So, due to some miscommunication (and a few blond moments on my part) I'm headed to Vegas a few days earlier than I thought I was. I know what you're thinking, HOW does that happen? ...well...I'm not sure. I was positive I wasn't flying in until the 18th. Then I got home from Uganda and got a really good look at my itinerary. Turned out that I was flying out on the 14th. Initiate mad rush to get a bunch of things done before I packed my battered suitcase for another travel adventure. Fast forward a few short days (a few VERY short days) and here I am in the Atlanta, Georgia airport, listening to a violinist playing outside of Nathan's Famous Hotdogs and waiting for my plane. I kid you not -- I'm getting a private concert and running about seven different "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" jokes through my head.
I'm sure that by now, everyone has heard about the triple bombing (two sites, three bombs) in Kampala during the World Cup final the other day. My understanding is that the group responsible is connected to Al-Qaeda. The death toll (at last check) was in the seventies with a hundred or more hospitals. One of those lost was Nate Oteka Henn, who worked with Invisible Children. I'm putting the link to his memorial page here: http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/07/in-loving-memory-of-nate-oteka-henn/. None of the Child Voice International family was involved, and after several days of tracking down the contacts that I have in-country (as well as the family of my adoptive sister Eunice) no one that I knew personally was injured, although several people knew people who had lost their lives. It took me a few days to process this, and I debated for a long time whether or not I should comment on it. Please do not allow this to be filed under "typical for 'those people'" and please do not assume that this means that my work in Uganda is any more dangerous than work anywhere else. Kampala is back up and running again, and everything is calming down. And while we mourn for those who were lost, shrinking back in fear allows the people who committed this atrocity to win. There is too much yet to be done for the work to stop now.
That being said, it is with a lot on my mind and a heavy heart that I packed my bag to board another plane, this time for home. For this trip, I chose the carry-on version of the battered suitcase (who wants to pay $25 per bag to check luggage domestically? Not me!) and lovingly stuffed it with sundresses and knick-knacks picked up while I was in Uganda. I was up this morning before the sun and driving through the fog and drizzle rain to Charlotte, NC, to catch the first plane. Once I got to the airport I was immediately grateful for having been raised on the Las Vegas airport (particularly concourse D) as it is there that I learned to be 2-3 hours early for any flight due to security lines up the hall and around the corner. Normally, the line at Charlotte is about 10 minutes max. Today, due to construction, security line B was the only one open. I was in line for an hour. Top that with the fact that BOTH of my carry-on bags were hand checked by security guards (those Ugandan instruments apparently can make it through all of the screening processes from Entebbe to Amsterdam to Detroit, but Charlotte finds them to be suspicious) and you get me, exhausted, and already done before I'd begun.
The first leg was a quick one -- forty minutes. The next one will be longer and will hopefully involve some sleep (something I haven't really gotten any of the last few days). Trish is coming to pick me up from McCarran, and I'll stay with her a day or two until my folks get home from the family vacation to Oregon.
I'm not really sure what this adventure will hold. Horse back riding? Random fund raising? A tour through the "new" CityCenter? Del TACO? I'm sure.
Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment