Just Half An Hour

I grew up in Nigeria and my first thought when I considered today’s post was sifting through all the plane trips I took abroad, trying to recall which was my very first.

Then it hit me… My first international trip didn’t involve a plane at all!

It was a road trip we took as a family (not the whole family though, just some of us) to Cotonou in Benin which is a next door neighbor to Nigeria.

I have no idea why I didn’t initially consider it an “international” trip, I guess because it didn’t involve the usual trappings of international travel… A passport, an airport, customs and immigration search, etc.

I recall it seemed to be a spur-of-the-moment trip… One minute we were lounging at home and the next we were bundled into the car and driving to somewhere I didn’t know.

I knew we were going to Cotonou, I just didn’t know Cotonou…

When we got to the border and could see it from across the river/body of water that separated the two countries, I remember thinking… “Wow… That’s a whole different country over there…”

I was just in absolute awe at the very thought…

And we hadn’t even crossed over yet! 🙂

The very idea that the people on the other side of the water were not Nigerian and were from a “foreign country” just blew my mind… I completely disregarded the fact that I was the one who was about to become a foreigner in their land…

Cotonou was a good primer for future international trips that did involve going to an international airport and getting on a plane and passports and immigration and customs, and all that fun stuff.

I have since made additional trips to other African countries as well as countries on other continents.

My goal is to touch every continent at least once before I die and make my final international trip to heaven. 🙂

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Catch up on my previous posts for this challenge:

• Day 1 – Why I’m doing this challenge

• Day 2 – 10 random facts about me

• Day 3 – The story behind the name of this blog

• Day 4 – Quotable Quote… Why it speaks to me right now

• Day 5 – Recent random act of kindness

• Day 6 – Three current guilty pleasures

• Day 7 – Collections… What I collect and why

• Day 8 – Throwback Picture

• Day 9 – Recently read book recommendation

• Day 10 – Three Favorite Blogs

• Day 11 – Wishful Thinking… If I won the lottery

• Day 12 – Purpose of this blog and future blog goals

• Day 13 – What’s on today’s schedule?

• Day 14 – All about my profession

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To see the complete list of writing prompts, go here.