Contributing a Verse

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse

-          Walt Whitman

Living in Uganda makes you think a lot. Sometimes I can’t even participate in group discussions because I am overwhelmed with new thoughts and ideas both positive and negative. The potential for this country, the potential for my organization, the potential of the children we work with, and the potential for humanity is so strong yet demanding and dependent. Sometimes it is easier to shut down rather than to open up and listen. I have strong urges to just shut down and hide but I fight them (most of the time). At the end of a long day in Uganda, or really any day in Uganda, unwinding is crucial. Everyone has their own ways of unwinding and I find that is really helps me to talk about my day with friends. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to move into a new house with great people because they really help me unwind at the end of every day.

Most of us foreigners living in Uganda face so many troubles and problems in our daily lives (mostly other peoples troubles) there is a point when it all becomes too much. I cannot bear to hear another tear jerking story about how one of our kids ended up on the streets and what happened to them while they were on the streets. I cannot bear to hear about another death that was caused by a preventable disease. I cannot bear to be presented with another problem I don’t have a solution for. I cannot bear these things, oh me, oh life. I see so many problems and so few solutions and this hurts me. I want to find a solution, I want to fix every problem but I can only do so much. One of my new goals is to try hard to see solutions rather than problems. I tend to look around me and see the problems and get overwhelmed by the problems so my goal is to see solutions.

My heart is heavy and my brain confused but I will tread on and I will continue down this road I have chosen. I have read and heard this poem by Walt Whitman many times before in my life but the other day the poem really spoke to me. I can feel the pain and anguish in his words and I feel them in my life right now. His answer to the struggles he sees and faces is the same as my answer to the struggles I face. The play will go on and I will continue to play a part. No matter how small my role in this world may be I am contributing a verse and that verse makes a difference.

I don’t want these thoughts to make my friends and family back home nervous or scared for me. I am an eternal optimist and while I have times that are dark the sun is never far from my mind. Having emotions is a good thing and this blog is an insight to some of the unique emotions I have had while living in Uganda. Just to show I really am happy and loving my life I will include some fun pictures. I’m not very good at being in the pictures but trust me I was around and I was smiling! More life updates to come soon. 

Playing with the albino Ugandan girls that live across the street. They bring a smile to my face every time  I leave the house and every time I come home. They are the cutest.

Popping Abdul's collar for him

See! Happy times 

With the Bukesa Boys

Celebrating John's 30th birthday!

Plastic jugs on bike. How can you not smile at this?

This is My Life

Gah! It’s been over one month since my last blog. It is my goal to do a blog update at least once a month. I was hoping I would want to write updates more than once a month but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. That being said if anyone reading this blog would like more updates please feel free to e-mail me. It is easier for me to respond to questions as opposed to rambling about my experiences in Uganda on a blog. It’s hard for me to know what people want to hear about. To me this is just my daily life and it seems strange to update people on day to day activities. Anyway, it’s been one month since my last update so I am sure I can think of something interesting to write about…

Really in the last month I have just been trying to live my life because this is my life now. I live in Uganda. This past weekend I moved to a new home! I was living in the guest house below the office in which I work. I moved to a real house in another area of town. My new house mates (3 girls, one guy) are all great people and I could not be more excited to live with them. I think I will feel much more like Uganda is my home once I actually live in a home and not a hotel that people are constantly moving through. I will definitely update the blog on how life in the new house is after a few weeks.

Most of the people I’ve talked to about their transitions to life in Uganda shared similar feelings to mine. They all said that the first few months are pretty rocky and that after three months things smooth out. I’ve been waiting for the smoothing out part and at just past three months I think I made it there. I feel more relaxed and more confident. I know settling into my new abode will solidify these feelings for me. It is one thing to visit another country and it is a completely different thing to make a life in another country and it is even a completely different thing to make a life in another country alone. I have made friends here and my family supports me but my family is on the other side of the world. I made this journey by myself. The title of this blog is “this is my life” because I have found myself saying that to myself a lot recently. Reality has settled in. Good thing I like my reality. Ok enough of that stuff. Let me share some actual details of my reality.

Two major events have occurred in the past month. The first is when my friend got her appendix removed. I guess that is more of a major event for her than me but it’s still a good story. The second is the visit by HALO’s Portland branch directors.

