This last week was packed with adventure, traveling and too much jet lag!
As I sit here writing this, it is crazy to think where I was just a week ago. Our last day of ministry was a week ago in Kuala Lipis, Malaysia. From there, a teammate and I traveled to Singapore for a short get away. We got to spend two days exploring the country and seeing the beauty of Singapore, one very extravagant modern country.
After our two days in Singapore, I then got to spend a day and a half in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. KL was extremely different from our small town experience in Kuala Lipis. It is full of malls, giant buildings and lots of fun markets to shop for cheap versions of all of the expensive name brands.
Once we finished up our time in KL we began what felt like the longest travel day ever to Antigua, Guatemala. We left around 5pm on Wednesday, Malaysian time and arrived to our destination in Antigua at 8am Guatemalan time (which was 9pm on Friday Malaysian time to us). It was an exhausting over 50 hours of travel, but I have to tell you a bit more about our travel day than that because we did have fun on it!
On our way to Guatemala, we first had a layover in Seoul, South Korea. For this layover I had every expectation of sitting around waiting for our next flight, but that was not at all the case. When we first got off the plane, we found flyers advertising free tours of the city for people in transit. So naturally, I had to find out more! A group of us found the perfect tour, went through customs and spent two hours in Seoul, South Korea. When we returned, we found the coolest rest and relaxation area in the airport for people in transit, where we enjoyed naps in beds and free hot showers. Pretty nice layover if I say so myself. From there, we boarded an 11 hour flight to LAX, America. This was long!
After the very long 11 hours, I got off the plane in America after being gone for 8 months! LAX was most definitely not home, but it was still crazy to be in our own country, surrounded by people who’s first language is English and even more, to be on a similar time zone as all of our family and friends. In LAX, I got to spend the day with the American that I lived with in Uganda for Month 1, small world! She took me to all sorts of fun places. First and foremost, Target, where I got to restock on some of the American brand snacks I’ve been missing. I ate lunch at Chipotle and enjoyed a S’mores blizzard at Dairy Queen. I even got to be a tourist as a bonus and visited Santa Monica Pier for the first time.
Now I am in Antigua, Guatemala. We arrived, took a short nap on a couch, were given a cultural orientation and then drove off to our ministry site. This month I am living just a 10 minute bus ride away from the center of town in a cute gated community for safety purposes. Also, for the first time this month my team is living with another team.
Oh and that brings me to teams! I’ll give you just a quick update on our team. Makita has officially gone home and my team for the last three months will be Annaka Welty, Hannah Lin, Hannah Henderson (the three left from my previous team) and we have been joined by Logan Cahoon and Andrea Perez. We have yet to come up with a team name, but so far things are going really well and I am excited for the next three months with these 5 girls!
Thanks for all your continued prayers within this transition and during our travel days! We have arrived safely and I am excited for a great month ahead of us!
