We made it halfway!! That’s pretty impressive considering all we had. I ended up sleeping for just under an hour and a half and then just about a half hour or so in the car. It turns out even when you’re tired, you manage to stay away when you’re excited! We got to Minneapolis with all of our suitcases equal to or heavier than 50 pounds…..go figure! It gives me an even greater excitement to give away all of the things that are inside of them. Not only will they bring kids a lot of entertainment, but they’ll lighten our load considerably! The worst is the carry on luggage. We had to put ALL of the heaviest stuff in them. So we have a small suitcase that is entirely BOOKS! I don’t know how I managed to get it in the overhead bin. My mom was going to lift it and I refused to let her! No way am I going to have her hurt her back before we even get to the right continent! Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same on the next flight. If not we can find some random kids in the airport that look like they are in need of reading materials.
We have a five hour layover in Amsterdam. I’ve been through here 5 times already coming to and from Uganda, but never gone into the city. Someday maybe, but I think two new countries will be a good start for my mom! She is a trooper with all of her heavy bags dragging all over. I would help her, but I’m having a hard enough time with the weight of my own massive stuff. Troy collectively calls the toys and games “crap” but I think secretly he might want to get some for himself. Who wouldn’t want endless supplies of picture printer paper, Bereinstein Bear Books, and mini Beanie Babies? He truly does make sure that what we bring is relevant and useful and not just a place to bring things that we deemed useless.
I have not done anything productive on the plane. I was too overwhelmed to get my computer out of the overhead compartment to learn some more Swahili even though I thoroughly enjoy Rosetta Stone. (part of me doesn’t want to use a computer that only lasts 2 hours or less which will be a hard adjustment from my wonderful MacBook Pro!!) I didn’t want to start reading the one book I brought because I don’t want to run out of things to read in Uganda. I certainly didn’t want to read my USMLE First Aid book. It’s only been a week since Year 1 ended, and Boards are just too far away to scare met quite yet! I settled on watching movies: Date Night, Valentine’s Day, and Dear John. Could I be any more of a girl? Pretty sure I teared up during all three of them.
I’m looking forward to our first experiences in Uganda’s Airport mostly for my mom’s reaction. She’s already commented on things such as music in a different language, toilets that say “Ladies and Gentlemen” instead of “Men and Women”, and the room made for smoking. By the way, Gross! There is a glass room in the lounge of the airport for smokers to congregate. There has been a line outside of it for the past hour as people are waiting to smoke. You can walk by and see them all crowded in there elbow-to-elbow just poisoning each other’s lungs with the stuff. If it makes them happy, good for them, but I think I’ll avoid that area as much as possible because the smoke manages to creep its way out. However, I’m sure that little bit of smoke is less of a problem than all of the smog in the city of Kampala that I’ll be sucking in for the next month!
Again I managed to write a book for you! It’s good summer reading! We’re going to miss everybody while we’re gone. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to spend time just talking with people and I was spoiled the past week. I’m pretty sure I did more hanging out in that time than I did in an entire semester. I didn’t even realize I missed it until now! At least I’ll have some time in August for that!
Margaret
p.s. I already miss the entertainment provided by Ross in the airports and planes. There will be many “Ross” memories along the way!
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