Operation Appendectomy

My friend Jess had to have an emergency appendectomy, and I stayed by her side during that fiasco. Long story short is about two weeks before the appendectomy Jess had sharp pains in her side and generally felt sick. The doctors told her she had a bacterial infection and gave her antibiotics. She took the medicine and felt better in a few days. Two weeks later the pain returned, so she went to the clinic again. This time they held her overnight because they said they needed to be able to monitor her pain. In the morning the doctor said she had to have her appendix removed immediately.  Having emergency surgery in Uganda isn’t so great in the first place but add on the fact that Jess was supposed to be on a plane to the U.S. the very next day and it becomes a whole new mess. I met Jess and our other friend at the hospital for the surgery. We waited with her while they prepared for surgery and continued to wait while she was in surgery. The operation didn’t take very long and soon enough a doctor emerged and told us everything was fine. Jess came out of surgery in a very cloudy state, but we had to transport her back to the other clinic where she would stay overnight. This is when I get to ride in an ambulance. The hospital drove Jess, me, and our friend to the clinic in an ambulance with the sirens and lights on and everything. Finally we got Jess back to the clinic and into bed. She was able to leave the clinic and go back to her house the next day. Of course she had to take it easy and could really only watch movies in bed for a few days, but she had plenty of visitors and we did our best to entertain her. After a week of rest Jess was able to fly home, and all is well.

Portlandia Meets Kampala

Each HALO branch supports a home in Uganda, so all the money the Portland branch raises goes directly to the Bukesa boy’s home. One of the co-directors, Chris West, spent a year living in Uganda in the early 2000s and has returned every year since then. This year he came to visit the Bukesa boys with his new co-director (Clif), Clif’s wife, and a friend and HALO supporter. Chris has known many of the Bukesa boys for many years so they were all very excited to see each other and the reunion was beautiful.

Nothing but smiles :)

The boys quickly took to the other three visitors and we all had a great few weeks together. We spent a few days just hanging out with the boys, playing soccer, dancing, sharing meals, talking, and playing games. One day was devoted to the Bukesa version of the Olympics. The kids were divided into four teams and each team chose an African country to represent. They painted their country's flag on paper. I wasn’t able to attend the Olympics so I’m not sure what events they did but in the end everyone got a gold medal that we made.

Just hanging out.

Two days of the Portland crew’s trip was consumed by the building of an awesome garden. Clif and his wife Sulie kindly donated the money necessary to make a garden happen at the Bukesa home. Because the boys have chickens on their property we could not simply plant seeds in the ground. We needed to build some sort of fence to keep the chickens from eating the plants. The plants also needed to be protected from the soccer ball and the 25 energetic boys running around the compound. Clif and his creative mind decided we could use the broken bed frames to build a fence.

As we were building the fence one of the mentors saw the opportunity to build a bench on the front side of the fence. This is why planting a garden turned into two days of hard work. While the men and boys worked on the fence I spent most of my time picking trash out of the garden area. Uganda doesn’t have a great trash disposal system yet so most people just pile all their trash in their compound a burn it. Our homes are no exception. The boys do have a trash pile but the trash seems to migrate all over the compound. The younger boys helped me with trash removal. Finally after removing most of the trash and successfully building a fence bench we were able to plant seeds. We planted tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, kale, onion, and cabbage.  We had the kids paint rocks and write the names of each plant on the rocks so we could label the garden.

With that project finished we could move on to art. Clif is a professional artist so he again took the reins. One day each boy made a journal out of the papers they had done an art project on a few weeks back but weren’t interested in keeping. The other project was painting on canvas and fabric tiles. Both projects turned out great, and the boys had an awesome time as they always do when we do art.

I had a great time with the Portland branch and look forward to their next visit. I’m sure the kids will be asking about them until they come again.

The month of August was a month long break from school for all of our kids. Most of the Bukesa boys stayed at the house during this break, but the majority of our other kids went home to be with their families. So I got to spend a great deal of time with the Bukesa boys but hardly anytime with any of the other kids. Needless to say I miss them and can’t wait to see them this week. 

All in all, life is good! Thanks for reading!

