The Adventure of Travel Anywhere with a Magill!

Yes, I have safely arrived in Cotonou, Benin and am aboard the African Mercy Ship, the Anastasis.

Leaving about 7am from my parents house, we were driving down to Pittsburgh to fly out when we blew a tire--I mean, completely blew the entire tire except for the back panel of it off into the woods, leaving only a bent rim and the back panel caught tightly between the axle, the wheel well, and the rim! After some work and help from AAA, we were on our way again. Arrived in Pittsburgh, flew to Atlanta, sat in Atlanta for about 7 hr. It started pouring rain right as they were preparing to board and it looked like the thunder storm was there to stay for awhile so I wasn't sure if we would be able to take off. However, it took about an hour for us to board everyone on a big Air France 767 (very big) plane and the weather had cleared by the time we had everyone and their carry-ons settled! I didn't end up having a seatmate so I was able to spread out (relative term!) to sleep off-and-on throughout the night. Flying over France the next am was amazing! We flew mostly over farmland that was beautifully patch-worked with ripe crops in the midst of harvesting--it looked like wheat, barley, maybe corn or other greens, hay, etc--and large irregular patches and strips of woods with small villages and farms scattered over it. I did get some pictures from the air but haven't yet had time to load them up....will try to do that soon. Anyway, we landed in the outskirts of Paris so I didn't even get to see the Eiffel tower from the air but even the buildings of the Paris Charles deGualt (sp?) airport are amazing. One I walked through was basically a huge, double-walled glass tube. Another was similar but was cement block with windows around the top half. And the airport was huge! I think that each gate (A, B, C, D, etc) was in a different building and I had to take a bus from gate to gate. A short lay-over in Paris and I saw a family that were wearing Mercy Ship shirts and on their way to Cotonou. I was checking my flight again when I overheard them saying that the gate for our flight had changed last minute--which was news to me! So if not for overhearing them, I would have ended up in Dubai! Then on that flight, my seatmate was a used car salesman from Benin who travels all over for his business. He decided that I must be girlfriend material and tried to exchanged numbers...I declined. But with his limited English and my two words of French we managed to have small but interesting conversations. Flying over Africa, I think we spent a lot of time over the Sahara, which I also got pictures of. It was like flying over a large muddy-looking ocean with dark brown rivers running through it at times. It was a clear day and I kept watching, trying to figure out what I was seeing until it crossed my mind that it was probably the Sahara! Arriving in Cotonou was much like entering other small international airports until I got to the luggage claim with its too-small-for-the-size-of-this-crowd conveyor and the cart men who were all jockeying to get the luggage and taxis for you! I finally shoved back until I was able to capture my bags off the conveyor and fought my way out. To add to the confusion, the electricity went out 2-3 times, as well, before being quickly restored! Thankfully I was waved through baggage checks and made it outside to cooler air to await my ride. Thanks to some very helpful cart men, I was able to contact Mercy Ships for my ride and made it the ship about 29 hours after beginning my travels!

Though very overwhelming at first, I have now had a tour of the ship (a lot less complicated than I thought it would be though also larger than I thought), have met a few roommate/nurses and others, and have slept in a flat, for the most part non-moving bed! I think I'm ready! Let the adventures begin!