Going...going...gone!

Hello friends!! The journey has started and I am at my first stop – Appelsbosch, South Africa! I’ve been pretty much without internet since Rochester, so let me catch you up on the last few days…




Jan 12 – 2200
I'm packed and ready to fly.

It’s the strange things that define my luggage. I imagine some unsuspecting TSA officer opening one of my checked bags to discover…whaaat??

Because seriously…who packs like this? Between the conservative dress skirts and rugged cargo pants the well-stocked first aid kit and SAM splints…shampoo and mosquito spray and a hammock with…enough doxycycline to make an elephant nauseous, a random bit of Tupperware, a single fitted sheet, an otoscope, a set of magnetic poetry. But no shorts.

There is a pattern to the inane, I promise.

I’m just trying to figure out how to explain to South African Immigration why I don’t have an actual departure flight…and that I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be leaving their country.
In the meantime, it’s time to wrestle a large box spring and mattress upstairs so that we can go to bed, and get up in a few hours.  I'm hoping the snow stops enough that the flights out will still fly.



Jan 13, 2011 – 1230

I feel like a little girl at a sleepover, wandering around in sweatpants and fleece with a pillow under one arm. I’m stretched out now across a row of airline terminal seats, backpack slung beneath my feet, watching the people go by as I type and mourn the lack of free Wi-Fi in Dulles International Airport. A glimpse of scrub pants and a stethoscope earpiece peeking out from the open backpack brings me back to reality: I’m a pediatric nurse again, flying to Africa…now!

The rough spray of the de-icer ran across and down our small windows this morning, just before we took off into the soothing grey of early dawn. All of Buffalo was covered in snow, airport runways included. But wait…Buffalo is always covered in snow. No problems there, still good to go!

It’s been a blessed two weeks since leaving my travel assignment in Massachusetts, weeks full with packing and driving and packing and driving, brothers and sisters and close friends, dancing and celebration, and quiet evenings to relax with a cup of homemade chai with the snow falling thickly outside. I’m homeless right now, it’s true…but being homeless really isn’t so bad when you actually have about 10 homes filled with love. I can’t imagine anything more amazing I could have done with those two weeks.

South Africa still seems surreal – something that I’ve imagined in a dream. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I will be there in 24 hours. It’s exciting, but not really scary. In a way I could never have imagined this feels like, just maybe, I’m at the start of a long journey home.

January 14 – 2200

I met up with not the one Mercy Ships friend I expected, but 4! We made the flight together from Dulles and caught up on lost time. There is safety in numbers, and it’s always nice to be able to go to the bathroom without your whole world parked next to you in the stall.

We were waved through security with no problems. The official didn’t even look at my visa waiver letter; just smiled and said, “I trust you.” Surprisingly, our luggage made it too. It’s fun listening to all the different accents of English here – thick British, Dutch and Indian accents intermixed with the African.

We’re spending the night in a hotel, all five of us, because it’s too late now to make the drive out to Applesbosch. I’m the one with bedding, so I’ll be sleeping on the floor. And honestly, I doubt I’ll have problems sleeping as long as it’s a horizontal spot :-)

January 16 - 1400

It’s gorgeous here, and sunny and breezy, with frequent drizzly rain showers. I had quiet time in my hammock today…I’ve missed my hammock the last few months.

We’re living in Appelsbosch, at an abandoned college campus with rolling green hills stretched out to either side. It’s about 1-2 hrs drive outside of the port of Durban, so we’ll be driving in for now to work on the ship, until our generators are up and running.  Here at least we have electricity, limited water, even limited internet.  I share a room just slightly smaller than a college dorm room with another woman; we have shared bathrooms and showers with the rest of the floor.  In comparison to ship quarters this is luxuriously spacious; we're enjoying it while we have the chance.   

I’ve got one more day to recoop, settle in, figure out my paperwork, and then we’re jumping into work with a vengeance – cleaning and waxing the hospital floors initially, and then God only knows what. Probably everything.  I’m excited to get started, and ready to work!!