Erika and I will be traveling to Tanzania on June 9, 2011. We are going through the company Cross Cultural Solutions. They organize volunteer programs all over the world. We have been very impressed with this company. They are very thorough and they keep you very safe. We will have drivers, guards, cooks and other people to help us while we are there. We will be staying in Karanga Village not far from the city Moshi. It is close to Mount Kilimanjaro which is the tallest mountain on the African continent, and not far from the border of Kenya. We are getting so excited.
We have been planning and preparing for this adventure for the past 5 months. There were many things we had to do... We had to get passports-luckily Erika already had one but I needed a new one. Then we needed to do tons of research and had many forms and papers to fill out online. We had to prepare resumes. We had to get several shots- MMR, Meningococcal, Hepatitis A & B, DTP, Tdap, Yellow Fever, Typhoid and we also have to take an anti-malarial medication the whole time we are there and for 7 days after we return. Then we had to send in several papers and money to get our Visas for admittance into Tanzania. We had to fill out forms for our work permits which we will need once we get there and we had our picture taken for that, and gathered several documents. We have been learning some Swahili and also learning about the culture, what not to eat or drink etc. It has been almost a part time job! I don't think we really knew what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up. But we are excited and almost ready to go.
Recently we found out we will be sharing "our house" with 28 ROTC cadets from all over the country. There are only 4 of us who aren't a part of that large group. I will be the only "old lady" and Erika will be the youngest. But, we are committed and expect to have a challenging but rewarding time in Tanzania. This trip is totally out of my comfort zone and if you know me you know what I am talking about but it is something that I think will be good for me and help me to grow in many ways. I look forward to serving these people and getting to know what they are like and what makes them happy. I can't wait for my first hug from a small African child. I hope we can forget ourselves and become completely immersed in their culture and be able to share our love and hard work with them.
We owe a huge thank you to Duane for allowing Erika and I to go even though he is worried and the expense has been more than we thought it would be in the beginning. Don't think the cost of the program is the only thing you have to pay for!
It will take us 21 hours of flying time and 17 hours in layovers before we get there. We leave at 5:00 PM on Thursday, June 9th and fly to Washington DC. Then we have a 13 hour layover so we are getting a hotel and sleeping over night there. The next day we will board our plane around 11:30 AM and we have a 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa Airport in Ethiopia which is North of Tanzania. We have a 4 hour layover there and then a 4 hour flight to Tanzania. There will be a driver at the Kilimanjaro Airport to drive us to our home for the next 3 weeks in Karanga Village. Special thanks to Neil & Ruth Ann Lebaron for donating our flights!
I hope to be able to post pictures and journal entries every few days while we are there. I understand they have Internet Cafes but their electricity is also very unreliable so I don't know what will happen.... We will miss you!