I've got tickets!
In faith that all the money will come together, my tickets have been purchased. So now I have to go!
There was a significantly cheaper flight option with Air Maroc that involved an overnight in Paris and in Casablanca, but I opted for the same Air France flight from Paris to Douala that Dan and Lisa will be on. Frankly, I'm somewhat relieved the latter option was available.
Obviously, I must have some sense of adventure to be willing to spend 10 months in Cameroon--and I do--but it's not quite up to the former challenge just yet. I'll likely be quite wound up as it is--the last thing I'll need in my state of excitement and fretful anticipation is to spend three days alone trying to reach my destination, getting no sleep, dealing with unfamiliar languages, and arriving alone to spend a half-day cartrip down roads in less than perfect condition with a local stranger. Now I'm not saying I'm unwilling to be challenged or that any one of these things by themselves would be overwhelming. I'm just saying I think it unwise to sign up for so many challenges all at once.
Anyway, so I'm sure there are plenty of challenges and exciting adventures ahead of me but I prefer that they remain undefined at this point. I'll deal with them when I get to them. In the meantime, I'll be flying to Toronto on August 1st, spending the night with a World Team missionary couple, visiting the World Team Canada office, then flying to Paris the next day where I'll meet up with the Friesens for the flight to Douala.
I have a departure date! That's exciting! And I've set a departure date for one of my jobs and am in discussion for my last day at the other. I've realized (with a little help from Vinh) that two weeks of not working before I leave will be really nice.
In faith that all the money will come together, my tickets have been purchased. So now I have to go!
There was a significantly cheaper flight option with Air Maroc that involved an overnight in Paris and in Casablanca, but I opted for the same Air France flight from Paris to Douala that Dan and Lisa will be on. Frankly, I'm somewhat relieved the latter option was available.
Obviously, I must have some sense of adventure to be willing to spend 10 months in Cameroon--and I do--but it's not quite up to the former challenge just yet. I'll likely be quite wound up as it is--the last thing I'll need in my state of excitement and fretful anticipation is to spend three days alone trying to reach my destination, getting no sleep, dealing with unfamiliar languages, and arriving alone to spend a half-day cartrip down roads in less than perfect condition with a local stranger. Now I'm not saying I'm unwilling to be challenged or that any one of these things by themselves would be overwhelming. I'm just saying I think it unwise to sign up for so many challenges all at once.
Anyway, so I'm sure there are plenty of challenges and exciting adventures ahead of me but I prefer that they remain undefined at this point. I'll deal with them when I get to them. In the meantime, I'll be flying to Toronto on August 1st, spending the night with a World Team missionary couple, visiting the World Team Canada office, then flying to Paris the next day where I'll meet up with the Friesens for the flight to Douala.
I have a departure date! That's exciting! And I've set a departure date for one of my jobs and am in discussion for my last day at the other. I've realized (with a little help from Vinh) that two weeks of not working before I leave will be really nice.
Comments
1.) What?! WHAT?! You're not going to stop over in Casablanca? Now that is a shame.
2.) What if you spent the car-trip with a foreign stranger? Would that be better than a local stranger? What if the foreign stranger was from Casablanca and you met on the plane? Would that be okay?
3.) You know, this is so incredibly not fair that you are jetting off to foreign adventures with foreign (and local!) strangers ready to open your eyes to a different world; meanwhile, I'll be sitting in some dimly-lit lunchroom, whose decor offends my every design sensibility, picking at a wilted spinach salad and unable to make fun of cheese sandwiches that crazy editorial assistants bring for lunch. NOT FAIR AT ALL.
{note: I am writing this at work while I wait for your office-mate to give me the final changes for the paper. Boy, he is taking his time. So are the ad guys, who are not responding to the final ad check. I'm happy. I'm fine. I'm okay. Really. I AM HAPPY. LIKE A CHICKEN WITH AN EGG. Okay, so that doesn't make sense but you know what I mean.}
Karen - 2) local stranger, as in a stranger who is a local to Cameroon. (this car journey would take place after arriving in Douala, not in Casablanca. I can only imagine the delights of a taxi ride in Casablanca.) As for a foreign stranger, that may actually be slightly less unnerving if the foreign stranger were a North American. Not that I have anything against Cameroonians, but they are, as yet, unfamiliar to me, while North Americans are more familiar in their ways of being.
3) as for cheerful thoughts to brighten your day while you lunch in the dimly-lit, aesthetically offensive lunchroom while talk of Dante's Inferno swirls around you - you can think of the internal parasites, the malaria, the willful children not doing their homework and cheating on their tests, and the multitudinous marriage proposals from Cameroonians thinking a white North American woman is a ticket to wealth and the life of Riley. And chuckle, as you think of the cheese sandwich queen deprived of a steady supply of cheese for 10 months.
you'll make it Karen -- you're a survivor. Just channel the chicken. When it all gets to be too much, just think "I am happy. Like a chicken with an egg."
[That's a great one. Seriously. That's gonna have to go on the quote wall.]
And I'll keep it in mind too when the going gets tough. "I am happy. Like a chicken with an egg."
now...if the egg was over easy, I'd be pretty happy...