So, this week I got up on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning to hit the streets.  I still need to go today, but have had to take care of some preparations for Sunday morning at church.

I got a pretty nice application for my iPhone that helps keep me engaged.  It’s called Runner, and was $4.99 when I purchased it from the App store.  It lets you select your run be distance, or by time.  It then udpates you along the way.  The best part is that it keeps track of your route on a map through the GPS in the phone.  So, I actually discovered a couple of extra blocks I could easily add to my route after the first day.

Since I am starting slow, I am incorporating walking and jogging into the routine.  I know that a 5k isn’t something that should require a lot of training, but I have never really been a runner.  I could walk a 5k without even breathing heavy, but running wears me out fast.  So, in my 30 minute training times this week, I probably had about 10 to 12 minutes of actual running.  My 5k will be on Thanksgiving day, so I think I should be able to get to a full 30 minute run by then.  My walk/run combo gets me 2.1 miles, so increasing my running will inrease my distance in that amount of time.

So, there’s where I am at this point.  I really hope I end up enjoying the sport of running.  When I finish school, I will have a lot more time on my hands, and would prefer to use it doing something healthy and social, not lazy and reclusive.

A pathetic Aaron….

OR

Apathetic Aaron.

Both are so true.

I’ve been home from Africa for a little over a week.  No, I have not started training yet.  I keep thinking about it, but just haven’t done it yet.  I really do want to work toward this goal of doing something as simple as running in a 5k.  It’s just getting started.

I will get started, though.  I just need to get my schedule going between work, school, and training.  I also need to stay motivated.  I’ve told a lot of people about my goal, so I really need to get going so I won’t feel embarrassed!

I’m also disappointed in myself for falling into my same habits once I got home from Africa.  I just spent a month among people living in absolute poverty.  They have physical and spiritual poverty, and long for relief.  That should change a person, you know?

Though this blog isn’t really about my faith, I can’t really separate myself from it when writing about anything, even if it is running.  I was in Rwanda for work, and Uganda for church.  And we got to share the Gospel with a lot of people there.  So, I would share with them about grace, God’s forgiveness, the incredible gift of life offered through Jesus Christ, and the cost for deciding to follow Him.  Then, I come home, and live like an apathetic, wishy-washy fraud.  It’s frustrating.

At church on Sunday, we had a sermon about “running the race”.  I feel like I’ve fallen and broken my leg.  I want to get up and keep going, but I can already see that I’m going to keep falling, so I just want to stay down.  But, I know that I can’t.  The outcome is too costly.

So, this apathetic and pathetic Aaron has a couple of races to run.  The first is the race of life, which I’m currently losing.  I want to get back up, set my eyes on the goal, and run the race as a person who truly loves Christ, and understands why He is worth living for.

The second is the small 5k coming up in about 3 months.  I want to get out there, and discipline my body to endure this run, and hope that some more races, and longer races, may be part of my future.

Oh, yeah, I have great news!  I found out yesterday morning that I am confirmed all the way back to New York on the same flights as the rest of my team!  I have to tell you, I was so amazingly relieved to find that out.  That was the best birthday present ever.  I was going to have a terrible time boarding a plane out of the country without knowing how I was coming back.  I would have done it, but I wouldn’t have liked it.

So, the flight from Dubai was pretty nice.  First, I was put in a middle seat between two really nice people.  But, it was kind of tight, and the entertainment system for my seat was frozen.  I told the Flight Attendant, and they actually found an empty seat for me to move to.  It was further back in the plane, on an aisle, and next to a boy who was probably 10 years old.  I think he may have been from India.  So, all in all, it was a pretty quiet flight and pretty comfortable.  The kid next to me did ask for help a few times on the entertainment system, and had to go to the bathroom a lot.  But, I was on the aisle, and that was nice.

Now I have one more travel worry.  For one, I don’t know if I’ll be able to transfer my flight to Rwanda.  I missed the flight I was scheduled to be on, and could not get in touch with the airline about it.  I am going to be sending them another email.  But, also, I am not sure if I will be allowed in the airport to go to their ticket desk.  I have a Visa to Uganda, but only a single entry, and I need that next week.  I am not sure how it will work when I just want to pass through.

