The Never Ending Plane Ride....

So early this morning we arrived at Manasas International Airport here in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Yay! It only took us two days and over 30 hours to arrive and it was not without headaches. First on the way to the airport we, as group leaders, were in charge of making sure everyone got onto the bus, all luggage was loaded and everyone was accounted for. My group did this with amazing ability but sadly most of the groups had problems, causing us, as leaders, to have to drag people out of bed, find missing leaders and track down lost luggage left in the hotel. However, off we went… an hour later than planned. Then when we had problems checking our bags all the way to Bishkek. They were only wanting to check them through to Istanbul, where we were to change carriers. After much persistence, this could be corrected. Sadly, though, this happened too late for some people and they had to recheck bags once in Istanbul.

Istanbul was our layover and I decided not to go out to the city since I’ve visited once before and saw everything. Therefore, I hung around during our layover (7 hours), studied some language, talked and ate. Then we headed onto the plane to Biskek and away we went. The ride was fine until about 10 minutes out of the airport. We then hit major turbulence. This turbulence reminded me of LOST and at one point I wasn’t sure if I had landed or was going to crash. Thankfully, it’s due to the mountains in the country and so because of the way the air flows off the mountains and not because we were actually going to crash… although I did have my whole island scenario and routine ready. So another five and half hours later we arrived from Istanbul into Bishkek where Peace Corps staff was able to graciously receive us into their knowledgeable arms.

(July 7th)