Faith through Love: August 2014

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Travel home

It all started a few months ago. I told my parents and sister that I wanted to come home for a few weeks to surprise my Grandma D. My journey began on July 21st around 10:30. I left my house and headed to Bahir Dar for the night. I got to Bahir Dar and had a late lunch/early dinner with a friend. On the 22nd I had an early flight to Addis Ababa at 9:20. I got picked up at 7:20 and headed to the airport. I arrived in Addis Ababa around 10:30, by the time I got to the Peace Corps office it was around 11:30. I had to see the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) to pick up some paperwork. My flight for the States was scheduled for 10:15 pm. So I decided to hang out at the office for the day. I didn't feel like spending money and I didn't want to fight for a spot on a line taxi. I got the the airport around 7:30 to check in and found out my flight was delayed for 2 hours. The flight didn't leave until almost 3 hours after it was scheduled to leave, take off was around 1:00 am. Which put us in Rome for our 1 hour fuel stop 3 hours late, then we left Rome about 45 minutes late. I was suppose to land in D.C. around 8:30 and I had another flight to Sarasota at noon. Well my flight didn't land in D.C until 11:45, which put me at the check-in counter at 12:05. At this point I was very upset, I actually started crying waiting in line to get through immigration. The lady at the check-in counter got me on another flight at 6:30 pm with a transfer in Atlanta. So I spent the afternoon in Dulles airport. I grabbed a frappacino, pumpkin bread and double chocolate chip muffin from Starbucks, before leaving I ate at Chipotle. The 6:30 flight from Dulles to Atlanta got stuck on the runway for about 20 minutes, so the plane landed late in Atlanta, which made me miss my late for my 2nd flight. I was unset again and almost started crying, missing 2 flights in 1 day and all I wanted to do was get home. When I got to the customer service desk there were about 20 people in front of me. I was not hopeful that I would get to Florida that day. It was 10:00 pm and I was extremely exhausted and running on about 5 hours of sleep. The lady at customer service was extremely helpful and found me a flight to Tampa. The flight was suppose to leave at 11:10, but was delayed about an hour. So I was lucky enough to get a seat on that flight. I made it to the gate at 11:15 and they found a seat for me. I had traveled for almost 48 hours and I just wanted to be in my bed! I landed in Tampa, Florida around 1:20 am, by the time I got to in my bed it was around 3 am. I was extremely exhausted.

flying between Rome and D.C

Leaving Rome

Chipolte steak burrito with chips and salsa

Flying into Addis Ababa from Bahir Dar

Camp G2LOW

My summer has been quite boring, at least when I was in Ethiopia it was. I didn't do much for most of May and June. I did a lot of TV and movie watching and some reading. I spent some time with friends and did quite a bit of baking. July 11-17, 8 volunteers and myself put on a camp for 36 campers and 9 junior counselors, there were also 8 Ethiopian counterparts. Camp G2LOW stands for Girls and Guys leading our World, its focus is leadership, HIV/Aids awareness, and empowerment. We came from all around the Amhara Region. It was a lot of fun and very exhausting. I met with my campers around noon on Friday, July 11 and we rode to Bahir Dar. I took a sibling group and their father came with us, because he wanted to see the campus. There was a miss communication and I didn't realize it until we arrived at the campus and I had to pay almost triple what I expected to pay, I wasn't happy about it. Camp consisted of 5 different topic days, gender, environment, health, business and leadership and education. There were many fun activities and plenty of free time for sport and cheers/games. The theme of camp was World Cup. My team was the Netherlands, were I had 5 campers, 2 junior counselors, a counterpart and myself. The week went by fast and there was very little drama. Camp ended on Thursday and I returned to Injibara with my 5 kids. I slept for almost 2 days and watched TV. The next thing I know it was time for me to head back to Bahir Dar to leave for my 3 weeks in the States.