Day Infinity

Every journey begins with a step, and then you take a million more before you get to change your socks. Makes sense, right?

The first leg of my journey started with Jenna wishing me farewell. That was not easy! I flew to New York with great easeish. I was tired by 10:45 (Just over an hour into my first plane ride.) I didn’t want to sleep until I took off from the JFK airport. Long story short, I made it to New York, but it is not easy when they shut all the lights off on the plane and play soft music. The young Russian girl sitting next to me kept mistakenly thinking that my arm was her armrest. She was wearing an eye mask, so who could blame her. I finally just gave in and let her treat my arm like a scratching post, until she realized what she was doing, then it got awkward. That actually provided me with some humor that I would need to carry me through.

I got to New York at 5:00 AM. My flight didn’t leave JFK until 11:00. No food places were open and I was sleepy, so I did what anyone would do. I rode the Airtrain between the terminals and explored. I finally found a dunken doughnuts and forced that subparness down.

One thing about me is that I am an introvert when I am trying to recharge. Not one time on this trip could I find a place to have quiet. There was noise and chaos at every step, which is only agitated by tiredness…I am glad that I did not travel with anyone. That relationship would probably be over! I was really cranky!

I was in a trance getting on the flight to Johannesburg. I thought “I’m just going to go to sleep for 4-5 hours.” Having an aisle seat is both a blessing and a curse. I could get up whenever I needed, but I also got to get up when EVERYONE else needed to. I’ll save you the blow by blow, and tell you that I got an hour of solid sleep time in 16 hours in the air. The lost 16 hours of my life. Between snorers, chewers and the TV with the GPS of our flights path on it, I thought it would never end.

I did make it though! Johannesburg was like coming out of a haze. “I’m in Africa!” I got chills just thinking about it. The people were so friendly and helpful. I was able to move through security and get to my next flight just in time. After my previous flights, this was going to be a piece of cake. I had an entire row to myself. The plane was delayed because the meal truck broke down. Did I care? No! I layed across that row of seats and slept like my life depended on it (or someone else’s did.) When the flight finally took off, I felt quite rested!

I landed in Lilongwe with ease. Going through customs was long, but no big deal. I grabbed my luggage and exchanged my US dollars for the Malawi currency (Kwacha). Then I found my ride almost immediately. It probably helped I was an hour late due to the delay with the lunch truck. Side note, the wait was totally worth it. Lunch was delicious. That may be because it was the first real meal I had eaten in two days.

I will talk about my first day in Malawi in a different post, but this evening we finally got to the volunteer house at 9 PM. After some shenanigans I was able to step into my new bedroom, for the next 29 days at least, and take off my Saturday socks on Monday.  Let that sink in!