Flying to Africa

We started the morning off with the rest of our orientation session. This morning, Randy talked about the impact of culture shock and how the change continuum can impact us on a trip like this. He says people hit the low point just before the halfway point of the journey. It was worth considering, because I know there will be moments on this trip when everyone will get on my nerves. Hopefully, we’ll all get past those moments.

After Randy spoke, we had Joki from Kenya. She was fascinating. Her name means “from 2 places” and she says because of that she has never been able to settle in either home – Kenya or Canada.

She told us a lot about the culture and the people. One of the things that I remember is that you’re not supposed to step across someone’s legs, or you will curse them. If you cross them in this way, you have to uncross them.

We had lunch at Kelsey’s and then wrapped up our session and headed to the airport.

On the flight to Amsterdam, there was much less leg room than I expected on an international flight. It was hard to get comfortable. Plus, the woman beside me was fairly large and her elbow kept bumping me. I didn’t sleep much – only an hour or so. I watched the movie “The Notebook”. It was pleasant, but nothing too memorable. The entertainment units were quite impressive. You could choose between a fairly large selection of movies, television shows, documentaries, music, and even games. Each seat was equipped with its own remote which also served as a phone, and a game control set.

There was a nice moment during the movie. James Garner and Gena Rowlands were dancing near the end of the movie – two old people near the end of their lives swaying to life’s music. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a father holding his child in the aisle of the plane, swaying at much the same pace, trying to calm his child. It was a nice little vignette of the stages of love and life.

Now we’re in Amsterdam airport. We have a few hours to kill before our flight. I’m tired but happy. It’s nice to have something to look forward to. It’s nice to sit and watch people walking by – all on their way to somewhere else.

I had a little sad moment today. As I was going through the little photo album I’d brought, I realized I hadn’t included any pictures of Dad. I’d grabbed mostly recent pictures, taken after Dad died. It doesn’t feel like a complete picture of who I am if it doesn’t include Dad. So much of who I am is because of who he was. I feel like I’ve cheated him a little by leaving him out. Sorry Dad. I didn’t mean to. I don’t want time to separate me from the reality of him.