Journey to Africa

53 APU students met on East Campus at 2:30 in the morning, Wednesday January 21, 2010. Most of us didn't sleep the night before because there wasn't really time. I had started packing at about 12:15am, and with the help of my wonderful mother, managed to finish just in time to leave for school. It was cold and drizzling as we waited to load the buses and say goodbye to friends and family.

Several of the nursing students who had just returned from being in South Africa last semester came to see us off. They had cards of encouragement for each one of us new nursing students. I was so appreciative of their support and encouragement to us. It really meant a lot to me that they came!

We flew that morning from LAX to Dulles in DC. For the first time in my life, I slept during the entire flight!

After a couple hours in Dulles, we boarded South African Airlines and began a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg! They gave us 3 meals during the flight, and we each had our own individual TV screens to choose from several movies. Unfortunately, the movies didn't work during the first 8 hours of the flight, so I slept pretty much the entire time.

We stopped for an hour in Dakar, Senegal to refuel, but we weren't allowed to get off the plane. It was nice to have that short break in the middle of the flight. I watched a movie during the second half and slept some more. By the time we landed in Johannesburg at about 6pm, I felt like I could keep on flying for several more hours! It hadn't felt long to me at all!


It was so exciting to land in South Africa. We met Reg, the director of APU's South African campus. We sent our big luggage with Philip, one of the drivers for the semester. He drove it 5 hours south to Pietermaritzburg while we stayed at a hotel in Johannesburg for the next 2 nights.

Word of the day: "Ngiyapila" (ghee-a-pee-la) means "I'm fine"

P.S. Many of the pictures I'm posting on the blog were taken by other people in the group, not by me.