I just need to trust God through all of this.  I mean, the whole point of this trip is telling people about how He is in control.  Shouldn’t I trust His purposes as I travel?

But, I must say, I choose the people in my life over the excitement of the city any day.  I may be from a po-dunk Missouri town, but my friends and family are there.  My best friend and his wife are getting ready to have a baby.  Another friend of mine graduated with his MBA tonight, and is having a party to celebrate tomorrow.  I have friends who just made an offer on their first home, and they registered today for their wedding.  And tomorrow is my 29th birthday, which I will be spending alone in a hotel room, and at the airport.

It’s funny that a person can feel so alone when surrounded by so many people.  I miss my friends, and am sad that so much time will pass before I get home.  With all of the traveling trouble I’ve had, it feels like I’ll never see home again!  And I miss my two dogs.  I have a Golden Retreiver, and a terrier mutt, and I miss those dogs.

Well, this blog isn’t about running yet, but I sure hope that someday it will be!  I don’t want to wish my trip away, but this is just a hard part of the trip.  I don’t mind spending time by myself, but being alone so far from home, without knowing how I will get home is just different.  I am excited to see my team in Uganda in a week.  Just being with them will make things much better!

So, I find myself in a deserted airport in New York City at 1:30 in the morning.  I wait for about 30 minutes to see if my bags will come out, and they don’t.  I call the 1-800 number for Delta to ask about how I will get on another flight to Dubai.  They tell me that since the flight I missed was with Emirates, I will have to call them.

I then go to the baggage claim area to find out where my bags would be.  They tell me that since they were checked all the way to Entebbe, they would have been transferred to Emirates.  I ask where they are located, and the woman tells me they are in Terminal 4.

So, I wonder outside and follow the signs to the Airtrain which is supposed to take me to Terminal 4.  When I get in the station, it is empty, and over every door it says Terminal 2/3.  Okay, it’s early in the morning, and I haven’t slept, so I’m thinking this is the train that takes you to terminals 2 & 3 (not realizing this was just the station for terminals 2 & 3).  So, I wonder back out of the station, look at a terminal map, and think, I’ll just go get on the train and see what happens.

So, as I’m getting on, a uniformed guy shows up in the lobby and asks where I want to go.  I said Terminal 4, and he said it would be the next stop on the train.  I was so glad!  I get to terminal 4, only to find it is huge and deserted.  None of the ticket counters are staffed, and I didn’t even know where the Emirates ticket counter was.

I call Emirates, and they say that the earliest flight I can get on is Saturday.  This was on Thursday morning around 2:30.  I didn’t want to commit to that without talking to my employer about getting a hotel room.  So, I went down into the shopping areas, cuddled up on the floor next to a jewelry store, and tried to sleep.  But I just kept worrying and thought I needed to call Emirates again.  And sure enough, it was a good thing I did.  They had cancelled all of my return flights since I was a “no show”… something the first person I spoke with failed to tell me.

I worked hard to get them all rebooked, but as of now, I still don’t know if I will get to be on the flight from Dubai to New York on my way home.  That’s still in the works.

So, I found myself at 4:30 in the morning with nothing else I could take care of until the normal world was awake.  I decided to go get some McDonald’s and then I looked online at hotel information for quite some time.  I then went and cuddled up on a concrete bench by an arcade and tried to sleep for a while.

Around 8:30, I woke up on the bench, and called my boss.  He told me to definitely get a hotel, and to let him know if I need anything.  He was great about the whole thing.  So, I booked the hotel online, and then went on a mission to find my luggage.

I went to the baggage services area, and nobody was there.  There was a counter with a bunch of old chairs and computers, but it was empty.  So, I called Emirates, and said I didn’t know what to do to try to find my luggage.  They gave me the phone number for the Emirates rep at JFK.  When I called, she was just in the other room behind that counter!  She told me to come back in 45 minutes.

So, I went and sat in a corner and took care of some emails with work.  When I returned 45 minutes later, I rounded the corner to the baggage claim area.  As I was walking down the hall, some double doors opened, and this guy was carrying my bags!  I was so sleep deprived and exhausted, that this blessing overwhelmed me.  He could see on my face that those must be my bags.  He handed them to me, and told me that getting them was a huge pain in the butt.  Then he said that they were literally moments away from getting loaded on a plane headed for Dubai.  Man that would have sucked!  My phone was almost dead, and my charger was in the duffle bag that I had checked.

