"In My Hands" by Alexandra Koehn

Mark that off your list. 22 hours 52 minutes and twenty seconds traveled via three different planes. A man lighting a fire on the side of the road. Table Mountain dressed in a white tablecloth of fog. A huge donut-shaped stadium with a rainbow gracing the sky.

In flight. After a long day of flying, anything sounded better than sitting in a cooped up plane any longer. On the eight hour plane flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, I met a man who was born in England and had lived in Detroit, Germany, and several places around the world. He told me how he heard Cape Town was one of the most beautiful places in the world, yet I cease to remember his name. As the English-man opened up and began to converse with me, he told me that his first wife and I had the same birthday. I found this sort of odd, and wondered how many wives he’d had in the past…but I didn’t ask. English-man also managed to laugh at me for being excited about my first airplane meal. I guess karma got him back when he missed his next connection in Amsterdam while the crew and I sprinted to the opposite end of the airport to catch ours. On the eleven hour and thirty minute flight to Cape Town, I managed to read a hundred pages of The Last Song and of course enjoy a few good movies including James Cameron’s Avatar. “Crack, crack, boom.” Although the plane made quite a unique landing sound, we made it.

Landed. I lugged my bag into my apartment, showered, hopped into bed, set my alarm for 8:30am local time, and woke up in time for breakfast. After a speedy orientation, one hundred and four of us hopped into tour buses and headed to the waterfront. On the way I noticed a man on the side of the highway who was burning some small papers and trying to cook maybe his first and last meal of the day. In that second, my mind wandered away as I thought about how blessed I am. It was unfathomable to me how the underprivileged people of this city dealt with their poverty stricken life.

The service week starts tomorrow and I can't wait to participate in the hands on service. As we continued to tour several different parts of Cape Town, I was especially disappointed that the rain and fog was covering the mountains. I hate rain. I wanted to see Lion’s Head and Table Mountain at their fullest. As we drove up Signal Hill to see a view of the Atlantic Ocean, the rain continued but I was too stubborn to stay in the bus. I got out (with my camera too) and began to take pictures. The second I walked to the side of the road to get a picture of the world cup stadium, the sun came out. In this moment I saw a rainbow. What a beautiful way to begin the trip.