Leaving the United States

Amy called tonight on her last night in the United States. She said that the staging has been good and she has gotten to know some nice people. Now they have a real marathon the next few days. Tomorrow morning they are to be in the hotel lobby with all their bags packed at 6:30 AM. Then they are bussed to the clinic where she will probably get shots for Yellow Fever and Polio. She thinks that she will not need any other shots. After that they are all bussed to JFK airport in New York. Their flight leaves at 5:55 PM Eastern time.

They leave on Wed night and arrive on Thursday night in Johannesburg. The time zone is 7 hours ahead of their departure time so the flight is about 17 hours long. Their luggage (other than carryons) will continue to Namibia and they will stay overnight in an airport hotel. They will not be allowed to leave the hotel.

Friday morning, they will take a two hour flight to Windhoek and then a bus to the Omaruru Rest Camp a few hours northwest of Windhoek. There they will stay for 6 days. She said they told her not to expect to get a hold of anyone until at least Nov 12 or later.

It was almost as hard to say goodbye to her on the phone tonight as it was in the airport on Monday. I think that the idea of her leaving the country and not being in easy communication seems more real. There may not be many times like tonight to easily converse on the phone and fill each other in on all that has been happening. We'll have to see what happens with phones, calling cards, internet and/or letters. She said she would love to get any kind of mail. I guess we won't know how long before she gets something until we try it out. She had something written to publish to her blog, but wasn't sure if she could find an internet connection tomorrow.