I Have Never Been So Worried

Thought I would express my disappointment in myself and share my worry over the last few days. I am the sort of person that likes all their ducks in a row... I am beginning to realise that this is causing me a lot of excess worry that does not do me any good. But Im not sure how to control it.
As you all know I am travelling in Africa with my son, who is a junior international tennis player. We are in Rwanda, we arrived yesterday after two days of travelling.
We set off from Malaga on Wednesday evening, I thought I would just check all the details of the travel - all the visas etc that we needed. I happened to go onto a website about Rwanda that said Yellow Fever vaccinations are mandatory in Rwanda, they dont have yellow fever and you do not need it if you are travelling from a country that does not have it.
I thought.. ok so Im travelling from Spain via UK both of which do not have yellow fever so good to go, but one place that they do demand it from is Kenya, we were travelling through Kenya airport.... I was beside myself with worry, to the point that I vomited. I have never got so worried before. All I could think was all the money we have spent to get to Rwanda would be wasted. We would be stuck in Nairobi not able to fly out.
My only thought was speaking to the Rwandan High Commission in London to see if transiting through Nairobi was acceptable but by this time it was closed.
So we travelled to London, stayed overnight in a hotel, I hardly slept, worried sick. With a headache we boarded the flight to Nairobi, i had asked my husband to ring the high commission but so far he had not got through. About 5 minutes from take off, my husband texted, if we stayed in the airport overnight and did not leave, we would be classed as transit passengers and allowed into Rwanda..... OMG! I literally CRIED with relief !! My son's dad works so hard to pay for all this, I thought I had let him down by making such a monumental mistake. We had taken a financial hit when our son got to the finals in Namibia a few weeks ago, changing the flights so he could play the final was eyewateringly expensive. Thank God that this was ok... But I wasnt fully calm until we got through border control at Kigali airport and we were allowed into Rwanda.
I think the moral of the tale is that even if you think you have all your ducks in a row, you probably dont, and how you cope with it from there on is a challenge but not the end of the world. We were lucky, I feel, and I really dont want to go through that again. The trouble is that I can see other trips, Im going to be paranoid about what we need/do . Thats not a good state to be in, I need to cope with it better.
The wifi here is not great. My work here is going to be stressful to keep up with the blogging challenge in SAC but we are here two weeks, not that long, I will try to work through the stresses as calmly as I can, I realise how lucky I am to live where I do, I couldnt live here.
Your anxious about a future that doesn't exist, except in your mind.
It was because I have done the same thing in the past and I didn't know how to break from that.
Eckhart teaches us to be truly present in the Present Moment. In the Now. So we're not living in the past as so many do over and over again and we're not projecting into the future either.
Yes, we can have goals and plan and prepare for the future, but there is no point in creating drama about a situation that does not exist in the present moment and in all likelihood will not exist when the time comes.
And when I or you forget this and become aware of what we are doing, he has some simple techniques to bring us right back to the present moment.
I am so thankful for learning this. It has improved the quality of my life.
To Your Success!
Mel
But we do,
You mentioned in your blog it’s about mindset and how we deal with the problem that makes us who we are.. But Travel is such a terribly stressful time..
I have a couple of websites that we used when I was previously in Travel, advice and guidance sites, (Tour one and travel agents) which you may find useful especially for visas requirements.
I will private message them.
People forget to check when in transit but you may still require vaccines and visas even if you don’t pass through passport control
But well done for asking someone to call the High Commissioner. 😁
Have the Embassy on speed dial when next you travel to 3rd world or FO concern, you will probably never need it,
Good luck for your Son’s tennis tournament
Xx
Even been denied entry to a country where all my belongings were (I was on an extended border run) and questioned leaving a country (let alone upon entry!).
Live, love, laugh and smile as often as you can.
Malaga Airport...not the best of facilities as I remember it but closer to the beach it could not be!!.
Enjoy where you are..my goodness unique part of the world! I'd love to travel Africa!.
I look forward to hearing about the outcome of the tournament.