Skipping across continents

A few months ago I hardly considered the idea that I may live in Asia in the next year. But as the time has passed, not only has this become an idea, but, as of today, a reality.
We set out on our long airbourne journey Monday afternoon and flew into a busy Detroit airport the day after the XL superbowl. From there we had an eight hour flight to Amsterdam and spent a few hours in their diverse and comfortable airport. I was even able to explore their small art gallery of both canvas and tile paintings. It felt good to be back in Europe. Then, we boarded our flight to Hyderabad. As we prepared to board, the officials called up everyone with small children to board first. Half the group moved forward! So many children were travelling on that flight. Thankfully, both on the flight to Amsterdam and the one to Hyderabad, we had a bassinet for Aria. These you can request and, at certain seats, usually the front of economy and back, are places where these hook into the wall. Aria was barely small enough, but she loved having her own space and slept most of the journey. She did have one bout of angry and upset LOUD crying, but people were gracious. In fact, she was well beloved.
Surviving on one hour of sleep myself, we arrived in India, went through immigration and customs with no problems, and went to get our luggage. It took about an hour and a half for all the baggage to come through. One of ours was missing. Still is, so please throw a quick prayer up for that. Finally we stepped out of the airport and into India.
I almost felt dizzy with the combination of different air, lack of sleep, and so many new sights bombarding my senses. My brain is on overload! Our supervisor, Kumar, picked us up and we are currently residing in Christian Broadcasting Network’s official building here. We are in a lovely cool guest room until we find the right apartment. It even has an attached bathroom with a Western toilet. Woohoo! I was so thankful to lay outstretched on a bed, but before sleep could claim me, Aria was clamouring for attention. John had got more sleep than I so he took her out on the balcony for an hour to take in the sights and sounds of Hyderabad at five o’clock in the morning. I slept. And slept and slept. When I finally woke up it was 1:20 in the afternoon. I was still tired, but we all got up and started our day — the first day of our sojourn in India.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 at 8:22 am and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.