A long way to Lilongwe

I started my journey in Seattle by sitting at the gate for over an hour past our planned departure time. Flew 9 hours to Amsterdam. Shoved all my bags in an airport locker. Left the airport and took a train to downtown Amsterdam. Took an hour long canal cruise throughout the city. Walked around for another 2 hours. Smelled coffee shops. Ate a picnic lunch in the main square (and no, it did not include a special treats for dessert). Found a park that brought back good memories.

Burger vending machine in the train station...mmm!

Hopped back on the train to the airport. Got on another 8 hour flight to Nairobi (middle seat, ugh). Hung out at the airport for 2 hours. Then a final 2 hour flight to Lilongwe. Saw Mount Kilimanjaro from the airplane! One weird thing was that the flight attendants walked back and forth through the cabin, spraying some chemical all over everyone after warning everyone over the speaker to "cover your mouth with a handkerchief"....umm, okay? I guess it's mandated by law in some countries but they didn't really say what it was for specifically.

Mount Kilimanjaro!

After almost 40 hours of travel, about 6 hours total of sleep, and way too many airplane meals, I made it!

A few thoughts:
I was in the sky for over 19 hours.
I am really sore from sitting for so long.
This is the first time I have traveled south of the equator.
Hopefully this will be the most boring post I will write. I blame lack of complete sentences and creativity on exhaustion.
I am really happy and feel very fortunate to be here. Thank you to everyone that has supported me and given lots of encouragement in preparation for this...you know who you are.

I am currently at my new home somewhere in Lilongwe, in bed, under a mosquito net, and so ready for a full night of sleep! Looks like internet won't be too much of an issue so hopefully I will be able to post regularly!

*I will post a few pics in the blog, and post the rest on my Picasa page (https://picasaweb.google.com/saraherothman) which you can link to on the right hand side of this post.