Arrival!

[this is one of those photos i always take. and the security guards almost always look like theyre gonna shoot you. or arrest you. apparently in the DRC they actually do. you know, as you get off the plane at night, goign into the airport, armed men everywhere.. but filled with the excitement of being in a new country, and wanting to photograph ever moment of it.. yeah.]

as soon as we walked into the (cute, homely) airport in Tana, everyone lit up. And seeing Meagan and Tamlin (who had arrived a few days before us, to get everything ready) made it all very real. We'd spent hours talking about being on this mission, and here we all are, in the airport together! CRAZY! Aw and the first thing they did was hug us all, with their bright smiles.. And gave us each hats to choose from! Chloe spent ages fitting them on, tryin to pick the right one. As soon as I went to get one, Meagan told me that they'd picked one out just for me! Tamlin said they saw it in the market and both said "that's so andrea" and had to get it haha it's the cutest!

oh gosh and WE MET NADIA! She's GREAT! We're having so much fun* With all of us being thrown into the deep end, it being our first mission., we've had awesum times finding our way together! 

(christof and chloe. they both look kinda scary here, i swear theyre nice people hahaha)

-aand this is jo, scarlett's mom. she's the childlife therapist. she has the best job in the world! she plays games with kids. and she's SO BRILLIANT. and hilarious!!!

we took two trolleys by acccident, and just couldn't get them apart...

[TOTALLY shouldve invested in a blackberry! haha now all you BBMers know where you can come* YES i just said BBMers.]

We got our luggage (all of it YAY) and our visas and we were OFF to the hotel... (I have no idea whats going on in this photo! But it's showing us in the busses.. so here haha)

The Road to Tana..

this is the first photo i took. of chloe. who is looking over my shoulder right now. she's saying how amazing i am. (okay okay i may have twisted that a lil...) we were in the jhb airport. minutes after we both realised it had been hours since we left home, and neither of us had been taking photos. then we saw this GIANT tabasco sauce and our cameras were never the same...

what else? chloe went into every stationary shop looking for sillybandz. and EVENTUALLY(after Christof and i had rejected her. "you can go by yourself to this one, meet you at spur" --yes mom, we made sure she'd be safe first. CAMP RULES APPLY.

she found them, and bought so many she couldnt buy food haha (THATS dedication. especially from chloe..)

"there must be twentyfour letters in the pack" -chloe, about her alphabet sillybandz

"you know there are twenty six letters in the alphabet, right?" -andrea

*silence*

aaand we had a wonderful team vibe, anticipating GREAT times with our new family.. OH and they all realised how weird i am when i spent half an hour figuring out what i wanted.. changing my mind a hundred times.. (WHO doesnt have cranberry juice and a kiddies grilled chicken combo?! come on. OBVIOUSLY life gets complicated after the greatest meal ever has been denied.) and then eventually decided to satisfy the craving for a chico the clown. #mostdelicious

At Spur, we also spent some time asking Genevieve a ton of questions, bc she was the only one at our table who'd been to Tana before.

The rest of the journey was good... sat opposite Scar for the onetime journey CT to JHB.. on a tiny tiny plane. I haven't entered a plane from the back before.. that was interesting.. Aaand I met Dawid the Anaethetist. and Christof became our LEGIT BRO. we got lost in the airport. well, not lost. ALL the airport staff gave us incorrect directions. HOW do so many people not know what's going on?! gosh. In the end though, we ended up exactly where we started, and all was fine. "I just couldn't do any of that by myself. I have to travel with a man. -or Chloe." -andrea

We had a really long wait in the airport before our flight to Tana. Spent most of it at Exclusive Books, a group of us set up camp there. #great times

(Oh Tim, the lady on the plane intercom speaks French, you'd love it. -And all the stewardesses are French. Even here in Tana, everyone has that cool French accent!)

LV bag update: It KILLED me. KILLED ME. Bc yes, it is beautiful. But yes, it's me. And ofcourse the rolly thing didnt work. AND ofcourse it was way more full than ideal. "put EVERYTHING youd need into your carryon bc your luggage may not arrive" Anyway. My arm was slightly swollen for a bit, and i have legit scars on my shoulders. But it's alll good.

Kept having these 'Ohmygosh this is real. This. Is. Happening.' moments. So much time knowing it's gonna come, so much theoretical knowledge, so many stories heard. But this is ME. Here. Now. Whaaaat.

Other news: I had my first canned pawpaw experience. And they gave us HUGE cashews. They eat so much eggplant here, its divine. I end with a quote I got from Britt's goodbye letter:

"Remember that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion"