Safely Arrived

Hello from Zimbabwe!

After a very long journey I finally made it to the hospital last night. Take 2 was much more successful. I left from Sacramento and flew to JFK. JFK was experiencing bad weather however and my plane was stuck on the runway for 2 hours before it was allowed to take off!! Luckily I was so exhausted from my red eye flight that I slept for those 2 hours. When we finally took off, the flight is 14 hours and 45 minutes to South Africa. I was lucky that there was no one sitting next to me and I had an aisle seat. Somehow I slept most of the way. Because we left JFK 2 hours late, we 2 hours late and I was told that I was not going to make my connecting flight to Harare, Zimbabwe. They said I could get on the next flight which was 10 hours later. I said no way, after all this I am going to make this flight no matter what. I sprinted through the entire airport (I think I knocked a few people over on the way) and made it to my flight. When I was going through the gate, they handed me a new ticket for first class! So after all that, I was able to fly first class for the last 2 hour flight (they put white table linens on the tray table haha).

When I arrived at the airport in Harare I was off the plane very quickly since I was in the front and made it through customs before the line. I was really worried about my bag since my plane had been late but I got my bag and Major was waiting for me with a sign.

Since Chidamoyo hospital is so far away from Harare, there are lots of errands to be done for the hospital and the people who work there when anyone goes into the city. Major and I went to the pharmacy, to Kathy's flat in Harare and picked up some more stuff as well. I was also able to meet 3 of Major's children. They were so nice and one of them hugged me and held my hands and kept saying how nice it was to meet me.

We also had to pick up some stuff for the construction for the new pediatric wing at the hospital. We did not have room for the pipes on our car so we were waiting for another truck from Chidamoyo that was in Harare to meet us and pick everything up. They did not come for awhile and while we were waiting it became dark. We still had to pick up a doctor and drive the 3 hours to the hospital.

As I was beginning to figure out, Major told me that there is no time in Africa. People always have time so long as the sun is out (they tell time by the sun). We did not make it back to the hospital until 10:00 pm even though my flight had arrived at 12:30. To say the least it was a VERY long trip to get here. Kathy had dinner waiting and then I went to sleep. There is a family from Seattle, Washington here as well but they are leaving tomorrow.

There has been electricity almost the entire time I have been here which I have been told is rare. There are a few people waiting for the computer but (given electricity tomorrow night) I will write about my first day in the hospital today and about ZImbabwe itself. It is incredible here and I am so excited that I will be able to spend the next 6 weeks working at the hospital and getting to know these fantastic people!!

Take 1

Well I am unexpectedly back in Sacramento for the day (perks: watching England play Italy in Eurocup and hanging with Scout and Soph). Yesterday my parents and I headed to SF for my midnight departure. We enjoyed a great dinner in the city and arrived at San Francisco International 3 hours before my flight. It was delayed 50 minutes but they said I would still make the connecting flights in JFK. All seemed good so after I went through security, my parents left to drive back to Sac. 


At midnight I was sitting at Gate 12 trying to decide the first book I would read (I downloaded enough for the next 3 years on my Kindle). Naturally I became more interested in people watching and I started hearing rumors that our flight was cancelled. I checked the board and it still said 12:50 so I assumed it was fine. A few minutes later there were a few people in line at the gate so I went over and asked the woman who worked for jetBlue if the flight was cancelled. She said yes!! I asked when they were planning on making an announcement (politely of course..). I immediately called the parentals who turned the car around and came back. They didn't announce the cancellation for 10 more minutes (over 30 minutes from when our flight should have originally departed).


In order to prevent this first post from being as long as this past night I will skip to the end. We arrived home from SF at 4:15 am. My dearest mother stayed on the phone with jetBlue trying to fix my flights for 6 hours!!! (I had taken sleeping pills in the airport when I thought I was flying... and let's be honest my mother has a way of getting what she needs). Unfortunately jetBlue did not handle the situation very well from the beginning and it was even more unfortunate for the plans of some others on my flight. 


I eventually got ahold of Major and Kathy in Zimbabwe to let them know that I won't be arriving for a day later. Any nerves that I was beginning to have in SF have gone away. I just want to arrive in Zimbabwe now, I am so excited!!


Take 2 happens tonight from Sacramento, actually looking forward to my long flights now because it means I'm on my way!!