What I learned when the airline took away my bag and then lost it.

I survived the largest snowstorm ever in DC, and busted out to head to less snowy weather (and a friend's wedding) in Houston - - - only to get snowed in on my layover, in Atlanta.  Long story short, flight was canceled, no flights going out to Houston anytime soon, all hotels were completely booked.  No matter what, we were going to miss the wedding.  So Victor and I ended up getting ourselves back on a flight to DC to avoid spending the next day or two in the Atlanta airport with the rest of the world.

Those types of situations really bring out the insides of people, you know?  People are tired, they want to get somewhere, they paid a lot to be traveling... there are all sorts of entitlement issues going on... I feel it too!  I felt terrible we were going to miss the wedding, I was going to miss seeing my beloved Houston friends, I felt like AirTran should FIX the problem, especially when it came out that the reason for the cancelled flight was because a co-pilot was late or something.  And to top it off, AirTran decided to take away my carry-on bag and then lost it, at which point I composed this letter to them in my head:


Dear AirTran,
I really liked you and your very cheap fares you until you took away my carry on bag, canceled my flight, and then lost the bag you took away. If you could please find it, I would be a little happier.
Thank you.
Sincerely,

Haley

But my lost bag situation wasn't nearly the worst of it.  There were people who had been stranded literally for 2 days already.  They were exhausted.  They were angry.  The staff wasn't apologizing.  And people were revving each other up - "Can you BELIEVE this!??!"  "They are the MOST DISORGANIZED airline EVER!"  "I want my MONEY BACK!!" "I am missing a funeral/performance/meeting/etc.!!"  So on and so on - -  everyone in the same boat, everyone upset about it, everyone with the common enemy of the evil AirTran staffers.  Keep in mind, this is now about 1am, for a flight that was supposed to leave at 9pm.

My personal favorite was a lady who got up in the face of the supervisor, and screamed "You are a bad person and a b****!!  NO ONE HERE LIKES YOU.  NOT ONE PERSON.!"  And then added a few more explicatives.  The supervisor immediately called security to have her removed from the premises.

I watched one older man though, who was kind of hanging watching the whole situation.  Unlike the rest of the 200 de-planed people, he wasn't frantically calling every person he knew, he wasn't punching away violently on his laptop, he wasn't bad mouthing the airline to the people around him, he wasn't demanding full refunds or free tickets or whatnot.  He just sat on the floor against the wall and waited, letting everyone else go in front of him, and then eventually went to the back of the line to wait his turn.  There was a sense of peace about him that really caught my attention, and when I met his eyes, he smiled at me.

We never exchanged words, but just his presence was a calming force for me, and I felt like he gave me a little gift.  I learned something important from him without him ever saying a word.

Wherever you are, thank you sir.

(cartoons location)

Safe and Sound in Nairobi!

I made it!!

We arrived last night at around 7:30, were picked up at the airport and taken to a student hostel.

Today we are getting oriented and figuring out more permanent housing, because even the brave "I will sleep anywhere" Haley thinks the hostel is a bit sketch.
We will most likely rent an apartment close to the Ecotact office we will be working at (which is in a lovely neighborhood - the office is actually a small gated compound surrounded by flowering trees and grass - very charming).

The plane trip was very long but smooth. My luck apparently turned for the better (after having my phone stolen AND losing my car keys in the last week) as I was able to get on a standby flight, so I got into Amsterdam earlier and didn't have to sprint to make my next flight. We arrived pretty disheveled but upbeat.

Most exciting/traumatizing event so far was almost running over a dead body last night on the way from the airport- apparently someone had been expelled from a truck a few minutes before we drove by and he was still laying in the middle of the road. We were so exhausted that we actually started laughing, and then were horrified at ourselves. Welcome to Kenya.

Everything here is pretty familiar - it wasn't so long ago I was here last time (December) so I'm not having a huge shock. Still its a bit of an adjustment to realize that once again I'll be living in a state of semi-discomfort for a while, at least until we are more permanently settled. This morning I had an audience of 5 workers (3 men and 2 women) stare at me while I brushed my teeth in the communal bathroom. I'm sure they were just concerned about my dental hygiene.

