The beautiful soul of west Africa..

15/3/2015

We’ve been in the air for 12 hours, with still another 12 or so hours on our journey to go.
Our first (and only) stop over is in Abu Dabi. We’re only there for about 2 hours but I made sure I dressed appropriately this time (not like our stop over on the way to Europe when my dress was accidentally stuck into my stockings whoooops!).
I have absolutely no idea what to expect! The past 24 hours have been a crazy roller coaster of emotions! I’ve been excited, nervous, scared, happy, proud, strong and weak all in the space of a day.
But I know from previous travel experiences, it’s all normal and to be expected that your mind is going to be running wild with questions before arriving at your destination.
Elyse has been to Africa before so that gives me more confidence that we will be a-okay!
David Attenborough’s been keeping me entertained on this flight, I thought I should further my knowledge about the African jungle I’m about to embark into??
Elyse and I both had a decent 11 hour sleep on the plane which was amazing! Probably because we knocked ourselves out with cider & wine.
I’m SO excited to meet the kids we are looking after, and to meet my host family!
I wish I could turn my brain off from wondering all these things about when we arrive, but I guess sitting still for 18 hours doesn’t really help that.
We arrive in Abu Dharbi and it is silent. Every time I have had a stop over in the Middle East, it has felt quite eery. At the airport it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
We felt intimidated as we were the only white people but it’s just preparation of what’s to come! We asked again for the third time if there was any free upgrades, after being rejected once again we happily went into our next flight and sat in our little economy seats down the back.
As I get my first glimpse of Africa it looks flat & red, orange and yellow. It looks vast & open. I’ve got little butterfly’s now. The turbulance was the worst I’d ever encountered. Elyse too. We held hands because we both felt like we may die any moment haha, but we were fine. The wind was so bad that it was throwing the plane around. But then we finally landed and the excitement & nerves kicked in.

... Refer to my Travel Blog www.adventuresofamanicpixiedreamchild.com to read the rest!