City Livin'

I hope you all have enjoyed reading about my time living in Kampala. Things are still going well as I continue to adjust to life in Uganda. While the city of Kampala definitely has it’s down sides and negative aspects I overall enjoy living here. I wanted to take some time to explain what Kamapla is like as a city. 

Most tour books will tell you Kampala is a city of seven hills and this is very true expect there are a lot more than seven. The hills and the fact that almost no street in the city goes straight for very long makes Kamapla somewhat confusing to navigate. And by somewhat I mean very. I have no idea where I am going. Thankfully the city is packed with very convenient motorcycle taxis known as boda-bodas. Boda drivers generally know their way to all the districts in Kampala so finding a certain place isn’t too hard as long as you take a boda. 

This is a boda.

Many bodas waiting for customers at a boda stage which is just a designated place a few bodas are permanently stationed. Instead of driving around looking for customers they will wait at their stage.

Walking around Kamapla is an option but not a very practical one. I usually only walk about a mile up my street to a small strip mall area that has two grocery stores, a coffee house, a few restaurants, and plenty of people selling fruits, vegetables, and bootleg movies in the parking lot. This is where I normally do my grocery and movie shopping. Down my street the other direction, around the corner, and down another street are two malls (yes, there are two malls located right next to each other). The malls host a variety of shops and both have one large grocery store. I usually only go to the mall to use the ATM because anything you can get in the mall you can get elsewhere for cheaper. 

Downtown-ish

There is a city center or downtown area that hosts many tall office and government buildings. Most embassies are also situated in the downtown area. Downtown and throughout the greater Kampala area there are endless strip malls for lack of a better word. Every street you drive down in the city will have stores on top of stores on top of stores…literally. A few streets will only have stores that offer certain products like electronics. If you need any electronic device all you have to do is go to Kampala Road where you will find a plethora of shops offering the exact same products. When I was searching for a camera battery I just got dropped off on Kampala Road went into the first shop I saw that was advertising cameras and asked if they had the specific battery I needed. If they didn’t I simply walked out the door and went right into the shop next door. I went to maybe 8 different stores and a few of the stores had was I was looking for but I was on the search for the best price. I could have gone into 60 stores if I wanted but I eventually found what I needed and at the right price. I actually ended up going to Kampala Road twice because I like to survey my options, gather the information, and then return later because making a decision at the store is too much pressure. At least I know I’m getting the best deal when I do this even if it takes me two days to buy a camera battery.

This describes Kampala so well - please keep our city clean by not littering and throwing your trash away in this non-existent trash can. Thanks!

Can't wait to celebrate 50 years this October!

So there is the electronic district (I just made that up), the fabric district (I’m pretty sure that is what people actually call that area), the Ethiopian restaurant district, the mall district, and many more of these types of areas that I have yet to discover. To me it seems odd that the same types of stores would gather in the same region but that’s Kampala. 

When you aren’t in one of the above mentioned areas you will mainly see informal used clothing shops, small restaurants, food stands, internet cafes, some very questionable hotels, inns, and hostels, bars, convenient stores, the occasional large grocery store, many buildings that you have no clue what purpose they serve, and oh so much more. However, if you are new in Kampala (or even if you aren’t) chances are you aren’t looking at your surroundings because you are too distracted by the traffic which your boda driver will inevitably be trying to bob and weave through. This process usually includes methods like driving on the sidewalk, the grass, and in the really really too small places between cars. (Don’t worry Mom, I only use the safest bodas in Kampala and you are never travelling fast when doing this.) But, I can guarantee you will get to your destination before the people in the cars and buses. Check out the video below that I took while riding on a boda. The song in the video is really quite appropriate because it will be either this song or some other loud and obnoxious American or Ugandan pop song that accompanies you on your ride through the city via the shops on the side of the road. Noise pollution does not exist in Kampala. It appears that it is completely appropriate to play music or a recording of someone preaching as loud as possible at all times of the day and night. There are even cars that serve the sole purpose of driving down the street blaring music and advertising one thing or another. Quiet time is hard to find just because it is never really quiet. Unfortunately I cannot get the video to load. The internet probably isn't fast enough. I will try again and add it to the blog if it works later. 

