Vast.

En route to the green hills of Rwanda I had for the first time the experience of flying over the Sahara Desert in the daytime. Nearly two hours after taking off from Amsterdam, traveling the length of Europe and crossing the Mediterranean Sea, we crossed into the African continent over Benghazi, in Libya.

And for the next four hours, until reaching the mountains of Ethiopia and then beginning our descent into Nairobi, we had a spectacular view of this seemingly endless desert sand stretching to the horizon and beyond.

The vastness of Africa is difficult to appreciate from my little home here in Rwanda, and it was wonderful to be able to see it from the air and to get more of a sense of the journey and how far we travel to arrive here.

Antoine St. Exupery wrote that "There is no buying the night flight with its hundred thousand stars, its serenity, its few hours of sovereignty."

That may be true, but the journey by day over all of this vastness is likewise priceless.