Tuesday, July 27, 2010

On my way....

Well Im sitting in Heathrow airport waiting for our flight to Uganda which will be in 4 hours. I didn’t get too much sleep on the airplane here despite my taking advantage of the complementary glass of wine that was offered. But, because I left on Monday night, and arrived here Tuesday afternoon, and leave here Tuesday night and arrive Wednesday afternoon, if I sleep on the flight to Uganda I shouldn’t be hit too hard with jet lag, according to me. Lets hope it works out…. I need to start counting sheep early.

It was interesting leaving home, the hardest part knowing that I will be away from Alisa for so long as she sets out on her own adventure. But I know there is purpose behind everything and am feeling hopeful and encouraged. Leaving home reminds me of what Im leaving behind, and helps me to realize how incredibly blessed I am to have the friends, family and community I do. Im excited for the trip and glad to have a seasoned veteran traveling with me in Andrew.

As we got closer to the ground in London and you can start to see the ground, there is the familiar checkerboard green fields and other plots of land we are so used to seeing from above. However as the little boy sitting behind me looked out his window he kept saying ‘look mom there are so many soccer fields’. Of course I just smiled in the cuteness of his saying that, but it also got me thinking. Of course a rectangleishly shaped green plot of land bordered by either roads or trees looks like a soccer field to a little boy, because that’s all he knows to associate it with. It reminded me of the idea that we only are able to think and live with what is familiar to us. If he had experienced a flight before and been told that this is what the ground looks like from above, then he wouldn’t call them soccer fields.

As I travel to foreign places Id like to think I am arming myself with new ways to view and think about the world, about life. The more we familiarize ourselves with the foreign, and take the leap of faith to unfamiliar territory the more tools we have to view the world and the fewer ‘soccer fields’ there are in our life.

2 comments:

  1. Kyle - so excited for you! I'm sure it won't take you long to adjust to the time - and I'm sure you are looking forward to your first encounter with the folks you are there to help! Will be watching for your next post to let us know how things are going! Take care - use your special spray - we love you!! Lelia :)

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  2. ok....whats with the weird aish posts.....

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