Sit back and enjoy the journey!

Recently John and I went on our annual spring vacation taking one of our favorite modes of transportation; trains. While enjoying our time immensely, we had some interesting experiences on our way back:

• We sat idle on the tracks for a couple of hours while waiting for one of our engines to be replaced because of mechanical problems.

• We waited at several scheduled stops longer than planned because people forgot to get off; once we stopped again a couple of blocks after a station for such a person.

• My personal favorite; eight minutes before reaching a scheduled train, we had to stop so our current conductor could get off and a new one be driven out to us, due to some type of regulation as to how many hours they can work. We watched as the new conductor struggled to get up into the train on the outskirts of a town where there was no platform or anything to aid his entry.

• AND we arrived at our destination 4 hours late!

All this caused us to ponder about travel experiences, both in the US and abroad. You see, whenever we take people to Ghana, they inevitably tell us stories of things they encountered during their travels that seemed inexplicable or even annoying to them. Yet if there was a Ghanaian on our train, I can imagine she would have been greatly perplexed as to why the conductor could not last eight more minutes before ending his sift. And to be honest, I have been much more stressed when I have sat on the side of the road in a bus in Ghana then I was on the train that day; I can only assume that one of the reasons for that is my comfort-in-the-culture level...which I think was also a factor in our Ghanaian friend James recent first time travel experience in the US. John was telling me how James encountered weather delays on his plane trips, missed connections, and the joys of the Greyhound bus experience, resulting in a much worse than anticipated experience for him. Tiredness, unfamiliar places, and unrealistic expectations were all a factor for him, as they can be for us and the rest of our team in just a few weeks time.....