In the middle of the city are the two taxi parks which are constantly crazy busy. There is old taxi park and new taxi park and I have yet to figure out which is which. Taxis in Uganda are not what you are thinking. Picture a traditional white cargo van and add some beat up old seats and windows and you’ve got yourself a taxi. I have yet to take a taxi here because I don’t understand how to tell where they are going. Sometimes there is a guy leaning out the window yelling the name of the destination but I usually don’t know what he is saying. Taxis are the third cheapest method of transportation right behind large buses (buses here are the same as in the U.S) and walking. Bodas are cheap by U.S. standards but a semi-luxury to many Ugandans. They do have what American’s consider taxis in Uganda. They are referred to as special hires and are the most expensive mode of transportation. 

Ugandan style taxi - that guy is the one who will yell out the name of the area the taxi is headed toward.

Along with all the sights I have already mentioned your nose will be assaulted with various smells during your time in Kampala. The two main smells are burning trash and exhaust. Neither are pleasant but you either get used to them or learn not to breathe when behind a large bus. For the other smells well you’ll just have to come visit me and experience them first hand. 

Kampala is very much a hustling and bustling city full of people, noises, smells, and its’ own kind of charm. While it is a very complicated city to navigate I am confident I will know my way around within a few months. Just as moving to any big city in the U.S. it takes time to adjust and learn the ropes, and I think that is half the adventure. Hopefully my descriptions, pictures, and video help you understand what Kampala is like and what to expect during your upcoming visit ;).


P.S. I wrote this blog a few days ago and since then I have discovered the stationary district! Paper needs? Head to Kampala's stationary district!

One Month Anniversary

Today marks my one month anniversary in Uganda. I can’t decide whether it feels like it has been longer than one month or if I can’t believe I’ve already been here for a month. Time is a different concept in Uganda. As someone put it to me last night it is “the African slow down”, and I think I am having a hard time getting used to the slow pace of life. I know I will soon adapt to this pace but for now I am still in my American state of mind. Let me give you an example of why life here is slower:

Yesterday I went to the mall to print some documents, make a photocopy, and pick up a few things at the grocery store (which is in the mall). In my mind I was going to achieve half the things I needed to do that day before our staff meeting at 11:30.

I left my house, hailed down a boda boda (motorcycle taxi), negotiated a fair price, and then took off to the mall. It was a few minutes before I realized he was going the wrong way and it took another few minutes to explain to him we were going the wrong way and for him to understand where I needed to go. We turned around and headed in the right direction. Once I got to the printing/photocopy place in the mall it took a few minutes to get my documents up and then they wouldn’t print. The employee tried a different computer and a different printer but nothing would print. Then another employee tried to figure out why the document wouldn’t print. Finally we figured out my documents were save in Adobe Acrobat and their computers only have Adobe Reader so they were not going to print. The next closest place to print was in the other mall which is right next door but I didn’t have enough time to go over there. I did manage to get a photocopy of my passport.

After that I went to the grocery store but of course they did not have what I was looking for. So one hour later I am back at the office for our weekly staff meeting and all I have to show for my trip to the mall is one photocopy. I’ll have to try again later. After our 2 and a half hour long staff meeting I ate lunch and prepared to head out and try another grocery store at the other mall. Then of course it started raining which means I am not going anywhere because the only means of transportation is a boda boda. It poured for about an hour. Finally when it was only sprinkling I decided I could face the light rain and go to the mall. So did everyone else in Kampala. The traffic was awful! The roads were also flooding. There was about 4 inches of water on the bottom level of the parking garage. I made it to the store and found the ingredients I needed for our group dinner I was in charge of planning. We fought the traffic again on the way home which was even worse than earlier. My boda driver drove on the sidewalk/grass for a little while.

All in all on Monday it took the entire working day for me to make one photocopy, attend a meeting, and go to the grocery store. If I didn’t go to the grocery store during traditional working hours (hours which don’t really exist here) we would have been eating dinner at 10pm. I still haven’t completely figured out why it takes so long to get one thing accomplished but it can take a whole day to check one thing off your to do list. What I could get done in one day in the U.S. will probably take me a week and a half to do in Uganda.

Welcome to “the African slow down.”

