7:00am. We landed in Dakar, Senegal after a long Atlantic flight.  I must have tested out 1001 sleeping positions without much success.  Fortunately I had an empty seat beside me.  All that tossing and turning would have driven  the person in the seat next to me nuts.  Ask Dan Irving about that from last years trip to South Africa. Dan, bless him, sat next to me.  A test of true friendship.

9:00am.  I begin reading a chapter from the yet unpublished book, "Home" as I fly over the African continent. Author, Dan Irving should be very happy that I waited until I was soaring over the African coast before I began reading this, yet another, incredible chapter.  I can’t wait until the book gets published next year.

5pm.  We land in Johannesburg as weary but excited travelers.  Our plane had been full of all sorts of international travelers.  Luke Makwakwa said his section of the plane was filled with a plethora of languages ranging from Afrikaans  to Zulu. The new Johannesburg airport is a sight to behold.  Its been completely been rebuilt and expanded in preparation for the 2010 World Cup Soccer.  Basically the biggest Super Bowl of them all.  We were very glad to shortly find our host, Humphrey Birkenstock at the arrival area.

6pm.  We depart in two borrowed vehicles with all our luggage.   We are staying at one of our South African supporter’s homes.  We have never been there before and we only get an address.  But, "We have GPS", we proudly proclaimed.  After well over two hours of scouring the city, getting separated from each other, we arrive at our quest home for the week. One thing we can say about this evening’s  diving adventures,  always follow Amor’s caravan rule #1, "if you get separated from your caravan and can’t see any of the cars in your caravan, stop!  Find the closest and safest spot where you last saw your caravan and wait."  IT WORKED!!  Steve and Luke returned to the exact spot we had last seen each other nearly a half hour later.  Amazing thing was that we each arrived back at the same spot at the same time.

8pm. We arrived at the quest house after passing through the main security guard gate.  We are so glad to have arrived and are all really hungry.  We drive to the nearest shopping area and you would have thought we were in Mission Viejo, California.  Ah, South Africa, a land of stark contrasts.  Get this, we ate at the Cattle Baron, a US rest chain.  The exchange rate is so good here, the South African Rand to the US Dollar, that the dinners were all under $10 US.

9:30pm. We are all back at our quest house and full, and tired.  We are ready to hit the sack.  We only found one sleeping bag and two air mattresses from last years trip so tonight two of us sleep on the carpeted floor and in our clothes.  Tomorrow we will buy a couple more sleeping bags and perhaps even more important, our PILLOWS!

FINAL COMMENTS:  Last year on this trip we were blessed to have writer Dan Irving on the trip with us.  He became our official writer, historian,  and blogger.  For those of you who have read his previous writings, it was delightful and….. oh, so witty.  We miss Dan dearly on this trip but he is leading his very own trip with us this June with people from  his very own church in Chico, California.  Dan, you are dearly missed on this trip and I will do my best to capture the adventures and misadventures of this journey with your inspirational writings of past trips in mind. But now, since I am writer and editor,  I get to leave out the infamous Scott and Steve bickering!

PS.  Geek moment.  I am writing all of these blogs on my Blackberry Storm with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard.  I didn’t even bring a laptop computer with me this time.  Can you believer that?  Scott traveling without a computer!  Now this is a first.  But, this phone is truly amazing.  Like having a full computer in palm of your hand.  That evenbworks all over the glohe.  And, have found a wonderful use of waking up at three am in the morning due to jet lag and a different time zone….blog until the sun comes up!!!!! Oh, by the way, the other guys are all asleep and I am typing via flashlight. 
Scott Congdon
Founder/CEO
Amor Ministries
1664 Precision Park Lane
San Diego, CA 92173
USA
619.662.1200 US Office x130
619.247.3113 US Cell
619.662.1295 US Fax

+27.11.461.3222 South Africa
+44.203.026.4006 UK
+52.335.350.0280 Mexico
scott.congdon- SKYPE

March 28, 2009

4:30am. Woke up before the alarm went off.  Grabed some snacks from the refrigerator, let the dog out, and took my suitcases out to the curb in front of my house to wait for my ride.

5:15am.  My ride arrives and we head to the San Diego airport.  On the way down we get a call from onr of our traveling companions who is already at the airport and he says that the ticket counter line is out the door and onto the walk over bridge.  "Check in at curbside", he says.

5:35am.  We arrive at the airport for what I thougth was a 6am flight to Atlanta and then Johannesburg.  Curbside checking was slow. I was getting nervous.  Then just as we got to the front of the line the sky cab said they couldn’t check us in for an international flight.  We had two bags to check so we were told we had to go to the upstairs ticket counter after all.  Not a good prospect at this time.

5:45.  Some how the sky cab who volunteered to take our bags on a cart up the elevator to the ticket counter got us expidited.  We were in the security line with minutes to spare and then we realized we had more time that we thought.  Our departure was at 6:30am not 6:00am!  Whew.  Now you konw why I always like gettting to the airpoirt two hours early, foreign or domestic flights.

6:30am.  Our flight departs San Diego with all four of us!:  Steve Horrex, Forrest Fowler, Luke Makwakwa and myself, Scott.

10am.  We land in Atlanta, Georgia for a two and a half layover.  It time for an early lunch in the food court before we catch our plane.  Panda Express seems to follow us where ever we travel.

3:00pm.  After a hour delay of our plane at the gate with us on board we finally take off to fly across the Atlantic or the "pond" as our British friends call it.

Scott Congdon
Founder/CEO
Amor Ministries
1664 Precision Park Lane
San Diego, CA 92173
USA
619.662.1200 US Office x130
619.247.3113 US Cell
619.662.1295 US Fax

+27.11.461.3222 South Africa
+44.203.026.4006 UK
+52.335.350.0280 Mexico
scott.congdon- SKYPE