Getting Here:
So I finally made it! I look back on my last weeks in the US and can not believe that I did make it here. There were many moments when I thought that it was not going to be possible to get every thing done. I had many ‘To Do’ lists, and as soon as I completed one task, I would think of three more to add to the bottom of the list. I was a bit stressed to say the least. But with the help of many friends and my family I did get most everything done before I stepped onto that first plane of many on my way to Africa.
Exhale…that is my huge sigh of relief. How wonderful it felt driving to the Richmond airport. There was no more time, there was nothing left that I could do… even if there was something that I had forgotten…oh well, it was too late to worry about it. And that was the feeling I was jealously awaiting those last few weeks before I left...Ahhhhhh.
I left Richmond on Friday, Feb. 3rd, through Washington DC for a night flight to London…I arrived in the morning and my next flight did not leave until that evening, so I had a bit of extra time on Saturday to finish off just 2 remaining items on my ‘to do’ list J. VSO set me up with a day room at an airport hotel and I was able to walk around and explore (I forgot how charming the houses and neighborhood shops are in England compared to the prefab generic buildings that seem to spring up everywhere in the US.) I ended up taking a bus to Tesco’s, a large supermarket, for a 220 volt and British style outlet plugs surge protector and battery charger that I could not get in the US. This was interesting for me, because the last time I was in England, which was over 20 years ago (yikes that is a while ago) I did not see any large supermarkets. With those last 2 items scratched off the bottom of my list I was able to sleep well for a few hours, and then up again to catch another night flight – this one was to Johannesburg, South Africa.
11 hrs later I am finally standing on African land, and in just a few more hours in the air I reach Malawi.
