Squeeze yet again through the too tiny walkway that takes your ticket, and leave a little arm skin for future passengers if you fail to lift them high enough. Proceed down the escalator, but make sure you cling tightly to the right because many passengers don’t really care to be behind such a graceful group of young people with stuff dangling and flying from their packs with every turn, so they will, in fact, walk – well, run down the left side. Finally get off the moving steps to realize you have to go down one more level on a non moving escalator. Then you finally reach the platform with such optimism that all of you will make it on, only to realize, these metro things already have a lot of passengers … so Round 1 – two racers push their way on, while the rest of us must wait… Then we finally heed the advice to split into pairs and trios and spread out so we all make it on. Round 2 – Success! Except that whole having to try and hold on high with a backpack as to not fall until some people get off at the next stop. From then you just proceed to try and get in your don’t go flying backwards stance, hold the sidebar tightly, and pray for the lady in the speaker box to say the magic words, “King Street.â€� STEP 4: Time to load the final bus of the day, similar process, but better loading strategy. Though I finally gave up and just let my pack have my seat, and I just stood and leaned on it. Oh and of course I am standing face to face with Melissa who is trying to video this adventure. Yet again, innocent bystanders were kept quite entertained, though I’m not sure if they wouldn’t have preferred their normal, semi-more peaceful commute. I kept wanting to bust out into song, namely, “This is Africa!â€� But lo and behold, this is still America. STEP 5: After like 2.5 hours we made it! Sweat pouring through our shirts, but as soon as we piled out, it was worth it, our team leaders, finance people, and logistics leaders came running. This is it! We arrived to find out we will be staying outside in our tents (which are roastin’, fyi … but it did hold up in the rain so far! However, we do have the luxury of an air conditioned building for meetings, western style toilets, faucet water, showers, and REAL food! So I ain’t complainin’ …
Next Stop, KENYA … we fly out of Dulles on Friday, and I expect nothing less than a similar experience getting back, just with like 16 more people to coordinate and fit!
