Day #1: Leaving on a Jet Plane

The first day of my trip was full of anticipation, excitement and lots of waiting! I woke up in the morning full of energy and looking forward to the long awaited trip! I kept saying "I'm leaving for Africa today!" and to anyone who would listen, "Can you even believe it!?!" I myself couldn't even believe it. My Mom and I ran around picking up last minute necessities, a first aid kit, a mirror, a comb, a toothbrush, shower shoes, and work goggles and with barely anytime left I was all packed and ready to go! I took my last true shower and savored every second because I knew it would be weeks before I experienced that kind of clean again. Then I put on my "BG Mission Trip to Africa" t-shirt and with my little sister and my mother we drove to BG so I could meet the group and we could head off to the airport. Families and friends were all gathered together in the courtyard of the school helping to load the bus and weigh our bags (mine weighed in at 41.2 lb.s 8.8 lb.s underweight which meant I could fit some donation items into my personal bag). At last it was 3 O'clock, and so I said good-bye to my sister, mother and my father and boarded the bus (photo to upper left).

Our flight was departing from the Boston Logan Airport at 9:30 p.m., and we, the 17 students and 4 adult chaperons, arrived at the airport at 3:30. While it took us a considerable amount of time to unload all of our personal bags (one per person) and all of our donation bags (one or two per person) we still managed to make it through security and customs with about 5 hours to spare. This was just the beginning of the waiting we would experience on our mission trip, those 5 hours were spent eating airport food, playing huge card games on the floor, reading books and chatting away (photo above)! Finally 9:30 p.m. came around and it felt like we had been waiting for days, boarding onto the plane took forever, we boarded by row and since we were a large group majority of us were in the back of plane so we were some of the last to board! We settled into our seats and after all the waiting and craziness, I was finally flying through the air on my way to Africa! So I closed my eyes and slept (right through dinner!) all through the 7 hour plane ride, and when I woke up it was breakfast in London!