FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES IN DEMLAND

We live amongst a tribal group known as the Dem who are located in the mountains of Southeast Asia. We are here to learn their language, translate the Bible into their language, and teach them about God. If you would you like to receive our monthly newsletter, send us an email at: dylan_vanrensburg@ntm.org

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Flight to forget

We left the capital on Sunday to go and get our paperwork done on another island. As we drove to the airport it was pouring rain and the roads were flooding. Our taxi driver was driving so fast I didn't know if we would make it to the airport alive. You can't tell from the picture, but the water was pretty high.
At the airport we found out that our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. This gave us the opportunity to chase Gideon through the airport for an extra hour and a half. At this point he had still not slept through the night. It was 5 in the evening and he had only had a half hour nap that day after waking up at 4 in the morning.
The meal they gave us for waiting
As we finally boarded the plane we realized that we weren't sitting together. Raquel and I ended up sitting in the first row and Dylan and Gideon were in the middle of the plane. It was a two hour flight and for the first hour I fed Roman helped Raquel get to the bathroom and eat a snack and listened to the ruckus coming from behind us. I went back to see if Dylan wanted a break and I thought he might cry when I got there. Here is what he posted on Facebook the next day:

So on last night's flight, Gideon screamed for a good 2 hrs, elbowed 2 people in the head, grabbed an old man's hair(what was left of it), grabbed some lady's head covering, ate someone's cookies he was saving for his kids... The list goes on. To top it all off, while leaving the airport someone called him a demon!

Now, to be fair, the man offered Dylan the cookies in an attempt to calm Gideon down and the man who called him a demon said it in a most endearing fashion;) but it was a pretty awful time. Thankfully the people around us were mostly helpful and understanding. Gideon liked the lady sitting across from us and sat on her lap a few times and also liked sitting on the floor a little bit, but otherwise he just wanted to climb on the seats and just screamed and fought like crazy if he was supposed to be sitting on our laps when the seatbelt sign was on. Poor kid was exhausted afterward. We landed at 11pm and all went straight to bed. That was the first night we all slept until almost 8!
We're done flying for a few days and then just two more flights until we're completely done!

1 comment:

Tirzah Van Rensburg said...

I know exactly how you must have felt. Sitting there trying to keep Gideon quiet and everyone looking at you. Nevermind, next time you fly, it will be Roman's turn and all the others will be quiet. I wonder why people did not change their seats so that you could all sit together. Anyway the swim in the sea made up for all of it.
Luv you guys.