In Cape Town!

For the next roughly 2 weeks, I will be in Cape Town for the Lausanne Congress (followed by other meetings for our mission agency). This trip has taken about 48 hours of travel (but it’s felt more like 3 days). Some highlights, for those interested in what missionary travel & trips are like (grin). (I don’t often post these kinds of “weblogs” but this tells you what this life is like…)

• An uneventful first flight is a sure sign that all of the “interesting” events are stacking up for the later long flights. Perhaps superstition, but it does seem to be true.
• An airport under construction (like Newark) makes it “interesting” to get around. And I felt the first bits of culture shock when I got to my gate and nearly everyone around me wasn’t speaking English. They were speaking German. (Well, duh… it’s a Lufthansa flight going to Frankfurt. What did I expect?)
• However, the sight of a power port wiped away all my fears. I could recharge all my electronics and be fully prepared for the 8 hour flight ahead of me. Ah, bliss.
• When on an 8 hour flight and someone near you imbibes a little too much… and thus begins walking around the plane, wandering, bumping into people, apologizing loudly, plopping back down in his seat, missing the seat with half of his body, then trying to pull the half of his body that missed into the seat… it becomes very strange… and very unnerving. You do not sleep, really, at all. Besides, so many movies to watch… and these of course for the airplane are completely edited! Oh, it’s humorous to watch a movie and have *all* of the cuss words chopped completely out. (Probably some other scenes, too, I’d guess.) I remember once being on an airflight, watching a movie, enjoying it, highly recommending it to my wife, renting it, getting it home–and being flabbergasted and redfaced at some of the language & scenes that had been deleted!
• In Frankfurt, on a 12-hour layover, I plugged my music player into my computer, and when it synced, it noticed that the tracks on the music player weren’t on my laptop. And summarily decided that since I was synchronizing I must be going FROM my laptop TO my music player – which means I really must not want all those tracks. Can anyone say “del *.*”? Aggh. I was left with 290 tracks (instead of the 1,000+ I previously had.) Sigh. But at least I had those. Also note: when you have not slept and it is for you the “next day,” and you are sitting in an airport, and you put soft instrumental music on to calm your nerves, and you are playing them in ear phones in your ears, blocking out all other noise, … well, you know what’s going to happen. Yep. Not sure how long I was out, but it did cut into that 12 hour layover.
• Also, here’s a way to get exercise: be told by one person that the gate you want is on the other half of the “B-terminal,” which means you have to leave security and go to through security to reach the new side, only to discover that the new side is Domestic not International, which means you were exactly where you were supposed to be. Leave Domestic, exit security, go back to the other side, go back through security, and go plop yourself back down where you were.
• Then, later, find out the gate has changed.
• Finally, on my Frankfurt-to-Johannesburg flight. 10 hours. Overnight. Oh, but I slept in Frankfurt, my body tells me. Remember that? You don’t really need to sleep now. Yes, books are calling you. And nice music. And look how many movies they have… and remember they have all those bad scenes and language cut out. Here’s your chance to watch a clean movie. Because you’re not tired anyway.
• Johannesburg. Interesting airport. A ton of walking to get anywhere. Have to clear customs. Getting a bit tired again. Waiting for my bag so I can clear customs. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. No bag shows up. Go to the baggage center. Oh, you have a checked bag? That’s not what your ticket says. Well, they must have made a mistake. Yes, your bag is still in Frankfurt, marked unclaimed. It is there. What color is it? You say brown, sir? They have it marked as green. (Do I look like a girl, that I should know between brownish or greenish or whatever… really, I think it’s brown!) Do you know the brand name, sir? (brand name??) Oh, your name is on the bag, sir? Oh, ok. So we will have it delivered to your hotel in Cape Town. So sorry for the trouble. (mutter to yourself: “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, self-control…”)
• Now, layover from now-9am to 2pm. What to do… ah, yes. music. bookszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..
• zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… eh? whatimeisit? um. 11:30amzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
• oh. 12:45. Nice. Ok. Bad crick in the neck, but… gate change?… ok…
• another gate change
• another gate change
• now we wait 30 minutes.
• Now we fly!! Yay!!
• Now we arrive in Cape Town. And look at this, people in lovely bright yellow shirts that say “Cape Town 2010″ and “Welcome.” That ‘s a wonderful sight to see. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, that really made my day.
• Quick and rapid transit via bus – later I’ll post some video of the cool street singing band that entertained us while we waited for the bus to show up. I have no idea if lausanne organized that or not but it was fun nonetheless.
• At the convention center. Wow, that thing is big. Guess it’d have to be to handle 4,000 people. And Registration goes slick. That registration letter had a bar code on it, one scan and I’m done. Got some cool missionary conference schwag too. I’ll photograph that and send it along in a later post. Nice little notebook with details about the conference, a shoulder-strap-bag to carry all our papers & stuff in, and a gift bag.
• Then, we get taken to our hotel. I won’t go into those details here. I went with another group to their hotel thinking I would just walk to mine. It was “just around the corner” on the map. Heh. Those corners and streets are small and not well lit at night, and the map isn’t all that accurate. Getting a “little” lost twice and seeing lone dark figures walking down the street is enough to start praying Psalm 91 (see, Abigail, it works for grown-ups too.) (I will not be afraid of the terror by night… I will not be afraid…) Anyhow I got to the hotel safe and sound (though a bit sweaty).
• Very nice time meeting and talking with friends, some of whom I have only known via email and Skype calls before. WECers are cool.
• And now I am going to bed.

Good night all!

Missionary conference schwag…