think it'll be terrific.

It still doesn't seem real, as I count down the days, less than a month to go. I've got to buy some things still. PC recommends a simple sleeping bag, for training sessions I may have to attend, but that is just one of the many. I've also got to get 12 passport photos to submit for my Ugandan work permit paperwork. There are still so many tasks to be completed. And I'm just getting over a cold. Woohoo! But hey, at least the government is open again right?

As the days get closer I wonder what it's going to be like, and know that I have no idea. It's exhilarating. The farthest I've been from home was driving to Colorado for a week, but with steady Wi-Fi along the way. I think the most stark difference will be lack of internet access. It informs my daily life and habits. It has infused its way into my very being. During the application process, PC asks many times in many different ways about the ways you will cope with your new life, if you don't have your usual outlets. Reading, writing, listening to music, these are all typical answers (and habits I intend to engage in), but I think the hardest part for all of us will be learning to lean on each other and our communities. We're going to be sent to live with host families after about 4-5 weeks, and there's not really a lot of chances to escape from that. I think it will be revealing, to say the least, about who we become when the safety net is no longer there.

24 days.