Baby it's cold outside

The last week has just flown by. Today's Wednesday and I leave Saturday afternoon... all my time between now and then is packed with seeing people and buying last minute things...

Last week I got to do a few things. I visited a Kindergarten class in North Bay, just to get a feeling for being in a school... the teacher's globe said Dahomey instead of Benin, even though the name changed in 1975. The globe's older than I am. The kids were very sweet and very cute and very chatty - I'm eager to see how different the classroom situation is in Benin. I took the teacher's email address so that I can send the class pictures while I'm away. "Send pics of the animals," she said, "that's pretty much all they'll care to see."

I also had a few days of training with the organization I'll be working with. I feel a lot better about the trip - the org has great insurance and offers quite a few services. They're also just plain nice and I know they'll support me in my work, no matter what I need.

I was especially happy to have a nice long chat with Dr. Mark Wise (visit his website... tons of great information and he's really funny). I liked the way he asked me a lot of questions to challenge what I thought I knew about where I was going. "What do you know about malaria? What are the symptoms? What would you do if you were feeling really sick? What would you do if you were to get sexually assaulted? What would you do if you were feeling depressed?"

It was great because it's one thing to be afraid of disease or worry about being assaulted, it's another to have a plan to deal with it.

I got to talk to people in the organization who'd lived in that part of the world before about cultural differences, food, nightlife... but the one thing they did say is that they didn't want to tell me what kind of experience I should have - I'll figure it out on my own.

I had a little goodbye party and a friend was saying how "zen" I seemed. I think my brain is just shutting itself down so as not to get too excited or too nervous.

3 more sleeps til my plane takes off.

It's cold in Canada. Did you notice the BBC weather watcher for Cotonou, Benin in the right hand column of this blog? Toasty!

How many hours between Saturday and Sunday?

Summary:
Plane leaves Saturday, January 24 at 5pm from Pearson, and at 6am Paris time (midnight in Toronto) I land at Charles de Gaule (flying Air France). Then I wait around/sleep in the airport til 1:30pm and take another Air France plane to Cotonou to arrive at 8pm on Sunday, January 25th.

A 21 hour journey.

I'll be back in Toronto on Monday, June 15th at 1:15pm.


Details:
24 JAN 09 - SATURDAY
AIR AIR FRANCE
FLT:353 ECONOMY
MULTI MEALS
LV TORONTO ON
TIME: 16H55
(that's 4:55pm for the simple folk)
EQP: AIRBUS A340-300
DEPART: TERMINAL 3
07HR 25MIN

25 JAN 09 - SUNDAY
AR PARIS DE GAULLE
TIME: 06H20
NON-STOP
ARRIVE: AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL F
REF: 26MVHL
AIR AIR FRANCE
FLT:814 ECONOMY
MULTI MEALS

later that same day...

LV PARIS DE GAULLE
TIME: 13H35
EQP: AIRBUS A340-300
DEPART: AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL C
06HR 15MIN

AR COTONOU
19H50
NON-STOP
REF: 26MVHL

5 months later...

14 JUN 09 - SUNDAY
AIR AIR FRANCE
FLT:813
ECONOMY MEALS
LV COTONOU
TIME: 23H05
EQP: AIRBUS A340-300
06HR 05MIN

15 JUN 09 - MONDAY
AR PARIS DE GAULLE
TIME: 06H10
NON-STOP
ARRIVE: AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL C
AIR AIR FRANCE
FLT:358
ECONOMY MULTI MEALS

LV PARIS DE GAULLE
TIME: 10H50
EQP: BOEING 747 400
DEPART: AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL F
08HR 25MIN

AR TORONTO ON
TIME: 13H15
NON-STOP
ARRIVE: TERMINAL 3
REF: 26MVHL