Arrival
Sat 17th March 2007
The flight continues quite comfortably. Due, I expect, to the season it is rather empty and I am lucky enough to have the whole row to myself. It is getting to the point in the journey when I should be trying to get some sleep, but instead I watch films pretty much continuously (don't you find that long haul flights are actually the only chance you get to watch certain films, as you would never choose to watch them at home but seeing as they are there and there's nothing better to do...?).
As we draw near to the final destination I start to get nervous, anticipating the forthcoming encounter as I would imagine one who has been set up with a stranger by a trusted friend - a blind date with an entire country! God has made it very clear to me through various things that He wants me to go to South Africa, a country that, to be honest, I have never had more than a passing interest in. The assurance that this meeting will be a significant one to my life is heavy in my mind, but beyond that all I have is a heartful of questions about how, what and why, underlined by a gentle bemusement that I find myself in such bizarre situations. I have been obedient and got this far... it is now time to get to know this new friend and find out why she will beecome so important to me - to explore the way she ticks, her ups and downs, her brilliance and beauty alongside her flaws and foibles.
The first encounter was not majorly impressive, although I choose to turn a blind eye to it seeing as it was obviously the airport and as we discussed earlier these are not the most reliable of places and it seems a little unfair to judge a country by the state of International Arrivals. Johannesburg was a itty bit of a nightmare - I think about 4 planes landed at once. At passport control I have an epiphany that the British are in fact THE ONLY ones who know how to queue properly (despite the fact that I was standing in the SA Nationals line for about 10 minutes!!). And whilst collecting my bags I remember just how irritating people can be when you are hot and tired.
Thankfully I was picked up by a guy from the hostel. During the 30 minute drive he imparted some interesting random facts about Joburg, including the places you really don't want to go. Apparently there are around 6 million trees in the city and they have all been handplanted there. Crazy. If you look closely however, you see that some trees are not all they seem - South African telecommunications companies have made the interesting decision to attempt to disguise their phone pylons as trees. You don't really have to look that closely, as said disguises are not tremendously convincing but it's the thought that counts, I guess? I notice that eveywhere is a lot bigger than I expected - roads are longer, stuff seems more spread out. It makes me laugh, because I always forget that Britain is really quite small when compared to most other countries in the world.
The hostel is small and quite when I arrive, thankful to have booked a private room for my first night. After a quick tour I head out to get some food and sleep most of the afternoon. Early start tomorrow!
The flight continues quite comfortably. Due, I expect, to the season it is rather empty and I am lucky enough to have the whole row to myself. It is getting to the point in the journey when I should be trying to get some sleep, but instead I watch films pretty much continuously (don't you find that long haul flights are actually the only chance you get to watch certain films, as you would never choose to watch them at home but seeing as they are there and there's nothing better to do...?).
As we draw near to the final destination I start to get nervous, anticipating the forthcoming encounter as I would imagine one who has been set up with a stranger by a trusted friend - a blind date with an entire country! God has made it very clear to me through various things that He wants me to go to South Africa, a country that, to be honest, I have never had more than a passing interest in. The assurance that this meeting will be a significant one to my life is heavy in my mind, but beyond that all I have is a heartful of questions about how, what and why, underlined by a gentle bemusement that I find myself in such bizarre situations. I have been obedient and got this far... it is now time to get to know this new friend and find out why she will beecome so important to me - to explore the way she ticks, her ups and downs, her brilliance and beauty alongside her flaws and foibles.
The first encounter was not majorly impressive, although I choose to turn a blind eye to it seeing as it was obviously the airport and as we discussed earlier these are not the most reliable of places and it seems a little unfair to judge a country by the state of International Arrivals. Johannesburg was a itty bit of a nightmare - I think about 4 planes landed at once. At passport control I have an epiphany that the British are in fact THE ONLY ones who know how to queue properly (despite the fact that I was standing in the SA Nationals line for about 10 minutes!!). And whilst collecting my bags I remember just how irritating people can be when you are hot and tired.
Thankfully I was picked up by a guy from the hostel. During the 30 minute drive he imparted some interesting random facts about Joburg, including the places you really don't want to go. Apparently there are around 6 million trees in the city and they have all been handplanted there. Crazy. If you look closely however, you see that some trees are not all they seem - South African telecommunications companies have made the interesting decision to attempt to disguise their phone pylons as trees. You don't really have to look that closely, as said disguises are not tremendously convincing but it's the thought that counts, I guess? I notice that eveywhere is a lot bigger than I expected - roads are longer, stuff seems more spread out. It makes me laugh, because I always forget that Britain is really quite small when compared to most other countries in the world.
The hostel is small and quite when I arrive, thankful to have booked a private room for my first night. After a quick tour I head out to get some food and sleep most of the afternoon. Early start tomorrow!
posted by Susie at
11:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home