The Beginning of the End

I'm really on my way home. This morning, we left the lodge at 8:30 for the drive back to Arusha. On the way out of the park, we saw 4 lions along with the usual assortment of zebras, wildebeast, buffalo, gazelles, elephants and giraffes. After lunch in Arusha, I was driven to Kilimanjaro airport and flew to Nairobi. The nice ladies at the British Airways check in desk pointed me to a "first class" lounge where I could pay $20 to hang out for the next 6 hours. It comes with free snacks, free drinks (including alcohol) and the most excruciatingly slow wifi access I have ever had. But at least I can sit in air conditioning and sleep on the couches.

I had the most fun at dinner last night. Part way through the meal, the lights went completely out. Then we heard drums and one of the staff came dancing in with a big flaming torch. Behind him was a conga line with the rest of the staff singing and dancing along with a drummer. They were all smiling and having such a good time that it was a blast to watch. Some people even got pulled up to join the line. Everyone was clapping along and somewhere in all the fun, I had to fight back the tears. It hit me that my journey was coming to an end. It's strange -- in some ways it feels like this has all been a dream and that I was home yesterday. In other ways, that first flight from SFO to Hong Kong feels like 5 years ago. Thailand certainly feels as distant as my trip to Belize in '04.

There just so many mixed emotions right now, but I'm tired and I'll probably feel different when I get to London. More when I'm not so exhausted.