The Journey Begins

For now, this will be a brief post, as I'm limited to Internet time at the moment. I'm currently sitting at a little cafe in the Johannesburg airport waiting on a few other people to arrive. Things are a little hectic, as about half of our group, including the 2 guides/professors will not be here until tomorrow afternoon due to a flight cancelation. So, for now, there are 3 of us waiting on 2 more to arrive, then we will figure out as a group what to do from here. We're an intelligent group....we'll figure it out.

My flights were simple, uneventful and long. I departed Dayton at 4:00 pm Saturday the 25th. I had the joy of spending my last few hours in America with Rob, Mom, Greg, Autumn and Kenners. It's amazing how much I love those people. Anyway, I had a quick layover in Atlanta, allowing me only enough time to find my gate, get my passport verified and buy a bag of pretzels and a bottle of tea.

The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was 16 hours....not quite as long as I expected, but still long. I enjoyed a complimentary glass of wine, a few decent meals, a couple episodes of Glee and a surprisingly large amount of sleep. By the end, my hips and knees were in a lot of pain and my ankles and feet were swollen, but my excitement was growing and all was right with the world.

I didn't have a window seat, but I was fortunate to catch a glimpse of the South African landscape during the descent. It was beautiful....flat until the very last stretch of sight where I could see mountains jutting into the clouds. Clusters of red, brown and black earth with splatters of green trees and blue waters. Brightly colored houses and buildings created an almost surreal image as bright greens, blues, yellows and reds were scattered throughout like a paint covered palette. After making my our way through customs (which was impossibly easy) we were greeted with a majestic sunset. I was unable to capture these images with Badu (my camera), but the mental image will be enough for now.

More details will come soon, as I'm running out of time here at the cafe. More to come later...