Africa Journal Posting #1

At 37,000 feet above the Sahara Desert we are zooming along at 630 mph. The temperature outside the aircraft is around minus 54 C – but we have the windows shades closed on my side of the aircraft with sun beaming against it – it is too hot to sit here. The window which is normally cold is very hot. The mile after mile of brown haze, for as far as you can see covers the earth below. Below us you can see millions of sand dunes that mark the surface. Strong winds have created ridges out from the dunes for miles westward.

What a contrast from earlier this morning as we glided across the north Atlantic Ocean. The air was spectacularly clear with billions of stars shinning. The stars even appeared below eye level as I looked out the window. I covered my head with a blanket to keep out the cabin lights. The sky shone.

I fell asleep looking at the stars. When my eyes opened a while later the moon was peeking from below the aircraft wing and spilling a forever path across the water and the few clouds below.

With my nose pasted to the window I fell asleep again. Sometime later the sun woke me up and the green fields of Ireland were down below. Then came England with its millions of stone fence mazes between each field. The tiny patch work of fields were so different from the Canadian prairies.

London, England was amazing from the air. The trees were green and spring has already come to these parts. It seemed that the pilot knew that we had not been here before and he circled the entire city at a low altitude letting us see everything of the central part. I shot photo after photo hoping to catch the queen in her backyard. But it happened too fast for me to see it all. Alida asked me, “I wonder if the Queen will be there to meet us when we get off this plane?”

After two hours on the ground and an aircraft change we were off again.

The white cliffs of Dover and the English channel zipped by and we were over France. Wow! This is a fairy tale country so different from the parts of England that we glided over three hours before. From North to the South the landscape changed over and over again. In comparison to the small fields of England these were larger with more treed land in between the fields. The towns and villages were irregular in size and shapes. Usually there were three to five roads coming into each place – none of them straight. It was weird compared to my fly over Saskatchewan a few weeks ago.

At some point over southern France it was a washroom/toilet break time. When I got back to my seat the Mediterranean Sea was bow below us and the south coast of France was disappearing behind our aircraft. Nuts – I wanted a picture of that! No more toilet breaks until the middle of the desert.

The huge expanse of the Mediterranean Sea was there for quite a while. The clouds all puffy and white scattered over the deep blue water started appearing below us. Within 30 minutes the white clouds gave way to the brown haze that was now here for the last hour or so. Man oh man this is a big expanse of desert. There are no text books or travel guides that can tell you how big this really is. I can only see a few miles in each direction of the aircraft.

The brown haze has broken a bit now. You can see more of the desert below. There are small clusters of trees every so often – with large expanses of desert in between. Near the clusters are stones piled up to make an enclosure – probably to keep animals. Where was the food and water for anyone below to even survive here?

Then came a very different shape below us. It was kind of a cone shaped object and very large compared to the cluster of trees not far away. In the sunshine of the late afternoon it cast a long cone shape on the sand. Two of the structures stood a short distance from each other and were the same. Pyramid? Maybe or maybe a temple or something. At 650 mph now it was hard to get any more than a short few minutes of looking. Even turning to get the camera at this speed lost the image below.

The map on the TV screen says we are just west of Addis Ababa and that the Nile River should be below. There it is – along brown snake winding back and forth across the land. Away back in public school I never dreamed that I would ever see the Nile. The Sunday School accounts of Moses and his people happened a few hundred miles down that river. This is so cool. I feel like a little boy again. WOW!

The haze below has changed again to large white clouds appearing and more up a ahead. This usually means that it will get a bit bumpy soon. Yep! As I wrote these words the seat belt gong went off again and the plane jumped up and down for a while. New air currents were tossing us around a bit. This is a 747 jet and not a little one. Whooie – this is fun.

The sun is about to set on my right side and the ground below – the little that appears through the clouds is now dark. Up ahead the new clouds appearing are very, very big. We are at 38,000 feet and they are much higher than the aircraft. It is the first sign we have of the rainy season. It has just begun on the land below bringing some relief.

We now have been traveling for 28 hours and my eyes feel like they have sand paper in them. No wonder the infomercial said to take your contact lenses out for the trip. I don't wear any and my eyes feel like they are loaded with gravel. I feel a big sleep coming on but I can't get it to come. This is an upside down world I am now in. Yawn....

Later...
As we zoomed through the dark streets of Nairobi the rain has stopped. The driver is telling us that this is the first day of the rainy season. By the end of the month it will be raining very hard. We have two weeks to look forward to the cool rains.

This morning as I peck out this short account I am sitting in a small office at the front of the missions guest house we are staying at. Most of you at home are still snoring – it is 9:00 AM here and 2:00 AM in Peterborough. Outside the window, which is wide open, is a ten foot high poinsettia tree. It is the same as the ones that we have at Christmas time - only really big. The birds that are singing are mixed with some strange animal sounds from some where. I love this country. WOW!

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

In Nairobi, Kenya