I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll eat an asiago bagel again.

These were the original words to John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" until Peter, Paul and Mary took over with their Marxist re-writes to appeal to the working class.

And now I'm singing those words here in Dulles International Airport, consequence of sleep deprivation or the delightful taste of an asiago bagel toasted with butter.

Flight 501 to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia departs in an hour and a half, at 10:30 am and will arrive around 11 pm/midnight our time and about 7 am Wednesday (THE FUTURE MARTY!) their time. At which point this group of 60 volunteers, 30 of which are health volunteers, 30 are agriculture and environment workers, will go straight into learning survival Amharic and interviewing for field placements.

We will be staying at a hotel in the capital for about 10 days and then staying with a host family for 3'ish months in the town of Butajira http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butajira

Despite the 4 am wake up, most people here are simply pumped to finally be doing the thing they said they would be doing. If that's not how they feel, I am simply projecting my outlook onto them. And they can deal with it.

I can't know for sure how people feel. What I do know is that, one of the volunteers described another volunteer as squirrely and Rachel (yet to discover her last name) and I laughed at the word squirrely for longer than we should have.

Well, I suppose that will do for now. Please savour in these thoughts as John plays us out. Bear in mind I have not actually listened to or watched this video, so pardon any temper tantrums John Denver throws. The dude's an animal