Safe Arrival

Short story first.....I have arrived in Tanzania safe and sound.

Long story.....

After we decided not to travel through Nairobi, we found flights directly into Kilimanjaro which is about 45 minutes away from the UAACC where we are staying for the two weeks.

The group arrived at the airport on the 31st, and quickly checked in without problems. Unfortunately, the first group worked with a new employee who neglected to give us our boarding passes for the flight from Amsterdam to Tanzania, something which would be very problematic. Security was fine, and by 6:20 we were in the air on our way to Amsterdam. We celebrated the New Year with champagne, but the flight wasn't very eventful.

Once we got to Amsterdam, we found the line we needed to get into to get our new boarding passes. As I was standing there, I realized that I had forgotten my glasses on the plane so Andrew and I had to run back to the plane, convince someone to let us back on, and retrieve the glasses. As I was getting off the plane, we found a small fire on the boarding ramp...so then we had to wait for the fight attendant to get help putting it out. Andrew and I ran across the airport again, and got back into line with the rest of the group. After waiting in this short line for about forty-five minutes, we get up to the counter and they can't find our reservations. It took another hour and a half of panic, as we almost missed our flight. Finally, we thought everything was settled, and the last of us ran to our flight. Once we got to our gate, we went through security, and then found out that the woman had not actually given us our tickets, and we were again delayed. Fortunately, they let us on the plane, and we got to sleep the next eight hours. It was much more stressful than it's sounding here.

Finally, at 9:45 we landed in Kilimanjaro. All of our luggage made it, and people from the UAACC were waiting to pick us up. We all got into two vans, and went on the bumpiest ride of my life. It was unbelievably beautiful. We couldn't really see much of anything, but the weather and the stars were gorgeous. We got to the center, unpacked our belongings, and met with Mzee Pete who is the founder. They had made us dinner, and then we all went to bed. At 6 I woke up to the sound of roosters and birds. It is so beautiful here.

I need to run and do things..so I'm going to wrap up quickly. The center is wonderful, the food is great, and the surrounding area is amazing. There are two mountains we can see, including Kilimanjaro in the distance. Today we're working on advertising, putting finishing touches on our programming, and then going out to one of the villages to post some of our advertisements. Saturday, we will be hosting our first testing day in a village that is about a fifteen minute car ride.

I love you all!!!!! I can't wait to share more with you...it is phenomenal.