Traveling to Africa

We made it!

The journey was interesting but we are in Johannesburg safe and sound.

I must say, the adventure began before we left the states.

We woke up Tuesday morning at y parents home in Minneapolis ready to go. All of the bags and boxes were packed and weighed. Each of us were able to check two pieces of luggage, 50 pounds or less. We decided to use boxes because they started off at a couple pounds each versus the typical 14 pound suitcase. We did pretty good packing. Clothes, shoes, and various wall hangings reminiscent of home (and a few various ways to brew coffee) were neatly tucked away into ten boxes. We sprung for two extra pieces of luggage to get everything in that we wanted to take to Africa. Departure time was set for 8:00 AM. Our flight was at 11:30 AM. Our dog Milo had to check into the manifested cargo area two hours before the flight and so did we. We planned on being at the airport by 9:15 AM to allow plenty of time.

If any of you thought I tend to be over-prepared, you have not met my father. The apple did not fall far from the tree. He owns a trailer that he had loaded with all of our boxes. The night before, we had carefully taped each box and plastic wrapped them for security. Noticing the weather forecast called for a 50 percent chance of rain, he had meticulously bungee-corded a tarp over the trailer. We had two vehicles also loaded with the carry-ons and two different kennels for Milo, the one we thought we needed and another one for backup. As we loaded into the cars, my father went to hitch up the trailer. I came out the door noticing him aggressively hitting it with a sledge hammer. No, he is not an angry man. Apparently it had gotten stuck, half-way on. I knew better than to ask too many questions. Trust me, he had already thought about it. I stood next to him looking for an opportunity to be of assistance. He walked in and out of his workshop, showing up with all different various tools to pry, bang, loosen, and otherwise cajole the trailer free. He finally commented, “it may be time to get more aggressive,” walked into the shop, and returned with a jack large enough to change the tire of an eighteen-wheeler. After lifting the trailer and the back of his vehicle off the ground, they separated. The catch had pinned. We got the trailer connected properly and left.

Fortunately, traffic was better than planned. We arrived at Delta cargo at 8:45 AM. Unfortunately, Delta was extremely under-staffed. There were six of us waiting for one woman to check us all in. She received a phone call, asking her to leave and handle a VIP situation. I was left halfway through checking Milo in. After waiting until 9:15 A.M., I finally told another gentleman that we had an international flight to catch. He frantically ran back and forth mumbling, “Management needs to see this. They cannot keep cutting our staff and expect us to get our work done.” After unsuccessfully finding help, he interrupted a supervisor meeting. A woman emerged to assist me. I became a bit nervous when she would occasionally lean over to ask her co-worker how to handle certain aspects of the paperwork. It was hard enough believing my seven-year-old neurotic dog would make the 24 hour trip without getting out of his kennel. An unqualified person checking him in did not help my confidence.

We finally made our way to the terminal. It had rained. The part we had not considered were the wet roads. The tops of the boxes were nicely covered but the bottom and sides were soaked. We unloaded the wet and muddy boxes and put them next to the skycap. When it was my turn, the skycap ran my passport through her computer. The screen flashed, “Kiosk unable to assist. Seek additional help.” She took me inside to an agent. She manually entered the passports and cleared the confusion. I had hoped the worst was behind us. I was wrong.

Steve Saindon, Minneapolis Church evangelist, and their campus intern, Dustin, had come to see us off. We walked with them through the security line until we had our boarding passes and passports checked. I knew that we would have a bit of difficulty at security. We intentionally packed anything of real value in our carry-ons. Because of potential theft at the airport in Johannesburg, we wanted to be careful. I was not planning on having the “by the book” TSA agent. Trust me, I appreciate security! Although, I did have a plane to catch. We had five of our bags pulled for rescanning, then three for additionally scanning, and after a personal inspection, all of the contents of those three bags individually scanned. After repacking we looked for our gate and realized it was literally the farthest gate at the farthest terminal. After our military march across the Minneapolis airport, we caught the tail end of boarding and made our flight.

Wow. So much for my shower that morning. I was covered in muddy rain water and sweating from moving the wet boxes and briskly marching across the airport. Now I see why they ask you to arrive two hours before your flight. We would have actually missed our plane if we were not there two and a half hours early.

From that point on, everything was seamless. We had a great flight to Atlanta, enjoyed a nice four hour layover, and had an uneventful 15 hour, 20 minute flight to Johannesburg. Those are the best kind, uneventful.

After clearing customs we picked up our baggage. We must have been quite a sight. Dave, Beth, Hannah, and Maddy single-file pushing a cart in front of us with boxes and pulling our carry-ons behind. We did have four different customs officers stop us at various points while we were trying to get out of the airport to ask random questions. I guess we passed.

When we walked out the door, we were greeted with a banner of signs and loud cheering! Many of the Johannesburg staff and their families were encouraging our arrival. We felt like celebrities. I was interested to know if curious bystanders wondered whether we were celebrities. It is amazing to be part of the family of God. We immediately felt loved and welcomed.

We proceeded to collect Milo from the cargo department and headed to the Aguirre’s home. Marc Aguirre leads the HOPE work in Johannesburg and is Irene Renton’s brother. (Irene and her husband Justin lead the Johannesburg Church.) Marc’s wife Kerry teaches school where Maddy will be attending. Their neighbors have a beautiful home that is only occupied for about a month each year. The family lives in the Congo. The church rented the house for us, fully furnished, for two months until we could find a more permanent location. The Aguirre’s hosted a gathering for us with some of their friends from their Bible discussion group. There were all kinds of tasty treats for us, including some lamb meatballs! (Just so you know, food will be a regular component of my posts.) Milo made a friend. The Aguirre’s have a dog named Chubby. She and Milo look like they could be related.

After some food and fellowship, we came next door to see our temporary home. A woman named Eunice lives in quarters behind the main house and takes care of the place. She showed us around and we started unpacking. The girls and I worked until about midnight Wednesday night and turned in.

That was a full two days.