Saturday, January 05, 2008
Flying over Johannesburg you notice a beauty in the corrugated aluminum roofs as it catches the bright African sun. Some of these buildings will be painted in vibrant colours or with slogans. It is too high up to see the people. Even the cars are ant-like and much fewer than those below on departure from Toronto.
Now it is 8:05 pm at home but unfortunately 3:05 am in Johannesburg. My internal clock is yet to catch up to my surroundings and I’m six hours away from another flight to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. In Washington, the middle leg of my journey I’d sat immobile with my nose in the book until my name was finally paged to get onto my flight. I’d been sitting at the gate but had my back facing to the area where everyone queued and pushed onto the plane. Even with a couple reprimands from the ground staff I noticed that I was not the last to arrive for the New Years Eve flight. Better than last years early New Years day flight where I had to watch all the poor woozy saps sticking there head in the toilet (or the sink) at Pearson International Airport.
The pilot came over the loudspeaker and told us that we’d just passed into 2008 and let us know that there was extra champagne on board. My portion was a meager half of a plastic glass. A few people clapped at the announcement. It was the same noise halfheartedly splattered through a few rows as the plane touched down safely in Africa.
We all had our own reason for being on this flight. Mine was that my travel agent had told me that this was the last ticket available any time around the dates I wanted to leave. I doubted it somehow on account of the many empty seats left to us by revelers who chose to remain on the ground.
In the next three months I’ll be able to do as I’ve done the past years. Traveling through Southern Africa and buying arts from artisans throughout the region. I’ve planned out a week off in Gaborone, Botswana. Time enough to catch up with old friends and then on the 9th the plan is to collect a friend at the airport and proceed straight to the bush.
The challenges of this voyage are minimized by the fact I’ve been here before. With that in mind I hope to strike of in a few new directions to bring the adventure up a notch. Being somewhere you’ve been before feels warm but it doesn’t bring the same buzz in the pit of the stomach as even the thought of unknown.
(Written January 2, 2008 at Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa.)
Today, it's January 5th. In a few short days I was able to get a car, replace the tires and generally organize everything that I need for the coming jump to the bush on Tuesday. More to come once something interesting happens.
Now it is 8:05 pm at home but unfortunately 3:05 am in Johannesburg. My internal clock is yet to catch up to my surroundings and I’m six hours away from another flight to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. In Washington, the middle leg of my journey I’d sat immobile with my nose in the book until my name was finally paged to get onto my flight. I’d been sitting at the gate but had my back facing to the area where everyone queued and pushed onto the plane. Even with a couple reprimands from the ground staff I noticed that I was not the last to arrive for the New Years Eve flight. Better than last years early New Years day flight where I had to watch all the poor woozy saps sticking there head in the toilet (or the sink) at Pearson International Airport.
The pilot came over the loudspeaker and told us that we’d just passed into 2008 and let us know that there was extra champagne on board. My portion was a meager half of a plastic glass. A few people clapped at the announcement. It was the same noise halfheartedly splattered through a few rows as the plane touched down safely in Africa.
We all had our own reason for being on this flight. Mine was that my travel agent had told me that this was the last ticket available any time around the dates I wanted to leave. I doubted it somehow on account of the many empty seats left to us by revelers who chose to remain on the ground.
In the next three months I’ll be able to do as I’ve done the past years. Traveling through Southern Africa and buying arts from artisans throughout the region. I’ve planned out a week off in Gaborone, Botswana. Time enough to catch up with old friends and then on the 9th the plan is to collect a friend at the airport and proceed straight to the bush.
The challenges of this voyage are minimized by the fact I’ve been here before. With that in mind I hope to strike of in a few new directions to bring the adventure up a notch. Being somewhere you’ve been before feels warm but it doesn’t bring the same buzz in the pit of the stomach as even the thought of unknown.
(Written January 2, 2008 at Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa.)
Today, it's January 5th. In a few short days I was able to get a car, replace the tires and generally organize everything that I need for the coming jump to the bush on Tuesday. More to come once something interesting happens.
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