Other than “the African slow down” giving me some trouble I am having a great time so far and I love my job. Sometimes I don’t really know what to do with myself during traditional working hours aka 9-5 because my main job right now is to get to know the kids, the homes as a whole, and the mentors who live with the kids but the kids don’t get home from school until 6pm. HALO has four homes in Kampala and I visit a home every Tuesday and Thursday and sometimes Wednesday and Saturday depending on what is going on elsewhere. Last Saturday I did community service work with the Makerere and Bukesa homes. They cleaned trash out of the overgrown weeds on the side of three roads near the Makerere home and then cleared all the weeds and grass away.

Working hard! Dumping more trash on the pile.

Still more road to clean.

Cleared road

               

Tie Dye Twins!

There are now three much cleaner roads in Kampala with more room to walk and drive because the weeds are not taking over the road. After community service I hung out with the kids at their house. Since I work at night and on the weekends I sometimes don’t work all day during the weekdays.

Before I give a recap of the month activities I wanted to briefly explain HALO’s relationship with the Ugandan nonprofit Cornerstone Development. Cornerstone is a Ugandan based NGO that has been around for almost thirty years. Cornerstone has many programs in Uganda which includes providing homes and education for former street children and children who were involved in sexual abuse and/or prostitution. Cornerstone has 12 homes for kids and HALO fully funds and does the programming for 5 of these homes. Since HALO is not a register nonprofit in Uganda we run our program through Cornerstone.

Cornerstone also runs a secondary school for boys and one for girls in Uganda and a few other East African countries. Their secondary schools are also known as leadership academies and they are two of the best secondary schools in Uganda. Cornerstone also has a mentor program which takes upstanding university students and places them in the Cornerstone youth homes where they live and work while attending college. The mentors are the daily care takers for HALO children. The work of Cornerstone probably deserves its own blog entry, but hopefully this brief explanation will serve to help you understand how HALO operates in Uganda. My office is in the Cornerstone office building and I live in the guesthouse located below the offices.

Monthly recap:

- I finished training with my predecessor, Dani, and she went back to the U.S. to prepare for her wedding. She is engaged to the son of the director/founder of Cornerstone. She will return in August to live and work with Cornerstone for the next 5 years. I am now taking on all HALO responsibilities.

- We celebrated Dani and Eric’s wedding by throwing a traditional Ugandan wedding ceremony. The traditional ceremony is called a Kwanjula which translates to Introduction in English. Dani and her family are literally introduced to Eric and his family. The ceremony is basically a long play in which the two families are introduced to each other and the man’s family brings tons of gifts to the woman’s family. This was the first Kwanjula anyone who attended had seen done in English. The ceremony was beautiful and fun. Here are some pictures of the event!

The ceremony from above

Me in my traditional Uganda outift! It is called a Gomesi. The Ugandans looooved seeing white people in their traditional outfits. I even walked down the street in it and got lots of compliments. 

Me and some of the boys from Makerere home.

Some of the mentors in their traditional outfits.

- We also had a few bridal showers for Dani hosted by her various friends in Uganda. They were both really fun and actually the first bridal showers I have ever attended!

- I officially went to all the HALO homes and meet all the kids and mentors. I went to Gulu, about 5 hours to the north, with Dani and spent a few days with our home there. I will visit the home in Gulu every other month.

- I started planning my first art program I will do with the homes.

- I have been brain storming ideas for programs I want to create and implement and also ideas for improving our existing programs.

Mostly this first month in Uganda I have been trying to get used to living here, finding my way around, figuring out what to cook, meeting new people, and learning what my job duties are. I am looking forward to what the next month will bring me here in Uganda and the many months to follow. 

Cake for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: My Birthday in Uganda

Yesterday I turned 23 and did not plan on celebrating very much. However, the wonderful people in Uganda did not allow my birthday to pass without making it a wonderful day. Seeing as I just arrived a week ago and do not know many people very well yet I did not expect to have much of a special day. This was fine with me. Birthdays aren’t a huge thing for me so I was just going to go about my day as usual and maybe go out for a piece of chocolate cake at the end of the day. My day turned out to be so special that I felt the need to write an entire blog post just about this day. So all I am going to share this time is what I did yesterday and why I thought it was so special. 

