SUN! Glorious sun! After so many hours in the dark (we were up before 3 a.m. this morning), it was a welcome reward to open the window blind and discover the bright, bright day smiling in on us. Being above the clouds is a special treat, and I am enjoying a gaze outside the window every now and again to delight in the various small wisps of white that float many thousands of feet below us over the ocean.
The boys, sadly, did NOT sleep on the plane, as they were consumed with Valentine’s Day Cards, which they were writing for their classmates back home. Their preoccupation with
The boys, sadly, did NOT sleep on the plane, as they were consumed with Valentine’s Day Cards, which they were writing for their classmates back home. Their preoccupation with
this task allowed me to doze for about 20 minutes before they got to that super silly point where they needed my constant attention to avoid a complete collapse. Happily, I had remembered to pack some hard boiled eggs (apparently those aren’t as dangerous as the cut up cucumbers we were hauled aside for at US customs back in Toronto! We were allowed to keep the eggs) and a variety of trinkets to distract them, and so they are currently bestickering an airport scene, which should keep them busy until the ear-pain sets in during descent.
I am eager to get on and off the next plane, and on to Honduras, to meet our hosts and orient ourselves to the climate and culture where we’ll be living, learning and serving for the next four days.
THREE missions teams in addition to us are on the plane to Miami. Once there, we’ll part ways, as we are all heading to different locales. I had the opportunity to chat with some members from one of the groups; they are heading to Nicaragua to build a Sunday School Classroom and an adjoining washroom at a local church.
On the flight, I pondered the financial validity of sending a group of Canadians on two planes, and putting them up and feeding them for several days, when it would surely be cheaper to pay local workers to complete such a job. (I have often wondered the same thing about myself and my boys in our pricey venture down here.) I think, though, that ultimately it isn’t really about the classroom or the bathroom or the workshop so much as it is about the development of relationships between people from different parts of the world, and the fostering of understanding of some of the more complex issues that face our neighbours around the world (and for them, to meet Christians, or Canadians, or whatever, and perhaps dispel some of the stereotypes they may associate with certain people groups, too).
Coming back from such a trip will surely open opportunities for conversations with others about the sorts of ideas and innovations, the problems and challenges, the opportunities for partnership that arise from visiting another place. And, a service trip like this surely will change how Alex, Simon and I will interact with our world back home. In that sense, the ripple effects of this kind of venture can perhaps not be so easily price-tagged, I think.
Looking out the window I can see so many air strips – something I never noticed before, but am more aware of now (FLA is well known in the aviation community for its ideal VFR conditions, so flying is a popular hobby there). This is the first time I have flown commercially since learning to fly, and it’s been a pretty neat experience so far. “Chair flying” (a between-lessons practice technique I learned from one of my FIs) is a lot more fun when you’re actually IN a plane, even if not in the cockpit! I fully participated in taxi, take-off and trimming for cruise, and will shortly pause from writing this to practise final descent, approach and landing.
I was also very aware this time when the initial descent began; I could FEEL the pilots reducing power before changing to a nose-down attitude; I never noticed this when flying commercially before!
The boys are getting plenty of attention; when we travel, I often dress them identically, so that I can spot them more easily in crowds. They’re both wearing the same sweater today, and so their monozygosity tends to stand out more, drawing onlookers and passers-by to point and smile. (They even had matching pants at 3 a.m., but by 3:12 a.m., Alex—still half asleep—had peed in his, so we had to change them before heading out to the airport!)
THREE missions teams in addition to us are on the plane to Miami. Once there, we’ll part ways, as we are all heading to different locales. I had the opportunity to chat with some members from one of the groups; they are heading to Nicaragua to build a Sunday School Classroom and an adjoining washroom at a local church.
On the flight, I pondered the financial validity of sending a group of Canadians on two planes, and putting them up and feeding them for several days, when it would surely be cheaper to pay local workers to complete such a job. (I have often wondered the same thing about myself and my boys in our pricey venture down here.) I think, though, that ultimately it isn’t really about the classroom or the bathroom or the workshop so much as it is about the development of relationships between people from different parts of the world, and the fostering of understanding of some of the more complex issues that face our neighbours around the world (and for them, to meet Christians, or Canadians, or whatever, and perhaps dispel some of the stereotypes they may associate with certain people groups, too).
Coming back from such a trip will surely open opportunities for conversations with others about the sorts of ideas and innovations, the problems and challenges, the opportunities for partnership that arise from visiting another place. And, a service trip like this surely will change how Alex, Simon and I will interact with our world back home. In that sense, the ripple effects of this kind of venture can perhaps not be so easily price-tagged, I think.
Looking out the window I can see so many air strips – something I never noticed before, but am more aware of now (FLA is well known in the aviation community for its ideal VFR conditions, so flying is a popular hobby there). This is the first time I have flown commercially since learning to fly, and it’s been a pretty neat experience so far. “Chair flying” (a between-lessons practice technique I learned from one of my FIs) is a lot more fun when you’re actually IN a plane, even if not in the cockpit! I fully participated in taxi, take-off and trimming for cruise, and will shortly pause from writing this to practise final descent, approach and landing.
I was also very aware this time when the initial descent began; I could FEEL the pilots reducing power before changing to a nose-down attitude; I never noticed this when flying commercially before!
The boys are getting plenty of attention; when we travel, I often dress them identically, so that I can spot them more easily in crowds. They’re both wearing the same sweater today, and so their monozygosity tends to stand out more, drawing onlookers and passers-by to point and smile. (They even had matching pants at 3 a.m., but by 3:12 a.m., Alex—still half asleep—had peed in his, so we had to change them before heading out to the airport!)
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