At the Champaign airport I saw a mission group with 10 people and many big bags. I wished I had a group with big bags so we could bring a lot more supplies. My friend Val who had volunteered dentistry in Haiti 10 times explained to me that usually people go and work as a group, and what I was doing was a bit different, sort of inventing the wheel here, being a one woman show. I felt thoroughly inadequate seeing those big bags, well I will just have to do my best.
I got to London Sunday morning July 11, 2010, at 6AM, went through customs and took the tube to central London to have breakfast with cousin Strad. It was really great seeing Strad. London 10K was going on so it was quite exciting. I got back and took the 1PM flight to Sierra Leone, a 5 hour hop.
I dozed off and woke up to see land from the air, is that France or Spain I asked the attendant. She said "It is England, we are going back to London". I said " Oh very funny". She said, no really we are going back to London, our radar is broken.
Well we spent 3 hours in the air before landing again in London. After waiting 5 hours at Heathrow we were told the flight was cancelled, it was now past 10PM. I dragged, pulled, wrestled with my luggage and the 47 pound supply bag in and out of the airport, on and off the bus, up and down the hotel steps ( sorry no elevators). Got about 5 hours of sleep and back at the airport before 6AM Monday morning. The flight was on time but they said the fuel tank was too small for the 5 hour flight so we would stop at Madaga Spain to top off then fly 4 hours to SL. At this point I was too exhausted to ask any questions.
It was a hazy day and the engine was in the way, but I was very excited to finally see the continent of Africa for the first time from the air.
No comments:
Post a Comment