Arrival, Harare, Zimbabwe: Tuesday, August 19, 2014

During the tiny layover in Zambia, we had a lot more Witnesses get on the plane! The back half was almost full with us. I have never been on a plane full with Witnesses. It was so nice to be able to talk with almost everyone freely! Side note: do you remember your first long road trip? You may have found it hard to sleep in the car, but after a long while you could fall asleep sitting up with people talking around you and music blaring? This was me on the plane. I slept okay from Chicago to Dubai, really I woke up every few minutes. Today, I was trying to read and almost fell asleep. I tried to listen to music and was out cold. Anything I did made me unvoluntarily exhausted. Back to the main point. When we FINALLY landed in Harare, we began the walk to customs. Since it is a small airport, you can imagine it went slowly. Everyone was just fine with waiting, being that the majority were JW's. The few locals on our plane got a little irritated that none of us were in a hurry. At least the two ladies behind us were. I have already started tearing up and it is only the first day! The brother who was helping everyone who needed visas and checking our documentation told a few sisters from Texas, "We are so glad you are here. Thank you for making the sacrifice [to come to Zimbabwe]." I'm guessing that they haven't realized that most of us picked Zimbabwe first. The German couple in front of us only picked Zimbabwe. I have met plenty more who are in that same crowd. As soon as we walked through the gates, there was a banner welcoming us and hugs. So many hugs. So many 'thanks for coming.' More hugs and more hugs. This is Zimbabwe's first international convention ever. We found out that every congregation in Zimbabwe was invited to come. The brother that took us to the hotel told us that Zimbabwe has about 40,000 witnesses. I am truly overwhelmed by this experience. We later arrived at our hotel (Kutandara Lodges) after driving some crazy streets. They drive on the left side of the road, and the power was cut from that part of the city. The brothers didn't go into why. We were greeted at our hotel by Eve, a sister from one of the local congregations and she gave us our packets, lanyards, and bus pick up times. She said that she would come knocking on our door if we were not ready to go by 830. The buses do not wait. Understandable. We placed our breakfast order and then headed to our bungalow. And, finally. Sleeeeeppppppppppppp!!!!