58 hours. It took us fifty-eight hours to get from Atlanta to Targu Mures, Romania. What an ordeal! It was a joyful one full of laughter and ridiculousness though, so it was well worth it in my opinion. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Picture this.
Friday morning at 4:00 am, half of our squad (myself included) and Christy (one of our squad leaders) climbs aboard a yellow school bus, which takes us to a metro train, which brings us to ATL airport. Arrive at the airport too early for me to be awake yet. Check 24 50-pound backpacks on a Delta flight to JFK, get on an airplane to bring us to the Big City.
We make it out of Atlanta. No problem, mission accomplished.
Get to JFK at about 11:30 am, our flight to Warsaw, Poland is supposed to leave at 6:15. It’s delayed for three hours and we’re in the airport until 9:20, but it’s fine because they gave us meal vouchers. We were supposed to have a connection to Bucharest from Warsaw, and actually, they told us “Warsaw will wait for you.” We have about an 8 hour flight to Warsaw (plus a 6 hour time change) and hope that when we get to Warsaw we can still make it to Bucharest.
We make it out of the country. Minor delay, but HEY! We’re in Europe!
Nope. The connection left without us, leaving us in Warsaw from noon (their time) until about 7:45 pm. They gave us a connection to Munich, then to Bucharest because we had missed our flight. Another two meal vouchers. Here’s my favorite part: I showered in a public bathroom in Warsaw. Who does that? Racers do. Our flight to Munich was delayed for unknown reasons by about half an hour, which was just enough to give us reason to think we’d miss the flight to Bucharest. Team leaders + Christy pray that we would make it. While they finish praying, it’s announced that the flight is boarding. God is good.
We make it out of Poland, with hopes of getting to Romania!
I think this is my favorite part. Our connection from Munich to Bucharest should have left 10 minutes before we even landed in the country. When we step foot in the airport, a little woman with a sign says “Bucharest! Bucharest! Follow me! This way!” and leads us up some stairs. Warsaw might not have waited for us, but Munich did (Praise the Lord!) We literally jog/speed walk/run through the airport, get our passports stamped and go from Gate 3 to Gate 43 in a matter of minutes, to go down more stairs, onto a tram to bring us to an already boarded flight. The plane is within 100 yards of the one that we had just gotten off of. Ridiculous.
We make it through Germany in under 30 minutes. It must be a record.
One hour and some 20 odd minutes later, we land in Romania! And here we are, in the country of month one of the September A-squad of 2011. We might be in country, but we're still only one day down and we have another day of travel before getting to Targu Mures, the location of my team (Beauty for Ashes) and team WALDO's first ministry.
Check back in a few days to hear about that day. Until then, know that I am safe and thankful to be here. Things are wonderful, God is good, and the 10 people that I'm living with are beautiful, loving people who I am excited to get to know.
With love, Jenna
