{"id":87,"date":"2013-03-24T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/wordpress\/?p=87"},"modified":"2013-03-24T22:22:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T22:22:00","slug":"3-continents-in-24-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/2013\/03\/24\/3-continents-in-24-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"3 continents in 24 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amber drops me off at Calgary airport with some kisses.<\/p>\n

\nI am tagged for chemical testing before entering security (gotta be the goatee).<\/div>\n
\nNo chemicals have made contact with me.<\/div>\n
\nEat home made donuts Amber packed in my laptop bag.<\/div>\n
\nRead about what I can learn from the poor.<\/div>\n
\nAt the gate I overhear a conversation between an Arab father and a KLM agent as to why his 1 week old son can not fly – no documentation – the wife is in tears, so is the 6 yr old son.<\/div>\n
\nOn the plane, an amazing story in Calgary Herald about 2 people surviving a winter plane crash for over 40 days in Yukon 50 years ago.<\/div>\n
\nDrink, yes, a free Heineken please. I can do this.<\/div>\n
\nChat with my seat mate, Margot, a middle aged French teacher from Saskatchewan who lives in Turkey with her Turkish husband – she has political views.<\/div>\n
\nAnother drink with your meal sir? Yes please.<\/div>\n
\nMy visit to the loo lets me see a bit more of the 8 seat wide plane. At the front of both economy sections there are little beds for babies. Brilliant.<\/div>\n
\nI get a high score on the inflight Tetris game.<\/div>\n
\nBlaise’s card is opened over the Atlantic.<\/div>\n
\nI watch a Dutch movie about some mechanics who train for a marathon (De Marathon<\/i>) and then The Bourne Legacy<\/i>.<\/div>\n
\nNot sleepy, so I don’t sleep, but I develop a headache after eating breakfast at what is 11 pm for me.<\/div>\n
\nThe view of the ocean waves and the transport freighters as we approach the Netherlands are awesome.<\/div>\n
\nMy connection in Amsterdam involves waiting in 3 lines: get a boarding pass, go through security, and finally board the plane. <\/div>\n
\nI am barely awake. I crumple into my window seat (on the wing), cover myself with the blanket and try to sleep for the next 5 hours.<\/div>\n
\nI skip the first inflight meal because of nausea.<\/div>\n
\nI get intermittent naps in and feel refreshed enough to chat with the London couple next to me who are visiting family in their native South Africa.<\/div>\n
\nWe chat amicably about community development and education.<\/div>\n
\nI saw the Sahara from 10 km in the air. Barely.<\/div>\n
\nI read some more from my book.<\/div>\n
\nSpend some time praying behind my sleep mask.<\/div>\n
\nI crack open the chocolate treats from Amber.<\/div>\n
\nWreck-It Ralph<\/i> entertains me.<\/div>\n
\nAcadia’s card is opened over Chad. The flight map shows that we have flown over Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, The DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe before entering South African airspace.<\/div>\n
\nAmazing lightning storms as we descend into Johannesburg.<\/div>\n
\nCustoms is quick and easy. Yes, I am here on holiday.<\/div>\n
\nOR Tambo airport is dead. Internet ain’t free, but nice to read kind wishes from folks on facebook.<\/div>\n
\nI find a corner with seats where I can park myself for 7 hours until my flight to Durban and I blog.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amber drops me off at Calgary airport with some kisses. I am tagged for chemical testing before entering security (gotta be the goatee). No chemicals have made contact with me. Eat home made donuts Amber packed in my laptop bag. Read about what I can learn from the poor. At the gate I overhear a … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,12,22,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-87","6":"format-standard","7":"category-family","8":"category-fatherhood","9":"category-film","10":"category-politics","11":"category-travel","12":"category-zr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zaakistan.com\/dir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}