My mind is racing with what to post first as my electricity where I am staying on a little weekend holiday in Zanzibar keeps cutting out whenever the wind blows.
I will start with my trip to Tanzania and post more if the time, my energy and electricity holds.
19 AUG 2010
I stayed up most the night packing and re-packing, trying to get what I had to take with me as light weight and small as possible. So hard to know what to pack with so many unknown variables and not really knowing how my placement will use me. Boy if I could have had a looking glass I would have packed differently! My darling neighbore, Kathy, dropped me off at the SLC airport on her way to work! Thanks so much! And she will more than likely pick me up - thank you for that as well!.
I was so pround of us to get me to airport on time (you know me I tend to cut it close a bit). So I had an hour and half to wait. Hmmpf! So I thought! First there was too much traffic at JFK (my first destination on my journey) for us to allowed to take off (sounded fishy to me). Delayed an hour - not too bad. Well the hour came and went. Then the delay was a maintenance delay - oh-oh! 2 hours later we managed to get loaded on the plane. Thinking great I will still make my flight to Qatar from JFK. Well we sat on the tarmac due to weather! Thunder storms at that. Well needless to say I began to panic. We sat out there for about 40 minutes. Many people had to be rebooked with our other delays so they could make their overseas connections. But my overseas flight was booked separate so they (Delta) had no way to know I was going to be cutting close but not as close as my row mate. She was going to visit her daughter in Italy and had to catch a flight to Rome to catch a connecting flight to where her daughter was at. We made it to NY in time but then JFK made us sit on the tarmac again waiting for a parking spot! I still do not know if she made it because they let the people with immediate connections get off the plane first. She was no where to be seen when I got off the plane so I can only hope she made it. Myself I had to go pick up my checked bags. Haul myself over to terminal 4 from terminal 3 which was surprisingly easier than I remember. Checked into Qatar airlines for my flight to Doha, Qatar.
Now I bet you are wondering why Qatar. Well they had a deal! If I traveled with them and had a flight greater than 8 hrs, they paid for the hotel, meals and transportation for my layover in Doha. Cool! or Poa! as we say here! It was quite a comfortable flight and the flight attendents were excellent. Great food service, comfort service and very clean! Much, much, much better than Saudi Air! After an eleven and half hour flight I was more than ready to get off! The lines through passport and customs were the worst part of the whole trip. The room at the hotel was very basic but clean. I was just grateful for a bed to be horizontal! And a hot shower. Excellent food! No diet Pepsis but I kind of knew that was going to happen. Oh well had to give it up at some point along this trip!
I met a woman named Joyce who lives in Tanzania who was on her way back from visiting her son in the US in Texas. We had a delightful conversation at the hotel, on the way to the airport and on the airplane. She required "extra" help due to some health issues which I was wishing I had done in the first place as I was not feeling too hot myself. Tanzania is 9 hours ahead of us in SLC and I some how had missed my meds. Usually one dose does not affect me too much but with the stress of flying, carrying luggage up and down stairs and just exhausted I was in heart failure in a big way. Short of breath, light headed and generally just pukey. So Joyce said stay with her through the airport at Doha and Dar Es Salaam and she would make sure I got some help. Great lady, I am so grateful for her help and now know what I need to do on my return trip.
A six hour flight to Dar Es Salaam and I made it to Tanzania! Joyce wanted me to meet her daughter outside of the airport which I thought would not be a problem since there was supposed to one more volunteer to arrive after me before CCS would be there to pick us up! Well as I exited customers there was Elias, waiting to pick me up and information that the last volunteer to arrive, Sally would not be coming. Oh so sad. I was hoping to meet Joyce's daughter, go potty, exchange money, have some lunch and meet the volunteers who arrived before me, Michael and Claire. Well, I said a quick good-bye with hopes we could catch up with each other later, got wisked away by Didase and Elias (CCS staff) and this giant Masai who helped with the luiggage. I did get some money exchanged but no potty break, no lunch, no pause just pack up and go! Zoom!
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| Airport at Dar Es Salaam |
The traffic was horrible as foretold! But the 2 hrs to the home base did go by quickly with all of the bumping and jostling along the way - I dozed!
We arrived at home base. Went over a few pieces of paperwork. And then were shown to our rooms at the Annex house across the street. The main house was being prepped for some much needed remodeling and upgrades. The Annex house is very basic, much as I expected. No hot water, no air conditioning, no drinking water but a bed that is all my own including mosquito netting. I was so hungry having missed lunch that I begged for some bread until dinner which was fabulous! Robert and Chiku are fantastic chefs and am so grateful they are on our staff!
Well the electricity has gone out twice while typing this so I better finish up our travel log for now. More later when I have more reliable power!
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