Sunday, May 13, 2007

The day that lasted innumerable hours.

I woke up the Sunday morning the left (as I'm posting this it's now a week ago though it feels like a month ago) not knowing to be scared or excited, and instead I huddled under by blanket for a few moment pondering the thought that the day had come. The entire week I had joined Janna in her count down to take off, and the realization that "7 more sleeps!" had turned into the day of departure was slightly overwhelming; yet, I packed with the other Junior Fellows in a flurry of organized chaos, had breakfast with a member of the national office, and still managed to get out the door without forgetting anything. (at least, nothing that I've noticed so far.)

The 16 JFs that were flying to Ghana all piled outside of the EWB
training house taking pictures and saying goodbye to our Malawian
counterparts until it was finally time to go. We strapped on our
packs and made our way to the subway station, but things were never so real as when I turned the corner and lost sight of my residence for the past week. Gill yelled out, "we're going to Africa!" and the 5 of us travelling together cheered, but at the same time the butterflies in my stomach came alive, tears welled up in my eyes, and a giant smile broke out on my face. I was amazingly proud of my journey this week, and am only looking forward to more despite the fears that have come to light this year and throughout training.

Even as the plane took off from Toronto, a bunch of us linked hands
and cheered when we were in the air. There was no turning back, we
were on our way.

Yet, as I described in my last post, the journey is not always work,
and we get to have some fun too. We arrived in Milan, Italy for our
layover of exactly 8 hours deciding that we were not going to let this opportunity go to waste. We all took the train to downtown taking in the sites, we broke into small groups, and the four others that I was with had our sites set on the Duomo, a giant church in the middle of the city that took over 500 years to build. The hall was grand, the stained glass windows were amazing, and in true engineering fashion, we marveled about how they built it without all our modern machines.

We then trekked to the roof of the church (and realized how out of
shape we are with how quickly we were out of breath) and saw an
amazing view of the surrounding area. I kept having to remind myself that I was actually in Italy, and that it wasn't just a dream. It was surreal -- the trip was unplanned at best, and those few hours away from the airport (along with the espresso and gelato) made me realize a few things.
1. The group of people that I am with are extremely special people, and I am lucky to have shared that with them.
2. Things that are admired take a long time to build. I realized after that this is a pretty good metaphor for so many of the things that I am doing this summer. I cannot expect to learn Dagbani in a day, I cannot expect to have my office like me and trust me within my first week. These things will take time, and I cannot rush them.

I'm now somewhere over Northern Africa, (as I wrote this, it has taken me quite a bit of time to find internet) seeing nothing but clouds and too awake to sleep. The destination is only a few hours away and I am once again a flurry of emotions, but excited to see what I can do when my feet touch the ground.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I would give to be there to see your face through all these wonders and adventures - I'm delighted to hear about your joy and excitement at these new prospects and what's yet to come.

Also - looking forward to photos and more stories as time and internet connectivity allows.

I miss and love you! Keep soaring.

PB

Anonymous said...

You truly are an engineer in every aspect (except for your sparkly steel toe runners).

I had to stifle a giggle (here in my office) at your wonderment "in true engineering fashion"... not only could I picture your face, but I could see mine there right with you!!!