Project 365 Day 16 – From My Room in Johannesburg

An article by Frank    1 Comment

Project 365 Day 16 – From My Room in Johannesburg, originally uploaded by made2serve.

I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, last night after leaving Auckland about 20 hours before. The flight between Auckland and Sydney was rough but all credit to the Air New Zealand staff for keeping us informed about the conditions and what was being done – the pilot was excellent.

The flight between Sydney and Johannesburg was good, but the pilot less informative – it was a Qantas plane. That flight took us past Antartica so we were treated to a spectacular view of the area and icebergs.

The stop in Johannesburg is only for a night – I fell asleep at 7:30pm and am now wide awake at 2:15am – I guess that’s not bad for the first night away. I expect to adjust some more in Nairobi. I leave to fly to Nairobi in about 12 hours.

The picture is from my hotel room in JBurg and I admit – it’s not the most stunning photograph – but I was tired and couldn’t be bothered going out to find better. If you follow my Project 365 – please accept my apologies in advance as the images might not be very consistent as I jump around time zones.

This is my first trip with TEAR Fund and I expect it to be a mind and heart expander – though I have no expectation as to what that might actually look like. In 12 hours it will see me on a plane to Nairobi, Kenya – from there I head to London in a week, then Colorado Springs and then out via San Francisco – this young Kiwi guy is circling the globe in just over 2 weeks.

My first impression of JBurg? My first look out the window of the plane as we landed gave me a glimps of a land that was very brown and vast. Coming in there was a bit of smoke about that created that big city haze – the people have been really friendly, though I’m not sure whether they’re just being very helpful to get tips. Tipping is new to me, but I have no doubt I’ll be used to it by the end of the trip. When people aren’t being paid much, tipping makes sense because it forms part of their income.

Expect some interesting images and thoughts from Nairobi as my trip continues. In 2 days I will be visiting a Compassion project in the Kibera slums to see how child sponsorship is working there. I am convinced our work is worthwhile – this is my chance to see it in action in the flesh.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Time to try and get a couple more hours sleep to hopefully help minimise any jetlag – though I get the feeling my body is going to do ok.