Wednesday, August 18th, 2021AD
We are on the final flight! I am very tired. It feels like 3am, though my watch says 10:30am. I can’t wait to sleep for a little while.
The whole trip lasts two weeks. I’m happy and very lucky to be on the trip at all considering the global travel situation and coronavirus, but I am still a little homesick.
I feel like I need to brush my teeth. Nun mi konas kial vojaĝantoj aĉetas unuaklasajn aŭ aferaklasajn seĝojn. Ekonomiaklaso estas tre baza. Bona kaj sufiĉe, sed baza.
We’re staying at a an orphanage. I’ve been here before (last year right before the pandemic in fact), and I thought it was nice enough. I say ‘orphanage’, but it’s more like a small village.
We ate supper here, very nice bread, salată de vinete, varză, & supă. I like this kind of food, but I’m not super hungry for salată de vinete or varză right after a long set of flights and two hours in the car to get to the foothills where the orphanage is. I ate a little, set up the room with my sister, and took a shower. Soon I’ll go brush my teeth and try to get some rest.
I should have packed a book. I have books on my phone, but I don’t want to constantly run the battery down or be constantly holding it.
I woke up at 2am from the jetlag. There’s a cow mooing every so often. It’s very pleasant here, no mosquitoes or high humidity.
I read a book and played a word game. My left eye has been bothering me, which started about a year ago and has been on and off since. I had a virtual doctors appointment a few days ago, though I don’t know what’s been decided because I’m away from the internet right now.
I should try to get more sleep.
Alright, I’m basically awake now. I dozed throughout the night, alternating between sleeping and reading ‘Prelude to Foundation’ by Isaac Asimov.
Apparently I got something like 7 hours of sleep. The mattress I slept on is pretty thin and busted. I feel rested, so whatever 😜.
I wonder how bad it is here. We are in a relatively isolated area, but I haven’t seen many people wearing a mask outside of the airport. Our trip leader is rather gung-ho about taking off his mask, and I did see a Fox News notification on his phone. I think I’ll be most at ease when we get back.
Today has been mostly recovery from the long flights, so don’t expect each entry to be broken up into times like this one is.
Breakfast was very good! I had some ham, cheese, a slice of bread, a hardboiled egg, and the best coffee and mint tea yet. The mint for the tea is from the hillside around the village. The tea is also very sweet as whoever makes it added a ton of sugar.
After breakfast we went to town and changed some of our money into the local currency. Then we came back, gave some things to the orphanage (school supplies, toothbrushes, &c.) and ate lunch. After lunch we took a hike up one hill to a little church and up another to the new house the priest is building after his burned down a year or two ago. He’s got great views, but the house isn’t finished at all yet. Some of the kids came on the hike with us, they were a lot of fun but somewhat overwhelming.
Aĥ, ĝi okazis! La gvidanto de nia grupo pilgrimada malkaŝiĝis ke si estas naiva Fox-News “konservativo”. Mi esperis, ke ni povus eviti tian diskutadon dum la pilgrimado, sed ni ne povus.
Mi estas “postlivulo(?)”, pro tiu al mi la diskutado estis stulta kaj malŝpara.
At the very least there was decent wine to keep the conversation going and me from leaving too early. Still left before it was all done though, because I couldn’t stand the conversation anymore. I didn’t fly all this way to hear antivax propaganda that I can get for free over Facebook.