Friday, March 21, 2014

Traveling Days


2/17/14

I apologize in advance if this post comes out whiny.  Its purpose is to inform those coming after me.

Let me start by saying that so far, everything has gone very well!  I got to the airport on time (with some tears saying goodbye to my hubby and kitty,) none of my flights were delayed, I sat next to skinny people on the planes, our baggage arrived at our final destination, and we got our visas and cleared customs in less than an hour.

On the other hand, I’ve been traveling for 27 hours and I’m still not to my final destination.  I flew out of SeaTac at 9 am, met Matthew in Minneapolis with an hour layover, took an eight hour flight across the Atlantic, had a three hour layover in Amsterdam (more on that later,) then  another eight hour flight to Kilimanjaro airport, cleared customs, and was driven for a couple hours to a hotel that is still a couple of hours from our apartment and the hotel where we’ll be working.  To top it off, we’ve been chasing the sunset, so with the time zone change, it’s about 38 hours after I left on Saturday morning.  The good news is, I’ll get that back on the way home in a month.

I didn’t sleep much on the flights.   Matthew offered me a Xanax, but I was leary.  I really liked the pain pill I got when I had my wisdom teeth out, and I’m a little worried I’ll love Xanax and get hooked on it.  In hindsight I wish I’d just nutted up and taken it.

One thing I’m very good about on flights is bringing water along.  Usually I go through security with an empty water bottle, then fill her up at the water fountain before my flight boards.  This didn’t work out so well in Amsterdam.  With connecting flights, they have you go through security again.  You assemble at your assigned gate, then go through a little security checkpoint at that gate to find yourself in a holding room with no water fountain and no ladies’ room.  Unfortunatley, Matthew had just bought a five dollar bottle of water (Amsterdam airport was expensive) and I had to dump my water, leaving me begging it from the stewardesses every time they went past.  By the way, nicest flight attendants I’ve ever come across: the KLM crew out of Amsterdam.

The sales people were pretty good too.  My little camera was discovered to be non-functional right before I left, so I figured I’d buy something cheap during my long layover in Amsterdam.  Well, they weren’t super cheap, but the (cute) sales guy helped me understand the benefits of the models in question, and didn’t make me feel bad when I went for the cheaper option.  Unforseen snag: the charging cord is for European outlets (sad noise.)   Super lucky for me: the adapter I bought for use in Tanzania goes from US or Euro plugs to Tanzanian.  So I get to use my brand new camera on this trip!  Whew!

So when we finally landed in JRO, we disembarked onto the tarmac.  It was dark, warm, and humid, and you could see all sorts of bugs swarming around the lights.  We didn’t get swarmed, really, and I love the heat and humidity!  It’s a nice change in February.  It was very clear where to go to get our visas, and most of the customs agents were pretty friendly, and all spoke English. (Oh yeah, that was another cool thing about AMS – English was everywhere!)  We did have to go through three separate lines, pay $100, and get fingerprinted, but nobody hassled us, so I counted it a success.

An even greater success was that there was a very nice gentleman from the Diocese (don’t ask, maybe it’s because we’re going to a Lutheran church) with our names on a card to transport us the rest of the way.  The global health department handout said this would happen, but I never got firm confirmation that someone would actually be there, so I was a little nervous.  Also, I didn’t know the exact location of our apartment, so there were just too many unknowns.  Thankfully, it all worked out as planned and as usual, I worried for nothing.

I was kinda bummed that we landed in the dark because we didn’t get a good view of the country as we drove.  There were shacks all along the side of the freeway, but most had electricity, and some looked quite pleasant, if primitive.  There were lots of gas stations, some bars, pharmacies, little tables where I assume people sell shit during the day, and people just hanging out by the road, alone or in pairs.

We were riding in an old diesel Jeep that seemed to run pretty well and was nice and spacious.  It looked like it was ready to go on Safari.  The roads were paved and in good repair, even though they had no shoulders.  There were speed bumps every couple of miles, especially as we neared towns, and they slowed us down considerably.  Our driver got up to about 100 kph pretty regularly when no one was around, but it never lasted very long.  The highway was relatively busy with pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, cars, vans, taxis, jeeps, semis, and oil tankers.  They clearly had their own rules, as passing seemed to be encouraged, cars approaching each other flashed their brights to acknowledge they knew the other was there, and did something with their blinkers from time to time that seemed to be a greeting that I still don’t understand.

Unfortunately, our driver didn’t speak much English, so he couldn’t answer our many burning questions.  We were pretty quiet during most of the drive, and I think I even got a couple more winks in.

We got to our hotel at 11:30 pm local time, with instructions to meet our driver again tomorrow morning at nine.  I had found a blogger that I thought had gone through pretty much the same stuff we were, so I expected the hotel to be very barebones: a bed with a bucket in the corner to poop in.  I was so pleasantly surprised to find a pretty room that feels very safe and has a full “Western” bathroom.  After Matthew and I said our goodnights, I got to priorities.  I brushed my teeth (next time I’ll pack my toothbrush in my carry-on), took some pics of the room before I got it too messy, texted my hubby, and got my new camera charging.  The first time, I didn’t put the battery in, then I put it in backwards, and about fifteen minutes later I triumphed over the user-friendly tech.

Then I took a hot shower!  Bliss.  Yes, it’s plenty warm here, but I love me some showers!!

I didn’t see my first mosquito until about half-way through writing this blog, and I ran to throw on some bug spray.  I’m a little nervous that he’ll be back, and this entry has gone on about as long as my flights.  It’s now 1:30 am local time, 2:30 pm back home, and I’ve got seven hours before I’ve got to get up and have a full day.  I’m still pretty wired, and I really want to talk to my hubby and snuggle my purring cat, but I’ll just have to find some other way to wind down.  Maybe some yoga beneath the mosquito netting on my bed.
 

I feel like the hardest part of the trip is over, and now the fun can begin.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!

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