Trip from US to South Africa with Sienna and Sofia

December 14- Sienna, Sofia and I left for South Africa. We had 10 suitcases, 7 carryons and a long journey ahead. We get to the LR airport and our plane had already been delayed 1 ½ hours. That left us with essentially 30 minutes in Atlanta to make our connection. We get to Atlanta and ran through the airport. The girls were so cute with their big backpacks and pulling their carry ons. We managed to make the connection JUST in time. We the last to get on the airplane and of course there was no space for our 7 carryons.

15 hour flight to Joberg from Atlanta. We had a row. Sofia sat by the window, me in the middle and Sienna near the aisle. The girls did amazingly well on this long flight. They didn’t complain once. They didn’t kick the seats in front of them, they didn’t cry. They watched movies and did sleep some. Sienna was thrilled that the Lady Gaga CD was available to listen to in the entertainment system. She was singing pretty loud with her headphones on and a couple of times I had to tell her to not sing so loud.

I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane. I was pretty busy trying to keep the girls from stretching their legs out. Sienna kept putting hers in the aisle and Sofia was stretching hers out on Sienna’s head.

December 15- We landed in Joberg and were trying to get all of our things collected. Sofia started complaining that she needed to go to the potty. Everyone was standing and not moving to get off the plane. She started fretting and then vomited everywhere. Luckily I contained it to just in the floor and miraculously we didn’t get it on our clothes or belongings. After I thought it was finished she did it again. I cleaned her face and off we went.

In Joberg, we had to collect our 10 suitcases and recheck them. I got 3 porters to help us and they carried all our luggage to the check in counter. For the first time ever ALL my luggage arrived in SA! I was convinced that several bags would not arrive but they all did.

The girls kept asking if they were in Africa yet. I told them yes but they didn’t understand and said they didn’t see any animals (in the airport). And Sofia kept asking where the “brown kiddos” were so she could give them some of her toys.

By the time we reached Joberg the girls had decided they did not want to carry ANY of their bags. So, I was juggling all the carryons- 3 backpacks, 3 rolling cases and my purse. The worse thing is that everytime we would get settled for a second one of the girls would have to go the bathroom and I would have to load up everything again.

Anytime we would stop to get a drink somewhere (or on the plane), the girls kept asking for sweet tea.

On the plane to Durban, the girls were pretty tired and started having the giggles. I was really glad when we landed. When we landed it was dark so once we got out of the airport they couldn’t really see anything and were not convinced we were in Africa yet.

We get to the Bed and Breakfast where we are staying about 10:30. I get them in bed about 11:30 pm and they already at 2:30 they were wide awake. I managed to get them back in their beds until 4:30 when it started getting light outside and finally I let them get up. They didn’t understand if it was light outside why they couldn’t get up. So, here I am writing this at 5:30. It is going to be a long day.

December 16, 2009- National Reconciliation Day