Our Journey From Atlanta, GA to South Africa

So it's Jonathan and Brigitte and it is 5:05 pm GA time and 11:05 pm in Cape Town and we are finally in South Africa!!! woo hoo!!! Here is the really short version of how we got from our homes in Georgia to another country half way around the world. On May 13th 2008 at 12:30 14 students and 2 advisors boarded a plan to JFK airport in NYC. That was the shortest flight of the day. Once we got to the JFK airport we had about 20 minutes to grab something to eat and then board a 8.5 hour flight to Dakar where the plane would be restocked and refueled, then we had another 8.5 hours to our final destination in Cape Town South Africa. For most of the students this was their first international flight...so the food and everything that went on during the flight was interesting (we will let the videos speak for the experience as they portray us as we are actually going through the process).

Once we finally landed in South Africa we had a little bit of an issue getting into the country. I had to get out mine and Brigitte's laptop to prove that we are leaving the country (also shown in a video). After that we went through customs and I think Judy described it best when she said, "I showed him my cookies...he looked at them said fine...and that was it." Customs was the easy part of the day as we were able to just walk through. After that we got picked up and saw our living situations (also shown) and then went to a local grocery store. In case anyone was wondering they do have orange fanta here. Not the exact same as in the USA, but that is just one of the few differences that the group is coming across...our first but I highly doubt our last. More to come as we explore South Africa.

So we have about 10 more videos that we have taken thus far, but for some reason the internet is not letting us upload them :(. So here is the one that we actually got up. Hopefully we will be able to get more up tomorrow.