02/03/12
Sitting at Terminal 5,
the first thing I notice is that there's no free Wi-Fi, which sucks.
The second is how quiet it is due to only having British Airways
traffic passing through. I had trouble at the baggage check in as my
bag was two kilos too heavy. Luckily, the woman working at the
counter was Chinese and let me get away with 24kg. Sometimes the perk
of being a minority is that other people of your race are willing to
give you a little bit extra to help you get along in the world. It
probably also helped that my parents were there chatting away in
Cantonese with her.
Beyond that came
debates about what I had or had not learned throughout this saga and
the usual family debate about politics, religion and human nature. As
you can tell, it's always fun and games at the dinner table. Then
came the moment when I had to say goodbye and head past the security
checks. I have not done anything like this before. Travelling alone
to a foreign country with limited funds and limited contacts. It
scared me and I'm not particularly ashamed to admit it. It is a scary
thing, leaving all you are comfortable with and going into a world
which may be completely different or relatively the same. The fact
that this is unknown is more troubling than which of those two
options turns into reality. I would love to have a completely
different experience to what I am used to in England but really
Tanzania is just another country trying to make its way in the 21st
century. It's not stuck in the dark ages or anything. That said, I
can not wait to meet the family I'll be staying with and learning
about the Tanzanian culture. Also, I fairly enjoy flying.
I have just realised
that I'm sitting on the wrong side of the plane to watch the
sunrise...damn.
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