The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian

The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian describe my companions on the next 2 legs of my flight! From Atlanta to Amsterdam I'm going to have to admit that I was like that little kid on the Disney commercial, "But I'm tooo excited to sleep!"

The 2 Scottish girls were on their way home from "A Holiday" in the states and they were perfectly pleasant, the one right next to me chose to watch Avatar and any time something jumped out she nearly jumped out of her chair and gasped and even held my hand a few times! She definitely reminded me of my Danish foreign exchange student so it was okay, she liked to hold my hand too!

The Hollander, or what ever you call ladies from Holland, she was one of those missionary types (I know right?! Could you change my seat please? I think she was grateful when she began to witness to me and I said, "no evangelism needed (especially not for the next 8 hours!) Me and Jesus are tight!" However I have to tell you that she had personal space issues, or rather, I have personal space issues and she violated them excessively! She also was a public nose blower (this is never okay, but especially not when you're going to run out of places to put your used tissues and decide to us my seat back!) However, I have to give her props for at the end of the flight when I asked her how long it would take her to get to Holland from Amsterdam, she was very gracious as she informed that Amsterdam is, in fact, IN Holland!

In case you're wondering I viewed Toy Story 3, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which was super funny, and the kid in it reminded me of a young Logan Ellis! I love you Logan and you've turned into a handsome strong marine from that cute little jr. higher who scraped his face on the bottom of the pool trying to impress the ladies!) :) Oh, and I watched a laugh out loud funny episode of Modern Family. Manny is my favorite!

The last flight well, it was not so entertaining as I was soooo sleepy! I, likely being the last passenger booked, was in the middle of the middle row, up against the wall, seated between 2 very large men (don't you wish everybody used dial?) who claimed both arm rests and some of my seat actually immediately, however, there was an aisle seat EMPTY in my eye sight, I yelled across the plane to ask the stewardess if I could stake claim to it, I couldn't chance waiting on her to respond to those people who had pushed their call button, certain that they all had their eyes on my empty aisle seat treasure! Suckers, I sat by the tiny Asian girl on the aisle and slept like a baby! Because she was Asian I assumed she did not speak English because only white folk speak English, right?! So, when I was using my sign language to speak foreign to ask to borrow her pen to fill out one of those form thingys, she looked at me and in nothing but a New York accent politely asked me if I needed to borrow her pen! Oops! What?! I'm always culturally appropriate with my stereotypes!

Seat 21 C

The journey to Kenya begins: Nashville to Atlanta (1 whopping hour!)
Atlanta to Amsterdam (8hrs)
Amsterdam to Nairobi (8hrs)

The adventure began on the first flight, Seat 21 C - Aisle 21 is what I'd probably call an "afterthought." I imagine it went like this: Some Delta stewardess wanted to make a little extra money and on a plane with 20 aisles she created Aisle 21... basically she sat a couple of children's folding chairs behind row 20 right beside her little pop out seat - you know the one- directly up against the wall where people lean their buttocks while they await the restroom! Sound terrible? Nooo, it has its perks, it has a special back massager .... your chair vibrates every time someone flushes the toilet! We hung out on the Nashville tarmac for about an hour just for fun I think.... but don't worry the stewardess in my lap made sure I kept my tray table in the locked and upright position! (There were no worries about my seatback as the wall made sure of that!) Oh and evidently you had to pay extra for A/C! (Oh and NO mom I did not meet a man on this flight, the grown man seated beside me was reading Harry Potter!) It may sound like I'm complaining....I'm soooo NOT, I'm smiling ear to ear, just happy to be on the plane on my way to Kenya (well, Atlanta first!) Currently reading Midnight in the City by Hal Donaldson I'll submit a book report later!

The GULP Heard Round the World

Lesson #1 with Convoy of Hope was to be learned near .... IMMEDIATELY! It's the Biblical principle of being ready in season and out of season! At a moment's notice! Friday, October 8th was to be my last day with Centerstone and while I was enjoying a final lunch with co-workers, my telephone rang:

Matt Wilkie: "Do you wanna go to Africa this week?"
Me: "Sure, when?!" (thinking to myself, today is Friday, we're probably talking heading out NEXT Friday...no sweat! )
Matt Wilkie: Monday!
Me: GULP!

Only my co workers could officially tell you what my face looked like, but my missionary friend in Argentina assures me she heard me GULP! Here's my re-inactment photo!