africa ~ the journey begins

i have been home going on three days, now, and my mind is still digesting all that i experienced while in the beautiful country of sierra leone.  i saw so much beauty, poverty and joy...i am finding it difficult to explain,  but, i will try.  i will be sharing bits and pieces over a period of time, as to not leave out any significant memory. {note: my africa blog entries will most likely be long!  i will be documenting experiences for the sake of my memory.  i want to be able to return to this when my memory fades.  consider yourself warned! :)}  here goes...

getting there...
our team of 15 met at summit at 8am on thursday morning.  i arrived around 30 minutes early...i was pretty antsy and ready to get there! :)  once everyone arrived, we prayed together and then took off for the airport.  as i was sitting in the van on the way to the airport, i was thinking "i don't know any of these people...what in the world?"  but, God is good...He knows what He is doing!  our flights to sierra leone were all on time...we traveled to orlando, washinton dc, london and then freetown.  while awaiting our first flight, the airport personnel shared that our plane was missing a fastener, and we were would have to have that repaired before we could leave.  we never saw the repair take place, but apparently everything turned out okay, because we arrived to dc in one piece!  the highlights of our travel was food...we were determined to eat well at each airport we were at, not knowing what our food would really be like in sierra leone. :)

during our flight from london to freetown, my mind was racing...i was calm, with a hint of anxiety, and i had plenty of questions.  what will i see when i get off the plane?  who will be greeting us?  will i automatically be engulfed in emotions?  as i journaled, the Lord calmed my spirit like only He can...

"we have flown over some beautiful country today.  it amazes me how God's creativity saw fit to create so many amazing and beautiful things.  as i look out my window (in the airplane), all i can see is the ocean - blue and vast.  on my ipod, i am listening to "our God reigns".  it is so true - you reign in all of your creation.  may Your kingdom reign in me, in your creation surrounding me, and in the beautiful people we will meet in sierra leone." 

our plane landed - we were officially in africa!!!  we deboarded the plane directly onto the tarmac...no direct connectors to the airport building in africa...just walk down the steps and across the cement.  we made it through customs without any problems and found our way to the luggage carousel.  uncle magnus and sarah, our cotn hosts, met us as we gathered our luggage and directed us to a waiting area.  once we were all together, uncle magnus took us & our luggage out 2 by 2 to our vehicles (a land cruiser & a pudah pudah...about as opposite as 2 vehicles can be!). (more information to come about the pudah pudah...just wait! :))  as jessica and i were led away from our group, they directed each of us to two different vehicles.  this made me a little nervous...i was the first one in the land cruiser...all by myself...with a driver i didn't know.  apparently they could see the concern on my face because the driver tried to ease my mind!  someone else from my team joined me soon, so that put my mind at ease! :)

once everyone was loaded, we took a short drive to the lungi airport hotel.  we would be sleeping here overnight before hitting the road to sierra leone.  while awaiting our rooms we enjoyed our first african meal - fresh grilled(?) chicken, french fries and digestives cookies.  it was pretty tasty!!!  the hotel also treated us to sodas because we were having to wait for our rooms - so kind!

ashley, terah c, melissa & i - hotel room in lungi

we fit 6 people into our hotel room - the 4 of us above and david & jessica.  i slept like a rock that night...in fact, we all overslept our alarm on saturday morning!  oops! :) 

that's all for now!  stay tuned for the excitement known as the "pudah pudah"! :)