Day 1 - Building

We worked hard the first day of building. Everyone was pretty tired. David is our construction supervisor and was pleased with the progress. The foundation with the first two layers of cement block was finished. We laid the cement floor and completed four more layers of the walls. It turns out that uploading pictures to FaceBook is so much easier so I’m abandoning this blog for that venue.

https://www.facebook.com/tim.krell/posts/2241813662499098

At the Airport

Seattle:

Airports contain all sorts of people, mostly in lines. I like PreCheck, although that line seems to be getting a bit longer than a few years ago. Today, I had to check in at the desk which always slows things down a bit. For some reason I had two seats on the flight from Calgary to Amsterdam which is perplexing since I wasn’t able to sign up for any seat online.

I’ll be visiting four airports over the next 26 hours: Seattle, Calgary, Amsterdam and Johannesburg. I like walking around airports if I’m not in a hurry. I don’t like running around airports. Two poor ladies carrying rather large bags without wheels just ran up to the gate next to mine. I remember running through the Houston Airport several years ago. Not fun!

My biggest concern today is that my backpack is crammed full.

P.S. that’s not my pink bag!

Calgary - Hopefully my bag checked through . . . Everyone I talked to says that is supposed to happen.  But everyone else on the plane picked up a bag to take through customs. Time to pray :). Free “WiFi” in the Calgary airport. I’m downloading the KLM app to see if I might change seat assignments. By the time the app is available I’ll be in Amsterdam. haha



Actually, the airport is in Schiphol where it’s sunny and 30 degrees, just like home.

T-Minus Three Days

I actually blast off tomorrow but the stats on my travel get me to Johannesburg Saturday at 10 pm. It goes something like this . . .

• Leave Friday at 945 am from Seattle and Arrive JHB at 10 pm Saturday so that’s ~ 36 hours.
• 10 time zones so subtract 10 hours travel time = 26 hours
• 5 hours in two airports, Calgary and Amsterdam, yup it’s the milk run ‘cause I used Delta miles. These two fine cities are, well, north and South Africa is, of course, south! So subtract 5 hours = 21 hours
• So I’m 21 hours flying on three different airplanes . . . That’s a long time.

Bose headphones - check

Stephen Lawhead’s The Mystic Rose - check

Tylenol PM, for sleeping I hope - check

Snacks - check

Hope they have some good movies too . . . 

Currently washing clothes, getting my bike stuff together (more about that later) and paying bills. 

What am I forgetting? Ideas appreciated in the comment section. Let’s make this an interactive experience.

T-Minus 4 Days to South Africa

I decided to write about my second trip to Africa. Writing helps me process the experiences I’ve had in life. I was surprised to find this first journal (below or navigate to 2009 on the right) from my trip to the Sudan in 2008. As I glanced through it, great memories flooded my mind.

So I’m tagging this next trip onto the first. Africa is a very different country and culture than we experience in the US on a daily basis. I’m looking forward to the trip. For those of you reading who are not familiar with what I’m doing, I’ll be leaving Friday, February 23 and returning Wednesday, March 14.

The adventure is in two very different chunks. The first week I’ll be serving on a Habitat for Humanity work team along with Peter, Joseph, Brayden and Alisa from Evergreen Covenant. Brayden is our leader. We’ll be laying the foundation for a two bed room, concrete block home for a family of orphan children in Losotho, Africa. Losotho is a small island country totally surrounded by the larger country of South Africa.

The second week, we’ll fly to Capetown to visit Ray and Gay Brook. The guys are staying until Wednesday and we’ll get to do some siteseeing together. Then, I’m staying through the weekend to participate in the https://www.capetowncycletour.com/ bike ride. What a privilege as it appears to be one of the most beautiful rides in the world. 

So this is the place I’ll post information and pictures as often as I can. I look forward to seeing how God will present himself to me on this trip. Life’s a pilgrimage of many sorts. I love adventures! See https://cycling-epic-adventure.blogspot.com/ or http://epicadventure2.blogspot.com/ as examples.