Riding in a Truck...

2:25 pm, Friday, 16^th May 2008. (Happy 10th Birthday Alifa!) T-25 hours.

I’m sitting in the back seat of a red F250. Jean and her Dad are in the front. He’s talking to me about the history of the Boeing 777 airplane. Did you know that the hijackers on 9/11 used 767s because they carry the most fuel? Neither did I. Since finishing my last exam Tuesday afternoon, I have packed up my entire room at Davidson, said goodbye to lots of people, driven my car for the last time this year (from Davidson to Marion), sorted out lots of financial stuff, completely rearranged my room at home, unpacked all my stuff, fixed my phone plan for the next few months (said goodbye to my sweet phone number that I’ll probably never have again—that was sad), bought a webcam for my laptop (so those of you with Skype can see me when we talk), Sidenote: skype is automatically capitalized by my computer. I don’t know why I think that’s so strange. Also, the wildflowers on the side of I-40 are really pretty right now. I don’t know why I’m leaving during the summer, it’s my favorite time to be in America, and packed all my stuff for the next seven months into a backpack that is hopefully not overweight.

Jean’s sleeping now, but earlier was asking me why I was leaving her for 7 months. Here are my answers, for those of you who may have asked the same question (Hannah):

Because I miss my little brothers and sisters, because I haven’t been back to Malawi in 2 years, because I haven’t seen Jojo in 2 years, because my sister is graduating from high school, because Bonner and the community service office are paying for my plane ticket, because I want to go scuba diving (and chances of that happening are greater there than here), because my high school class is having a reunion, because it’s home, because I don’t know when I’ll get the chance again, and because I can’t answer the question “why not?”

The only possible answer I could come up with for not going would be not having a passport—which almost happened this morning. I was packing up my stuff for Malawi and couldn’t find my folder of “important papers” that had my passport in it. Nathan and I proceeded to go back through all the bags and pieces of furniture that my stuff had been in, scour my room and the entire house, look in both cars, call Heidi to get to look in the room at school (thanks for doing that), and then freak out for a bit. After a few unsuccessful hours spent searching, my grandparents drove down from Black Mountain and found it after about 10 minutes in one of the drawers I forgot to look in. Hopefully they won’t hold that over my head for too long.

I think I’m gonna get some sleep now…or read Jurassic Park before we get back to school and I try to sort out some loose ends/say goodbye to people/help others pack to leave (tomorrow!)/probably not get much sleep.

p.s. I’m so tired of saying goodbye. And going 65 mph. On the bright side though, I GET TO SEE JOJO SUNDAY MORNING! Even though it’s only for an hour I’m super psyched.