So I am –t—h—i—s— close to being in Africa! After an intensive week of pre-departure training with National Office staff in Toronto, our group of 10 headed off to London on the evening of Thursday the 15th. While eight of the group continued on from London to Lusaka (Zambia) through Nairobi, two of us (Olivia and I) decided to have an extended stay in London! Actually, what happened was that Olivia got quite sick on the plane over the Atlantic, and remained sick throughout our 8-hour layover at Heathrow, such that she was nauseous and vomiting for something like 12 hours and she was not granted clearance to fly by the airline. The Heathrow medics decided that she should be admitted to hospital to be rehydrated and given a dosage of anti-nausea, so I remained with her after sorting our flights for the following day and advising the rest of our group.
Olivia is fully recuperated now, and on the plus side, we got to ride in a UK ambulance, experience the UK National Health Service (5-hour wait in the emergency ward), stay overnight in a hotel and deal with our jetlag with a 12-hour sleep and a hot shower. As well, I took a long walk around the neighbourhood surrounding the hospital while Olivia slept. I found a nice natural area to enjoy with everything so lush and green and the flowers on the trees all smelling so good. The act of actually leaving the airport and interacting with more of British culture helped my brain to sort out that I *was* away from home, since I was in a weird state from being in Pearson airport in Toronto, then onto a closed-in airplane without a window, and then directly into Heathrow airport in London without any real recognizable differences. The accents had changed but since I hadn’t *seen* myself travel (i.e. actually seen us lift off from the ground or land somewhere new) it had not felt like we were in a different place, or country for that matter. Somehow, I don’t think that it will be possible to not notice differences in the Nairobi airport…
Next blog – in Zambia!!
Olivia is fully recuperated now, and on the plus side, we got to ride in a UK ambulance, experience the UK National Health Service (5-hour wait in the emergency ward), stay overnight in a hotel and deal with our jetlag with a 12-hour sleep and a hot shower. As well, I took a long walk around the neighbourhood surrounding the hospital while Olivia slept. I found a nice natural area to enjoy with everything so lush and green and the flowers on the trees all smelling so good. The act of actually leaving the airport and interacting with more of British culture helped my brain to sort out that I *was* away from home, since I was in a weird state from being in Pearson airport in Toronto, then onto a closed-in airplane without a window, and then directly into Heathrow airport in London without any real recognizable differences. The accents had changed but since I hadn’t *seen* myself travel (i.e. actually seen us lift off from the ground or land somewhere new) it had not felt like we were in a different place, or country for that matter. Somehow, I don’t think that it will be possible to not notice differences in the Nairobi airport…
Next blog – in Zambia!!
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