32 hours!!!

We finally landed in Cape Town this evening and settled into the apartments at about 11:30pm which means that we were in transit from July 10^th, 8:30am St Louis time until about 4:30pm St Louis time on the 11^th.  So we traveled for a brutal 32 hours straight.  Ouch. 

One leg of that was and 18.5-hour plane ride from Washington to Johannesburg, which was really just physically quite hard on the body.  The after effects included swollen legs and feet from the knees down, and cramped neck, and my muscles being so sore that my 50 pound bag felt like it weighed double that. 

But really, I’m not writing to complain!  I’m writing to share about Jen and Mark.  What you need to understand first though is that I checked in for my flight online, and intentionally chose and aisle seat (like any sane person would) for the long stretch of our flight.  Unfortunately, something went awry and my seat had apparently been double booked, which led to the attendant rechecking me in to a cramped middle seat at the back of the plane.  I was… bitter about this, but I need not have been.

When I walked into the plane and went to find my seat my row-mates were already there, and settling in.  They were obviously an older married couple from the way they were interacting, and I hoped I may still get my aisle seat… but they quickly apologized and explained that they needed the aisle seats for medical reasons, and then set about making my flight absolutely wonderful. 

Mark and Jen were originally from South Africa, but had moved to the USA more than 20 years ago.  They were both professors in South Africa, and Mark still teaches in Virginia.  They explained to me that every summer they fly home to see the whales, and this was their annual trip. 

Over the next 18 hours they showed me all the tips and tricks to flying economy on such a ridiculously long flight, and we had several lovely chats about South Africa, Apartheid, their own lives and families and mine.  They taught me about milk in warm tea, which is absolutely fabulous, and how to do airplane exercises, and even gave me a laundry list of things to try and do while I’m here. 

 By the end of the flight Mark had given me his card and insisted that I let them know how everything went, and Jen had declared that they were going to adopt me for the eleventh time.  All in all it was truly the best experience I’ve ever had with people on an airplane.  Their warm and welcoming attitudes were truly fabulous and refreshing, and honestly made what could have been just a horrible experience one that I think I’ll always remember fondly. 

Mark and Jen let me take a photo of them after we landed... but Jen insisted that I recognize that this was taken after 18.5-hours on a plane. 

 

As fabulous as Mark and Jen were though, that’s not the moral of this story.  The moral is that even if things seem bad, or aren’t going as planned that doesn’t mean that things wont still be brilliant.  This was such a great experience to have upfront, and one I truly think I needed.

The rest of the trip was fairly mundane, apart from adventures in money exchanging, buying my first product with Rand (a milkshake!) and discovering that something about takeoff puts me right to sleep for at least an hour (what a fabulous superpower). 

As we flew over Cape Town I was able to examine the amazing twinkling of lights that appeared out of the fog, broken by the crest of Table Mountain… I cannot wait to see Cape Town by the gorgeous light of morning… which reminds me that my alarm is going to go off in six hours, so I had better try to sleep! 

My South African Passport Stamp!!!