The girls I am with are so great - we have found ways to laugh through a lot already, which makes a HUGE difference to quality of life while travelling out of one's comfort zone.

I love you all and will check in again soon.
Malaria pill is digesting, sunblock is on, and generally, I am happy and healthy!
Here's to the next adventure!
haley

tomorrow = Nairobi

i just got back from an amazing weekend in Charleston, South Carolina with amazing friends.

I rolled back into Denver last night at 1am.
and my head is spinning a little because of the fact that tomorrow i'll be back in Africa.

today is stress day, since i have the inability to transition in a normal manner.

indulge me for a minute - - - - -

taking advantage of all of these amazing opportunities..

sometimes makes me a little tired.

and i just want things like:

• a plant
• a comfortable couch
• my own plates and forks
  
• consistent electricity and internet
• an income where i do more than break even
• to be able to call/see/snuggle with my fam/friends when i want
• a car
• to be in one place for more than a few months
• not to have to worry about catching malaria or bilharzia
• a porch
• and a fireplace
  
• stability
• flushing toilets with toilet paper that isn't dyed green
  
• to be with my fiance for more than a couple of days..
• or at least in the same time zone..
• or even same continent
  
• to not live out of a suitcase
• to throw dinner parties
  
• to be able to take yoga classes
  
• to speak the same first language as the people around me
  
• to not be stared at for looking or dressing differently
• to be able to plan my wedding
• to be able to attend my friend's weddings and birthday parties
• to be able to eat food that i like..
• like fresh leafy veggies..
• and berries..
• and not worry that they will make me super sick
• to not have to think about malaria pills

but then i think about it a little harder

and my heart starts pumping

and i remember that i actually really, really love this

and i pack my bags again.




see you in September.

I just got a typhoid vaccination

and I feel like someone just took a sledgehammer to my arm.
ouch.

P.S.

I have a plane ticket.
I'm going to Kenya.

Oh, the Pyramids! A day in Giza.

Our first full day in Egypt we spent doing what one should do on their first day in Egypt - we got our picture taken in front of THE PYRAMIDS. Actually, we got our picture taken in front of a lot of things, come to think of it. We decided to do a private tour that our hostel manager set up. It turned out to be a great decision. It was ridiculously cheap - I wish I could remember how much exactly, and it saved us from dealing with the hassle of cabs and navigating a new country and all of that. It included 3 stops and lunch.

First stop - Saqqra. I actually didn't even know this place existed until we went there on the tour. Eek. Bad History major. This is the world's oldest pyramid, and oldest stone structure, for that matter: (and of course me, cheesing it up in front)

Second stop was Memphis, where the highlight was this massive statue of Ramses:

Sphinx at Memphis. Pictured here are the girls I traveled with: K.C., Katie, me and Nura. In front was our trusty tour guide for the day. He was great.

Third stop: lunch. These women bake pita bread for the restaurant, and threw us some right out of the oven as a little pre-lunch snack.

After gorging ourselves on our overpriced lunch, we headed out for Giza and the Great Pyramid...... da da da....!

There are actually 3 large pyramids at Giza. But you can't get them all in one picture unless you are pretty far away. We declined on the option of riding a camel to get a better picture (don't worry, camels come later).

Check out how HUGE the stones are! How in the world they moved those things is still a mystery - it is truly a wonder.

And... here we go... the trashy tourist pic. Gotta have some of these.

So, funny thing about the pyramids... they are not in the middle of the desert.. was I the only one who thought this? Giza is actually just a suburb of Cairo, and HUGE. You can take the bus to the pyramids, or a cab - its only a few minutes drive from downtown Cairo. Don't believe me? Check out this picture, standing in the same place as the picture above, just looking in the opposite direction:

One more for the road:

We walked for a couple of minutes, and ran right into - The Great Sphinx! (this actually was the coolest moment for me - it hit me how surreal it was to be standing in a place I had been seeing pictures of my entire life... wow wow!)

A little closer...

The Sphinx and I got close and personal.

There was actually a little girl standing there showing tourists how to angle their cameras to take this picture. She was precious and made my heart hurt. In general, I have a policy of not handing money to kids on the street, so I didn't give her money.

