Africa: The Journey

I booked this flight partially by accident and partially by the cheap son of a gun who lives inside of me. Regardless, I regretted it the second it said: purchased.
You see, when Africa was just an idea in my mind, I had been tracking flight prices on an app called Hopper (we will talk about that monster later. Word to the wise: delete that app now and never look back). While on my tracking journey I found a flight for $839 round trip. Not bad right? I mean we are flying literally across the world to Africa.
Fast forward: I'm accepted to the program and immediately begin the search to get a flight. I exhaust all my resources and knowledge to find that the ticket on Hopper is by far the cheapest. Get the ticket now mode sinks in and I begin to click through the app: BUY.
ticket not available
Are you kidding me?
What went wrong? I try it again, at least three times, to make sure it wasn't user error. On the unnumbered next attempt I try a different flight home that bumped the price a little but not by much.
Purchased.
Upon further, more detailed review, the horror of what my cheapskate self had done was revealed:
a total flight time of: 48 hours and 23 hours in layovers. 3 DAYS of straight travel.
And the real kicker is changing international flights is a beast.
Never will I ever be this cheap again, assuming that is, that I survive this. Next time I publicly declare that $500 is not worth my boredom, sleep, and crankiness... but then again... that's a ticket to Asia.

Anyway. I've been having anxiety about this trip for awhile now. I'm currently in the air over Canada. By a miracle I was able to sleep on the plane for 2 broken hours, that, or the fact that I didn't go to bed until really late last night and then began my journey at 4am, an hour that no human should be forced into.
Whats next: A 4 hour layover in the airport and then an 8 hour flight to Belgium.
Belgium, a place I've never been. Too bad my layover there is only 2 hours, for now, that country will remain a mystery.
Time to land.

Well land I did. Upon arrival I was impressed with Canada's airport because look at this:

Now that is somewhere I am willing to hang out and wait. So I grabbed a spot and started to chat with friends, we do indeed have 4 hours to kill. As I'm sitting there I realize I have yet to eat and I'm pretty hungry but I keep thinking this is a nice seat, I can get food later. Then I start to shake. Again, I think: indeed I need to get food. I wait. Finally, it's like get food NOW. Well, I got up and went on the search for food. When I went to pay is when I realized: it was gone. If you've ever lost your wallet you know that feeling where your stomach literally falls to your feet and your heart drops. Panic started to set it and I kept thinking there's no way, you know you zipped it in this pouch. I began to upload everything in my bag and pray with earnest. By the third time I unloaded my bag I realized to my dismay, it was indeed, gone. I knew the last time I had it was on the plane but I also remember putting it back in the zipper.
At this point I quickly texted my sister. This wallet had not only my credit card but my debit card, license, my cash, insurance card, copies of my important documents: basically everything but my passport, which thankfully, I had.
Of course I start crying. I have 13 days and 4 countries of which I will be alone and in need of money! My sister and I began to talk about what to do and to quickly contact mom to cancel all the cards but then I realized it could be on the plane. I found a lounge with a man who worked for Air Canada and explained my situation. He started to call around. By pure divine intervention the plane had not yet left yet and long story short it was on the plane! After talking with many more people and an hour and a half of total freak out: I had it back in my hand. Everything, even cash still inside.
Im grateful for the prompting to eat, I'm grateful that the plane had not yet let. I'm grateful for honest people and that I have my belongings back. I'm also grateful for pizza and money to buy pizza.
My 4 hour layover gave me a panic I've never experienced while traveling and hope to never experience again.

Current status: on a plane to Brussels. Sitting next to a very large man. There are no air vents. This is going to be a very long 8 hour flight.
Attitude: Grateful but tired and not happy about the fact that I still have 16 hours of flight time.
Hopeful that we have some movies I have yet to see.
I survived. Watched the Shallows, it was gross.
Two hours in the Brussels airport is done. That was hard. I just wanted to cry and throw up. I don't do well without sleep.
I'm irritable and the man next to me is about to get it. First, he was in my seat and didn't want to move. I can be nice but I'm not giving up my aisle for the middle of a huge row. When he finally moved he did the man space: aka spread his legs wide and is now in my seat while I'm in the aisle. He also took both arm rests and his arm is literally on top of mine as I type this. Needless to say, I'm not in the mood and I don't like being touched as it is let alone by strangers.
I might lose it.
Some people got lucky. They have an empty seat next to them. How much do you think they would require to switch me seats?
Its 2am. Except it's not. It's 11am here and 1pm in Uganda.
I need sleep.
3 hours in: I write to keep from snapping. I was almost asleep until the man who is practically in my seat josteled me to alert me to the drink cart. Then again because he needed a pen. My seat doesn't recline but rest assured the one in front of me does. I dare to say I have two men in my lap and I want them to both go away right now.
My food was frozen and these seats are significantly smaller than the last two planes.
I'm tired and cranky. I also feel the need to throw up again.
7 hours later:
We just started our decent into Entebbe. I could not be more excited to get off this plane. I'm very glad that it's late at night and I will get to sleep when we finally get wherever we are going. That's the hard part about travel. Yes, I'm about to land but then it's face customs, wait in lines, wait to be picked up, wait until we go wherever we are going to sleep. I can totally understand how people don't like travel and I'm beginning to think I'm done with big trips unless I can get direct flight. Actually, I know I am.
21 hours in air 33 hours total travel.

Of you've read this far, I'm impressed. I promise I'll wrap up my rambles now and leave the negativity in the plane.
I'm here. I'm here to serve, help, grow, and experience: Africa.
Let's do this!

Update: landed at 9:30. Met Paige outside the airport. We sat and waited until the others landed at 10:30. Didn't leave the airport until 11:45ish. Then took a bus and got to the hostel around 1:30am. The ride reminded me of why I do this. Break myself down as far as I can to regrow stronger.
After a cold shower from a spicket in the wall, I climbed into my netted bed at 2am to awake to an alarm at 5:45.
Here we go.
But really, I'm excited!