Once I got my bags, I got on the Airtrain, and headed for Federal Circle, where the free shuttle from my hotel picked me up.  I’ve been here at the hotel ever since.  I am still working on getting some flight details ironed out, and may still have more troubles to come.  But, I got a full night of sleep, and have enjoyed some good food and comfort.  I may even head out to the city for a few hours.  I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation!

I hope my next post is about how smooth everything goes from here!

I am on my way to Africa for two purposes.  The first purpose is business related.  I work for a christian summer camp that is starting a new camp for kids in Rwanda.  I am supposed to be in Rwanda for a few days to help with some banking issues, and whatever else the guys there want me to help with.

The second part of my trip is to Uganda.  This will be my third time to visit Uganda on a mission trip with my church.  We work on the islands of Lake Victoria, basically just sharing the Gospel with people on the islands, and helping the missionary run medical clinics.

Because I had to add the work portion of the trip, my travel to Africa is all alone.  I left yesterday morning from my hometown, and flew into Atlanta, GA.  I was only supposed to be in Atlanta for two hours, then head on out to New York, on to Dubai, then to Entebbe, then finally to Kigali, Rwanda.

Well, just as they started boarding the flight from Atlanta to NY, they said there would be a two hour delay.  I was okay with that.  I was going to have a four hour layover in NY, so I didn’t care which airport I was sitting around in.  Well, as 6pm approached, they pushed the flight back to 6:30.  Then to 7:00.  Then to 7:20.

I got hungry, so I thought I’d go to the Food Court.  As I was walking back with my Arby’s Beef ‘n Cheddar, I heard them give the “final boarding call” for my flight.  I thought “WHAT?”  How can they already have that whole plane full, when they just delayed it further?  So, I ran like crazy and got through the gate just in time.  I then handed the flight attendant my bag of food with an apology, and she threw it away.  That’s right, I paid for food and didn’t get to eat it.

Well, we get buckled in, get ready to go, and then comes the announcement…. the weather is bad in NY, and we have to wait 45 minutes.  They said to get comfortable, and they would update us when they could.  Well, the next update came more than an hour later.  They said that we were clear to go.  The engines started to fire up, and then immediately shut down.  The pilot came on and announced that the crew just realized that if they made the flight, they would be exceeding their “on duty” time, so it would be illegal.  So, we had to taxi up to the terminal and let the pilots off the plane!  Then we had to wait for new pilots to come.

So, by the time we got up in the air, we were six-and-a-half hours behind schedule.  My flight to Dubai left JFK at 11pm, and I get in to JFK at 1:30am.

This is part 1 of the story.  I am beat, and don’t feel like typing out the rest right now. I will do that when I get to the hotel.

But, there is always the fear that I will view a blog like a private journal, and blab on about things I don’t actually intend to publicize to the entire world (since everyone will eventually make their way to this site).

But, there are a few things that I would like to think through on this journey through life, and it may be fun to post about them here.

I am getting ready to hop on a plane this Wednesday to fly to Africa.  I work as an accountant for a Christian summer camp, and they are looking in to establishing a camp in Rwanda.  So, I will spend a week doing whatever I am asked to do, and working with the banks to figure out how international payments should be made.  I will then be working with a team from my church for a couple of weeks in Uganda.  So, after this particular post, I am definitely out for a month!

When I get back from Africa, I will be wrapping up my final semester of school.  I will then be a Master Accountant… at least that’s how I will refer to myself.  Why else get a Master’s degree?

But, my biggest goal is going to be picking up the sport of running.  I have several friends who have run in local 5k races, and even some who have done half marathons.  I am a pretty chubby 28 year old, and I think it would be great to just get off the couch on get on the track.  I am pretty sure the likelihood that I will be successful in this endeavor is low.  So, maybe posting about it in a semi-public way will help to bring enough accountability to keep me going.

Well, thanks to both of you who will happen across this post!  I look forward to describing the beginning of my running career in late August.

Until then…..