After two and a half days, three airplanes, five security checks, two rounds of customs, twenty three hours on a plane, and six hours of decent sleep, we have arrived in Maseru! Very exciting after an interminable travel. Pardon my sleep-deprived rambling, but here is a rundown of the past few days.
We left Houston at 630pm on Saturday and arrived in London at 900am Sunday. Spending twelve hours in the airport waiting for the flight to Johannesburg seemed like a terrible idea, so we ventured out into London. None of us had ever been to London, and we navigated the entire city using a free handout Fast Guide to London the whole time.
Since no one had any expectations, it was easy to make us happy. We stretched our legs and walked around the city from Picadilly to Westminster Abbey, around St. James Park, the Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. For those of you who know just how graceful I am, be glad in knowing that I have now not only tripped walking up the Champs Elysees, but also stepping off the fountain in front of Buckingham Palace.
Impressions of London:
1) They recycle, which makes me infinitely happy. The Pret a Manger sandwich I had came in a recycled and recyclable wrapper, there were recycling bins all over St. James park and in Heathrow Airport, and the Virgin Airlines aircrew recycled our plasticware after meals. America (at least Texas) has some catching up to do.
2) No one is obese. Everyone took pride in how they looked, although that didn’t at all correlate to expensive dress. We all tried to figure out why exactly no one was obese, and we think it has to be all the walking in the city and the lack of fried food. Again, Texas, I like you, but please take note.
3) There is a lot of talk about America’s image abroad and changing it and whatnot. It’s something I’m cognizant of and have been mentally noting references to America. In London, I saw nothing about Obama, but multiple posters sold on the sidewalk that were critical of Mr. Bush. In Maseru, when we mentioned that we went to school in Texas, a guy about our age said “Have you met George Bush? I want to meet him!” I guess the inflection doesn’t come across in text, but it wasn’t quite admirable. No conclusions drawn yet, but just observances.
4) In my friend Jana’s footsteps, would I live in London? Most definitely, but only if I was made of money. Very expensive city. (Jana is on a six month trek across Africa with Rice Professor David Cook. Her blog, democracycow.blogspot.com is hilarious. I highly recommend reading it)
Once we got through very tight security at Heathrow (minus one bottle of water that Z forgot was in her bag and one sodering iron that Yeuwin was trying to sneak in), our 11 hour flight on the biggest airplane I’ve ever seen (reference the title of this post) from London to Johannesburg wasn’t bad at all. Virgin Airlines is great, I recommend them. The moment of truth had arrived – we were standing at the baggage carousel in Jo-burg waiting to see whose horoscope was in favor that morning. Slowly, everyone’s bags made it out, except the two large black boxes that Z and Yeuwin checked with the Lab-in-a-Backpack, bilirubin lights, Community Health Worker’s Screening kit weren’t at the carousel. **cue minor panic.** They told us to go on, and that they would solve the problem. About half an hour later when we ran into them, they had found their boxes in the oversize luggage area. Kudos, Jo-burg, thank you for not losing our luggage for round 1. Let’s try round 2 to Maseru.
Cognizant of the stringent weight limits on carry ons for South Africa air (6 kilos for carry on, 20 kilos for checked, and a $55 change per kilo over) and considering my carry on was at least double that, we (okay, I) were really worried about if they were being picky today. We strategically checked into our flight without our heavy carryons so that they didn’t cause attention, and everything was okay, although by the last of us, the people at the counter were getting a little suspicious. I don’t remember the hour long flight on a tiny 30 passenger plane because I was passed out, but we landed on the one airstrip at King Moshoeshoe Airport, taxied to the front door of the airport, and walked in. If we had waited a minute longer, we could have collected our luggage out of the belly of the plane. As we assessed the luggage situation, Amit realized that he didn’t have his luggage. So much for a 100% record, Jo-burg. But, getting 17 out of 18 bags to where they needed to be isn’t too terrible. Amit is on his way back to the airport now to see if his bag came through on the next flight to Lesotho.
We’re going to try to find food before dark, which will be fun since sunset is around 5:30 here. Tomorrow will be a busy day of moving into Happy Villa, getting cell phones, grocery shopping, finding a reliable driver, and possibly going out to Masianokeng to visit the high school. Wish us luck!