My day started as it usually does with a nice cup of coffee. I drank the coffee as I played a dice game called Zilch with two other friends who are temporarily boarding in the Cornerstone guest house (which is where I live). After Zilch I headed to the market to get some vegetables for dinner. Next I worked out (P90X kickboxing video). After showering I decided I should actually start working for the day since it was already 1pm. I started up my computer but unfortunately I was interrupted by a giant piece of chocolate birthday cake (so sad). Devastated I couldn’t start my work immediately I dug into the delicious piece of cake. This cake was brought to me by the kind hearted people I’ve lived with for only a few days. I was so warmed by their gesture my day had already been made at this point. But it only got better! I ate a small portion of the giant piece and then started working on a few things. Next I was presented with a beautiful handmade birthday card signed by my coworkers with their well wishes inside. I was again touched by this simple card.

After working on some things and meeting with a few people Dani (my predecessor) and I headed to visit the Lungujja girls home.

Me and the Lungujja girls

I am still making my way to each home for my first visit. The Lungujja girls were very welcoming just as all Ugandan’s I’ve meet so far are. We sat and talked with a few of them as the rest gradually arrived home from school (they don’t get off school until 5pm!). Dani told them it was my birthday and one of the girls was so sweet to go off for a few minutes and write me a really beautiful and kind birthday note. She gave me the note along with a gorgeous handmade necklace. The girls in Lungujja make handmade beads out of recycled paper and then make necklaces and bracelets. I put the necklace on immediately and thanked them many times. Then Dani went out and bought sodas for everyone (a very special treat for our kids). We chatted as we enjoyed our sodas. I had a real coca-cola for the first time in a few years and enjoyed every sip. It was also one of our coworker’s birthdays as well so he came by and enjoyed a soda with us.

The girls sang Happy Birthday to us both and Asiimwe and I were pointing at each other every time they sang "you".

My next stop was the movie theater! I meet the two fine gentlemen who bought me cake earlier at the movies and we saw MIB 3. The movie was pretty good. At home later I ate more of my cake and we played Zilch again. Then I talked to both parents on Skype and told them all about my great day. That’s all. In my opinion it was a perfect birthday. I’ve been in this country for one week and I haven’t even known most of these people for a week. The fact that they all went out of their way to do something for me on my birthday whether it was buying me cake or signing my card or wishing me a good day really shows the quality of people I work with. 

I’ve been very welcomed into the community so far and I think my birthday really showcased how welcomed I am here. Everyone goes out of their way to make sure I’m having a good time and that I feel at home.  I felt comfortable in this community within a few days and I think it usually takes much longer than that in the U.S. to feel comfortable in a new group of people. Overall I just wanted to express how thankful I am to this community for taking me into their lives with such kindness. I had an exceptional birthday and it was all due to the kindness of people I hardly know and just met. Also, at the end of the busy day I realized I had basically eaten that piece of cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I didn't mean to but that's what happened. I ate a mango at some point during the day. Cake for all three meals is definitely a good day!

 

Today (the day after my birthday) at our mentor meeting they made me sit in the middle of the circle so they could sing happy birthday. They also "baptized" me with a Ugandan name. My new Ugandan name is Murungi which translates to beautiful. I am happy with their choice.

Getting to Uganda

After a long journey I finally made it to Uganda! I am so excited to be here, and I am thankful I made it safe and sound with all my luggage. The journey was not the smoothest though. Here is my story of getting to Uganda starting in St. Louis:

Last Friday I left St. Louis with a sad goodbye to my friends and family but with excitement for the journey to come. I landed in New York with no problems and was greeted by my dearest friend Rachel. Rachel and I took off for a weekend of fun in the big city!  

Together again!

We were so fortunate to have amazing accommodations right smack in the middle of Manhattan next to Central Park provided to us by Rachel’s Aunt who was out of town for the weekend. Even though Rachel’s parents were also out of town they treated us to an excellent sushi dinner. That night we went out with some of Rachel’s friends and had a blast. 

The crew we went out with minus Rachel

The next day we started off with breakfast at one of Rachel’s favorite places – Grey Dog. Breakfast was delicious. Next we went to the High Line which is a park made out of old railroad tracks. The park was really fun and we enjoyed some people watching. After High Line we wandered the streets window shopping. 

High Line Park

 Then we hit up Washington Square Park for more people watching and street performances. The street performers included a hula hoop dancer, a band, a man playing piano, and a guy dressed like a wizard but I could never tell what his trick was.

 Later that night I enjoyed every bite of a giant piece of New York pizza. After dinner we meet up with one of Rachel’s good friends for drinks. After chatting for a while we meet up with more of Rachel’s friends and headed out for the night. We didn’t stay out too late because I had to be at the airport early. All in all my short time in New York was fantastic. The city is never ending and always interesting. I had a blast with Rachel and all her friends. Thanks so much for showing me a good time! I cannot wait for my next long layover in NYC. 

Next stop – Johannesburg, South Africa.

I made it through the 14 hour and 30 minute flight to South Africa. My seat was not great but they had some good movies. Overall I probably got about 2 hours of sleep. Needless to say when we finally landed I was very tired, very out of it, and so happy to be on land. We landed in South Africa around 8am. I had 6 hours to kill. I walked around the terminal, looked in some of the shops, had a snack and then I made the worst decision I’ve made so far….I laid down. Lying down would not have been the worst idea if I hadn’t slept right through my flight. I had about 3 hours until boarding started and I never for one second thought I was going to fall asleep much less fall asleep for that long. The worst part for me was the fact that I woke up less than 5 minutes after the flight departed. I cried. I verified with an airport worker that the flight had left and I asked him what I should do. He pointed me in the right direction and so began the beginning of my additional 24 hours spent in the airport. The next flight was at the same time the next day. I was told I would have to pay $250 which made me cry again. The manager told me I could talk to the supervisor in the morning and she might be able to help me with the fee. 

They were nice enough to let me call my parents. I absolutely hated having to tell them I missed my flight because I fell asleep. It was so embarrassing and such a stupid thing to do. However, I am mad at all the people on that flight and the people doing the boarding because I was asleep at the gate. I wasn’t asleep in some other random place around the airport. I was at the gate and no one thought to wake me up. I will never ever pass by someone sleeping at a gate in the airport without waking them to make sure that is not their flight and also making sure they have an alarm set if their flight is later.  I just don’t understand how I didn’t hear all the commotion going on around me and the loud announcements. 

I ate dinner in the terminal and then return to the ticketing area to make my bed for the night. It was only 9pm but I was tired and bored. I slept for about 4 hours and woke up hoping it was morning but it was only 1:30. I was pretty awake and not happy about it. I tried to sleep more but couldn’t. I fell asleep for a few more hours in the early morning.

My accommodations...

I got up for the day around 7am and talked to the supervisor but she just told me I had to wait until 8 so she could talk to the manager about the fee. Finally I found out I would have to pay the $250. I tried to pay with my debit card but they only accepted credit cards and cash. This meant I had to go out to the main airport which involved going through customs. I was so nervous I was going to miss my flight again even though I had six hours to figure everything out. I waited in line at customs which only took about 20 minutes to get through even thought it looked like a two hour long line. They were very efficient and I really appreciated that. 

Entertaining myself with Bananagrams sitting in front of the boarding area.

My first stop was to make sure the airport knew where my bags were and where they need to go. Surprisingly they already knew exactly where my bags were and they had already sent them on their way to be loaded on my flight. That was some very welcomed good news. Next I found the right desk where I could pay my fine with a debit card. I was mentally preparing myself to spend $250 when the lady told me it would only be $50! I cannot tell you how relieved I was. Then I gathered my boarding pass and went back to my favorite terminal to wait some more. I had six hours to kill just like my original layover. This time I drank coffee. When I finally went to my gate to wait for the flight I sat right in front of the desk so if I happened to fall asleep again people would have to step over me to board the plane. I thought that was a good plan. I also had alarms set, but I did not fall asleep again

 

Finally I board the plane! It felt great to be on my way again. The plane ride was easy and really short compared to the previous one. I landed, went through customs, gathered my luggage (which I was completely convinced was not going to be there), and then I found Dani and Eric who graciously came to pick me up.

This is the end of my second day and I am still adjusting to the time difference and jet lag. I was going to include my first day activities and thoughts so far but I think I'll save those for next time. I'll do a week update in a few days with more pictures. I hope you enjoyed my story and I can't wait to share more in the future.