My First offical Travel Day:
January 11, 2013
6AM: Meet in Hotel Lobby in Sterling, VA
6:30AMLeave hotel in Sterling, VA for Washington Dulles International Airport
6:45AM: Arrive Dulles Airport; go through security and find our gate
10:10AM: Flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Dubai departs
We were totally blessed to fly Emirates so we got two awesome meals and a snack and our own TVs and hundreds of new movies to choose from. We also had satellite phones which we of course used to call our squad mates who were sitting in different rows we also bonded with out flight attendents. Our flight was a little bit longer than 12 hours.
January 12, 2013
7:45AM: Arrive in Dubai
9:15: buy $5 bottle of water( hadn’t quite figured out the conversion rate)
10:15: Leave Dubai for Johannesburg; 9 hour flight this time we had all the same amenities
4:35PM: Landed in Johannesburg; got our luggage everyone’s packs made it; we cleared customs, changed clothes and loaded our packs into 3 mini-buses.
7:40PM: After making withdraws and dealing with various logistics we finally left the Johannesburg Airport
We made numerous stops at gas stations; mostly not for the purposes of buying gas
January 13, 2013
4AM: Arrive at border between South Africa and Mozambique; got our exit stamp and then drive through to Mozambique where one of my squadmates almost got her camera confiscated for taking a picture at the border(Note to future racers: don’t take pictures at the borders) We then had our pictures taken for our visas and proceeded to have them taken one at a time we attempted a worst picture contest; although they were all pretty funny including wacky hairstyles and funny faces
9AM: Finally left the border
11:43AM: Arrive at our stop for the night in Maputo; we are staying at a missionaries house; we get to spend the night indoors while it is raining and take a shower. Very exciting after 3 days of traveling
We proceeded to spend the rest of the day alternating between sleeping and eating.
January 14, 2013
12:41AM: Wake up and look at my Ipod which shows Dubai time; try to figure out why no one is getting up since we have to be up and packed and ready to go at 3:30AM; wake up Courtney and tell her we need to wake up; she rolls over and says that we don’t have to get up until 4AM; I then realize my Ipod is on Dubai time go back to sleep
2:20AM: Wake up and begin getting ready
3:30AM: Everyone takes our packs outside and proceeds to begin loading the two tiny minibuses with our packs it is decided we will hold our daypacks in our laps; begin loading our buses stuff 24 people and packs, daypacks, and purses into a mini-bus that would comfortably fit 15 people ; proceed to get to know our neighbors, for me this meant having Josh in my normal personal space, Kirks feet on either side of Josh aka on me and Paul’s feet out the window next to me aka in front of my face. I even have war wounds to show for it.
5:17AM: Actually leave Angie’s house
We then proceed to only stop when necessary begin spending our $5 for food at a gas station; we even went 5 hours without stopping not sure what happened between yesterday and today and all the gas station stops
12:23AM: Arrive at Iris Ministries in Dondo, Mozambique I almost cried from the sheer happiness of getting off the bus; and then we found out we were sleeping inside with electricity that sometimes works; no running water but I couldn’t be happier.
We have finally arrived at our Month 1 Ministry Site…..more to follow when I have details!!!
