on being "stuck"

This is Darlene.  It's surprising to me how exhausting a day of sitting and waiting can be.  I woke up today, in Nairobi, feeling like I had been hit by a mack truck.  Which, of course, I had not been.  But I had spent the day traveling to nowhere.

David and I had had a conversation the night before about me feeling a bit "stuck" at work.  Going from one cubicle in Washington to another at the US Embassy compound in Nairobi, I somewhat envied his freedom of movement and the constant learning environment that he's been in at JRS.  We agreed that it was rather silly of me to be talking about feeling stuck when I was about to travel to one of the most uncommonly traveled places I had ever been.

Yes, I was supposed to go to Bangui, Central African Republic, i.e. pretty much the middle of nowhere, yesterday at 7:40 a.m.  I started the "day" at 3:55 a.m. and got to the airport a little after 5:15 a.m.
 
It just so happened to be a day that Nairobi's international airport closed for 9 hours due to a flight that ran off the runway at about 3:30 a.m. (all passengers were fine) and ended up stuck in the mud, with one wing hanging over the runway itself--the one and only runway for all flights.

I spent the day--and I mean, the entire day--stuck at the airport. A nine-hour cessation of flights meant a world of hurt for the airlines, the Kenyan Aviation Authority, and thousands of stranded passengers, both those waiting for flights in Nairobi, as well as those diverted to Mombasa, Entebbe, or Dar es Salaam. 

It was a bit of a case of group-think, our long stay at the airport.  While other flights were either departing late or being cancelled, our flight kept being delayed but never going and never being cancelled. 

1:00 p.m. turned into 2:30 p.m. turned into no certain time, but not cancelled.  At about 3:30 p.m., one of my colleagues also going to Bangui asked the information desk what was happening for our flight and noted that it wasn't on the board.  So the woman at the info desk added Bangui to the board for a 7:30 p.m. departure.  We weren't quite sure if she did that just to make him happy or because it was our real departure time. 

We waited and waited, thinking that because they did not cancel our flight as they had for many others, that it would surely leave soon.  The main organizer of our trip thought that we needed to stick it out until it was cancelled, so we agreed to wait until 7:30.  Each time a departure time would come and go, we'd discuss whether it was worth it to stay.  Each time, we agreed that we had waited too long to give up now.

When they moved us through the gate and the additional security checkpoint into the boarding area at 6:45 p.m., approaching 13 hours since we had arrived at the airport, we rejoiced and started talking about how wonderful it would be to lean back and sleep a bit on the plane.  We had not been there long when a woman came and announced that our plane had arrived but that our crew had not yet--but that they were on their way. 

I had kept my cool the entire time, putting on the mantle of "Africa-time" and showing my traveler savvy.  But by this point, I was done with waiting.  I did not show my frustration, but I inwardly decided that if at any point, one of my fellow travelers decided that we were done waiting, I'd try to turn the tide of group-think and convince them that it was time to head home.  Spending the entire day at the airport for less than 1.5 days on the ground seemed to not be a good equation.  It took until 9:45 with still no information about the crew to finally convince my fellow travelers that it was no longer worth it.  We turned around, nearly 16 hours after arriving at the airport, and tried to make our way through immigration without standing in the 2-hour line, saying loudly, "we never left!"

I don't know whether other opportunities to travel for work will arise.  I may spend much of my work time here in a cubicle, reviewing proposals, just as I would have in Washington.  But I'm not in Washington.  I'm in Nairobi with my husband.  That is super-cool, i.e. a huge blessing.  I told David after our first conversation that I was most interested in learning something new, which is why I was feeling stuck in cube-land.  But I believe (or I'm asking God to help me believe) that God has much to teach me here--both in my cube and outside of the Embassy walls.  In my apartment spending time with David and upcountry seeing the sights.  Out exploring and at a friend's home for dinner.  I am definitely not stuck.

"he drew me out of...the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God" Ps. 40:2b-3a