South Africa here we come!

5:15am comes all too quickly. Anne and I fly down to the lobby and get ready to ride to the NYC-JFK airport. I’m exhausted and my bags are crazy heavy, but adrenaline has me pumped. This is really happening!!! How exciting and terrifying!!!

The ride is long, and we are stuck in damn traffic fordamnever. We unload, check-in, and then run to security. One of my bags is overweight, so I head to pay my overweight fee only to have the lady behind the counter toss my passport back at me along with my debit card and say, “No ma’am. You are Peace Corps. Thank you for serving our country.”

Mind. Blown.

I run back to tell the other divas undercover that we won’t be charged; we all proceed to do a little song and dance in the middle of the checkout line ^_^ it’s ok though because people have been staring at us since our arrival. I suppose they appreciated the entertainment. LOL.

Well, we spend six hours at the airport snacking on pizza, sushi, and everyone sits down for an adult beverage before boarding at 3:30.

At 3 I call the people I love the most. Aka the people who would fly to Africa and beat my tail end if I didn’t call with updates. I cry with each final goodbye. My fellow PCTs give me hugs and a few cry too. Then we get in line to actually board the huge aircraft. While in line my little sister Carlie calls me and has me back in tears.

I cannot tell you enough how rad my family is and how a girl has never loved her family more than I do. Seriously. I’m writing this excerpt on the plane. Five hours into the 14 hour flight. Blehhh. The food was delish, and there is a pretty good selection of television and movies aboard. Us PCTs take up the entire back of the plane. The aircraft has the lights dimmed to get us ready for the new time zone, yet I cannot sleep.

I am up thinking about the weather in Lesotho. It will be cold, but how cold? My host family…please let them have little kids. My family back home…will they write? Miss me? Forget me? My nieces and nephew-will they remember how much I love them? My friends-who will actually stay in touch?  The person I love…Will I find a sleeping bag? Gahh so many worries! Oh the life of a PCT J

Well…let’s attempt this new sleep schedule. I love and miss y’all much!

Stay tuned for more talk about my African journey!