-'The best things in life are the people you love, the places you go,
and the memories you make.'-anonymous
I found the above quote, and I liked it, it reminds me of what I will talk about in this post. I wanted to give credit to the person whom this quote is from, so I did a little research and found a name that correlates to this quote. When I researched the only name I could find is that it is a British Thoroughbred born in 2003 (yes, a horse) who did pretty decent at racing. I don't think he was a Mr. Ed equivalent so I skipped his name and just put anonymous.
This post is all about moment(s). I notice a lot of people keep and share their moments through pictures, my mom was amazing at this, people ask us all the time if our mom had a picture of so-and so, and my answer is always, I sure she did. We recently went to a funeral for my mom's best friend and the lady who passed away kids asked if we had any pictures of her, and my mom had several, it was a blessing for them, as they had none. I love pictures and I love taking them, but the more I go to Malawi, I want those pictures in my head and I want to be able to have the moments I feel could have been missed because I was taking a picture instead of paying attention.
This happened to me on the way to Ethiopia. We had a 17 hour flight. We started in New Jersey and we landed in Lome to get fuel and we continued on our was to Addis Ababa. The first half was 7 hours long. I was sitting next to a guy and we had the middle seat free so we were able to share that and have space. The man spoke Amharic, a language of Ethiopia, or rather Addis Ababa, I learned this quickly, because our flight attendants and captain would speak Amharic first then they would repeat whatever they just said in English. The guy next to me would tell me in English what the person on the intercom just said before they would tell us in English. I asked him what language they were speaking and that's how I found out. I really didn't speak to him at all the first half of the flight that was it.
when we landed in Lome we were all stuck on the plane as passengers left and other passengers came on and we re-fueled. Because I am super tall myself, I can literally stand up on any part of the plane, even next to a window and not have to duck/crouch so I don't tend to be too cramped on a plane. (go ahead be jealous, but do realize I honestly cannot reach the overhead compartments either). So we were all on the plane stretching and talking, and walking around, when a few people came to where I was sitting to talk, and they had polite conversation with the man I was sitting next to. I found out through listening that he was coming from Kansas City, but that was the extent of what I really got, before we started off on the next 10 hours.
After a few hours the man asked me how many people I know on the plane, as a lot of people seem to be talking to me like they knew me. I let him know about our trip and that 48 people were with us, so I knew people throughout the plane. He asked me about what we were doing and we talked about it, the row behind us overheard and started talking to me a little and this lasted awhile. It was neat to get insight on what we were doing from people who have lived in Africa their whole lives, they were especially interested in our surveys (I will talk about this more later) we were going to do this year they all thought it was a great idea, as learning more about and eradicating Malaria was something each of the three people I was talking to knew a lot about and wanted to see gone as well. I finally decided that I should ask him about himself. I heard earlier that he was coming from Kansas City, so I decided to ask him if he was from Ethiopia, and he confirmed that he was. I asked him how long he had been gone from Ethiopia, automatically assuming that he was in the states because of work and he was coming back home to Ethiopia, but I was surprised when he said, he had not been back to Ethiopia for 12 years, since his younger brother graduated high school. I found out that this man has been living in the states for the last 12 years, in Kansas City, and that he was coming back to his home town to see his family that he had not seen in a long time, this included two younger brothers. He was coming for a month. His wife and 2 daughters would be coming in 2 weeks, and they were staying for a month as well. He was nervous and scared about what he would see and how much time has past. We ended up having a really good conversation about his story. I got really excited for him, he started to become really excited and I started to tell the people I was with about his story. I was so excited to see his reaction and his brothers' reactions to not seeing him in the flesh for so many years. I had several people who were prepared to take pictures of this moment that was coming. When the plane finally landed I told him good luck and that I was happy for him, he said he was glad he talked to me about seeing his family, as it made him less scared and more excited to see them. When we finally got off the plane, I should have known this, as it happens in every airport I have been in Africa, but we got off the plane using stairs that go straight to the Tarmac, and shuttles take us to our next destination. The man I was sitting next to was on a different shuttle than we were and there was no way I or any of us were going to see him reconnect with his family. But I am glad that I was able to talk to him for several hours and learn a little about him, and also happy that by talking to me, he was able to be less scared.
This was an amazing first moment I had on my trip. It was right in the beginning, and it really showed me that this trip was going to be special.
Another moment I had was in Ethiopia, we had a 12 hour layover so we stayed the night in a hotel. I was put in a room with a friend of mine. This was the first time this has happened on a missions trip to Malawi, we usually just tour the city of a long layover, but this time we were able to sleep and take a shower in between our 3 days of travel. I was still sick for the last 5 weeks, from my new job and had this terrible cough that I could not get rid of, but seemed to be getting better. Everyone kept telling me that I was going to be completely healthy in Africa, because that's my place, and I have never been sick there. And when I step back into the states I would be sick again. Well the cough in the states was so bad that I would have to sleep sitting up to keep from coughing so much. So my roommate asked what I was going to do if I started coughing in the middle of the night, and I let her know I would go into the TV area of the hotel room and sit sleep if needed. I ended up not having a cough the whole night, which was amazing.
The next morning I got up to take a shower, and in our bathroom we had our own small water heater that was in the shower, and the shower head was on the longer part of the wall, it was weird. Our pressure was amazing it was super hot (we were the only ones who seemed to have really great pressure and hot water at this hotel). They provided us with a non-slip mat to put on the bottom of the shower, and I put it there, which I never do. There were fresh towels hanging up. I took a shower and went to go dry off and realized I did not grab a towel off of the towel rack and place it on the toilet like I normally would. I looked at the towel for a second and thought that it really wasn't that far, probably 3 feet away, the bathroom was rather small, and instead of stepping out of the shower to grab the towel, I reached across standing on the non-slip mat, and what do you know, the non-slip mat slipped right under my feet and I fell right out of the shower, without bending my knees, without using my hands to stop me and without making a peep from my mouth cause I didn't want to wake up my roommate. My roommate asked me several times how someone fall without making a sound. My thigh landed on the bath and my arm landed on the floor, I never hit the wall with my head, cause as I talked about earlier, 'I'm really tall'. I ended up with a pitch black bruise the size of soccer ball for the next week and a half. It was hilarious. Every time I told the story I couldn't stop laughing. It was another great moment. I never took a pic of the bruise, I wish I did.
This was the beginning of my trip just before we made it to my favorite place in the world. It was an amazing beginning, it was the start of so amazing moments. Take in the moments you have. I can't wait to tell you the rest.