And I feel bad.

(You can't win when it comes to kids on the street, I'm telling you. You give them money, it is perpetuating poverty by keeping them out of school. You don't give them money and they may not eat that day. Seriously, it tears me up, still. ... and... I'll end the downer rant, but if you have a great solution, let me know. Meanwhile I'll be kissing sphinxes for free AND feeling terrible about it.)

After a long day of being ridiculously touristy, we did the cheesiest tourist thing yet - we went on a dinner cruise on the Nile. Complete with semi-bad belly dancer.

... A whirling dervish.. and, oh it gets worse....

.... and a Little Person whirling dervish.

Oh, to be a tourist in Egypt. It actually was all a lot of fun, of course. A lot of fun. It was incredible to see the sites and be in the places that people from all over the world flock to. But it doesn't compare at all to actually being able to DO something for the place - to get to know the people, contribute, have them get to know you......

The more I travel the more I realize this.

Highlights of Cairo

The last week of our Jerusalem Program was free for travel - so 3 girlfriends and I sprinted for Egypt.

We bought a bus ticket that took us from Tel Aviv to Cairo for about $90. Despite reading in about 4 places that it was impossible, we were able to buy our visas at the border for $15 when we crossed at the Taba border crossing. We went straight, all the way across the Sinai to Cairo. The total trip from Tel Aviv to Cairo took about 14 hours.


When we got to the city, we jumped in the cab and had the driver take us to a hostel that was recommended in Lonely Planet, Lialy Hostel. Despite the creepiness of this picture, the place was clean and the staff incredibly friendly and helpful. I would recommend it.After resting from our travel-marathon, we woke up early and headed to Giza to see the pyramids. (That was fabulous and those pictures will come later.)

The second day we met up with the uncle of one of our friends, who gave us a personal tour of Cairo. We of course requested to go shopping, so he took us to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. The largest bazaar in - the world? Egypt? The largest something. And it. was. large.

Right in front of the bazaar is where a bomb exploded the week before we were there. I know, I know, you are worried. But I made it back just fine. This is a picture of the area - it amazes me how quickly the normal routine returns. People are resilient.

A picture of the bazaar.

I thought this was great - a man getting a shave in the middle of the street.

Cairo traffic is something to note - it rivals any I've seen in the world. It is completely ordered chaos. But it somehow seems to work - people weave in and out and honk here and there and somehow get to where they need to go. There is really no way to capture it in a photograph, but here is a cool picture I took from the inside of one of the cabs.

All in all, I was impressed with Cairo. I had heard so many negative things about it, I expected to utterly hate it. However, that wasn't the case at all. It is huge, yes. And people are aggressive, yes. But there is a great energy there, and so many places to explore. I would go back (this is something to note because I usually HATE large African cities).

For those traveling to the area: One 'low-light', however, was the Egyptian Museum. It was enormous, and had literally thousands and thousands of - I don't even know what to call them - things from tombs? I mean, every pyramid-y Egyptian-y thing you could imagine was in this museum. However, hardly anything is labeled in English, and it is very difficult to navigate - in essence, it is not user-friendly. If you are travelling there and don't have a lot of time, I would skip it - or if you do go, make sure to hire a guide who can tell some stories to explain what you are seeing. We didn't do that and ended up walking around aimlessly and found it both exhausting and frustrating that we didn't know what we were looking at.

Settling back in..

I am getting nice and settled back in Denver and back into the routine of a 'non-foreign' graduate student.

It is so different - suddenly the urgency of seeing everything I can possibly see each day has diminished, and everything seems so easy.

Everyone understands me, I can go to the bank or grocery store and know how all of the systems work, I can pick up my cell phone and call my family without messing with a phone card or Skype, I know how to ready my own mail and the street signs, and I know what is culturally appropriate and unacceptable.

I have a car again, and don't have to wait for buses or haggle with taxi drivers. I don't find myself lost in streets that I can't read the name, I can cook my own food and don't have to worry about whether I am using kosher-only plates or not.

Its all so easy.

And quiet.

Petra, Jordan