The Dreaded "Packing"

Well, friends, the day has arrived!  My flight out of Detroit leaves at 4pm today (Sunday) and I will arrive in Cape Town at 9:35pm on Monday (3:35pm Michigan time).  Whew!  That’s a lot of travel time!  The first flight is about 8 hours, then a 4-hour layover in Amsterdam, then, finally, the 11 ½ hour flight to Cape Town!  Good thing I just updated my iPod with the latest tunes.  And I’ll probably have to whip out the old Sudoku book from my last flight.  There are about 7 of us flying out of Detroit together, then we meet up with a few more in Amsterdam, and the rest of the gang in Cape Town!  We have such a great group going on this trip and I am SO excited to spend the next six weeks with them all!

Dare I say that I think I am just about finished packing?  I’d better be because I’m running out of time!  Let me say that packing for this trip was… well, overwhelming.  On international flights, we are allowed two checked bags at 50 lbs a piece, a carry-on, and a personal item.  All you need to do is look in our dining room to see that I am taking full advantage of those allowances.  Now, you might say, six weeks?  You don’t need that many clothes and belongings for six weeks!  And you would be right.  HOWEVER, one suitcase contains a full 50 lbs of school supplies to be donated to South African schools and used for our own teaching purposes!  It didn’t take long at all to reach 50 lbs of supplies – books and paper and pencils are HEAVY!  And I was incredibly blessed to have the help of our Vacation Bible School families in collecting those supplies.  In just one day, the VBS kids donated 120 notebooks, over 1000 pencils, and several sharpeners, erasers, and various supplies!  Needless to say, that was well over the 50 lbs I was able to take, but with the help of about five other South Africa-goers, we were able to pack it all!  Thank you so much to everyone who donated supplies!  I can’t wait to give everything to the schools and see those students put it all to use!

Packing the clothes suitcase, on the other hand, was not a matter of weight, but of size.  Clothes sure take up a lot of space!  Many of you are probably thinking, It’s got to be 100 degrees in South Africa – tank tops and shorts don’t take up any room at all!  Someone even said to me “Megan, you’re going to come back so tan.”  WRONG!  It’s actually WINTER in South Africa right now (not that I would have come back tan, anyway – probably just burnt!).  The temperature will be in the 50s and 60s, with lows in the 40s at night.  Really that’s not too bad – kind of like a Michigan fall.  But here’s the catch: there’s no central heating!  So even though the temperature is bearable, there’s no relief when you go inside!  They actually say it can be colder inside than it is outside!  A lot of people don’t even take their coats off to teach in the schools!  So I was warned about how cold it is by people who have gone on the trip in the past and I am taking them seriously!  And THAT is why my suitcase is so full!  I have jackets and zip-ups and scarves and cuddl duds and a robe and layers and layers and layers!  I even brought a few hand-warmers for those extra cold days.  It sounds like I’m going to the Arctic, not South Africa!

But nevertheless, my suitcases are packed.  At the moment, my two checked suitcases are about 45 lbs each, so I’m hoping the Delta scale reads the same as our home scale!  Plus a carry-on suitcase full of books that is probably 40+ lbs and the biggest backpack you have ever SEEN with my laptop, books, and some extra clothes.  Do the math and you will quickly see that my luggage for this trip far exceeds my own weight.  Hmm, I wonder how that will work out.  But in about 39 hours, we will all be in Cape Town and my load will lighten up after we donate those supplies (not that I won’t make up for it in souvenirs)!  The entire group (14 girls, 2 guys) will be staying at a bed and breakfast called Deo Gratia until July 19.  I just know these first two weeks are going to be a blast and I look forward to getting to know my study abroad friends and exploring all the beautiful sites around Cape Town.  I hope to update you soon with my first Capetonian adventures!

Please pray that I and all of my luggage make it safely to my destination!

Until South Africa…

Megan