Third Leg

March 14, 2011

The third leg of the trip was nice.  We were on Lufthansa and there were about 2 more inches of leg room which made SUCH a difference.  We had 2 seats on the side by ourselves and got to watch King’s Speech (fantastic, by the way) and much on the Chicago mix popcorn we had purchased at O’Hare.  I was really excited as we got to the continent of Africa; neither of us have ever been.  Egypt was the first land we saw after crossing the Sea (is it the Aegean or Mediterranean? Baltic?  Hmmm…I had better ask Keira).  It was wild.  I was filled with awe that we were flying over where the caravan had taken Joseph, and where the Red Sea parted, and the Israelites wandered for 40 years, and Jesus, Mary and Joseph took refuge…down there, in that sand…right there!  And looking down from the plane, there was nothing but SAND.  Literally, sand.  For about 2 hours, we flew over Egypt and I never saw anything but sand.  I was desperate to see a pyramid, but didn’t even see a city, or a road, or that darned Nile River.  Now, truth be told, I wasn’t window-side and may have missed it.  Eric was at the window and conked out so I kept craning my neck over him to see something and waking him up in the process.  This did not make him too happy…guess he wasn’t as excited at the possibility of seeing a camel as I was!  We would have switched but I was in the middle of another movie, so didn’t want to move; I was torn between Hollywood and the sand!

By the time we reached Ethiopia and started our descent into Addis Ababa, it was 9:15 PM and pitch dark.  We had been on layovers or in the air for 24 hours.  I started to panic thinking, “what are we doing?  We’re going to AFRICA.  We’re about to LAND in Africa!  How did we get here?  You know, that’s the place where everyone jokes that you tell God, ‘send me anywhere, but Africa.’  And my daughter is down there, somewhere in that darkness.  And in 10 days I’m going to get on a plane to go home and I have to leave her there.  Down there, in the darkness, in the poverty; down there, in Africa.”  I was a tired and weary traveler.  My chest heaved and the tears flowed.