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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