Taylor Smith
Blog 2
The trip here.
I am now in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The trip here was excruciating to say the
least. I left Knoxville at 6:00 a.m., I
had a 10 hour layover in Washington D.C., an 18 hour flight to Johannesburg,
and overnight layover in Jo-burg, and then a 2 hour flight into Port
Elizabeth. I left Knoxville on Friday
morning and finally arrived at my destination Monday morning. The flight out of Knoxville to D.C. wasn’t
too bad; it was over fairly quick.
However the 18 hour flight to South Africa was almost unbearable. Initially it wasn’t so bad. I had a window seat and the girl who sat
beside me was very friendly. She was
visiting family in Durban, and was happy to answer any and all questions I
had. Throughout the duration of the flight
I became restless and body was sore all over.
I honestly just needed to stand up, walk around, and stretch.
After arriving in Jo-burg, I had to go through customs which
ended up taking about an hour. Next I
had to fight my way through the massive international airport, and try to find
my way to the bus which would be taking me to my hotel for the night. I found my way to the help desk, and the
employees there gave me directions to the shuttles. However, what happened next was one of the
most terrifying experiences of my life.
As I was walking to my bus a couple of men who pretended to be airport
employees walked up and proceeded to “help me.”
They asked where I was going, and then said they would personally take
me to my bus because it was a dangerous place for women after dark. I gratefully thanked them and we continued on
our way. All of a sudden these men
directed me down a darker more abandoned pathway. Right away I felt that something
was off, but since one was carrying my luggage I just prayed that everything
would be okay. About halfway to the
busses the men stopped and demanded a tip.
Me being the naïve traveler pulled out 10 Rand. The
men then demanded that I give them 600 Rand which converts to about $60. I handed over the money and rushed to my
shuttle.
Once I arrived at my hotel, I tried to connect to the wifi
so that I could check in with my family.
Unfortunately, the wifi wasn’t working very well. After calming myself down I tried to take a
nice shower thinking that it would help to ease my mind. However the hotel heated their water by a gas
system, and one of my neighbors must have just used all the hot water. I finally climbed into bed and tried to
sleep. As one could imagine I had a
rather sleepless night. I tossed and
turned all night worrying about the rest of my trip. My flight to Port Elizabeth flew out at 6:00
am but I had to leave my hotel by 5:00.
Needless to say I was absolutely exhausted by the time I reached
PE.
Thankfully NMMU had arranged for someone to pick me up, and I
was greeted by a very friendly welcoming face.
I joined one other girl and was brought to the university for my program
orientation. I finally felt like I could
be at ease because I was around other students and smiling faces.
Hopefully my study abroad experience gets better because I don’t
think it can get much worse.
Praying for a better time!
Taylor Smith