Plane trip from Cincinnati to Washington, DC

(Jean is writing this blog entry from a lovely Hampton Inn near Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC)

Surprise! Things don’t always go as planned. Yesterday morning’s weather reports predicted that a huge snow storm would hit the East Coast sometime during the afternoon. Therefore, our travel agent suggested that we get to Cincinnati as soon as possible to ensure that we arrived in Washington in time to catch our 11 am, Jan. 27, Ethiopian Airlines flights to Addis Ababa and Kilimanjaro.

Margie and Hank Clark graciously changed their afternoon plans and drove us to the Cincinnati airport which is really in Northern Kentucky. We discovered that earlier flights would not be leaving for DC. Even worse, we were informed that the Delta flight we were scheduled to take to DC was being diverted to Detroit. We were also told that we would not have to get off the plane in Detroit because it was just “picking up additional passengers” to lessen the number of Dulles’ arriving flights.

The ticket agent who checked us into the system in Cincinnati said that there was a chance that we wouldn’t leave Detroit so she booked us on a 7:30 am flight this morning out of Detroit to Dulles.

Sure enough, when we got to Detroit, we were told that we had to deplane and stay overnight in Detroit. All Washington area airports were closed down due to the snow storm. However, most of the hotels near the Detroit airport were already full because of the many cancellations that had already occurred during the day. We finally got a room at a Red Roof Inn and had dinner at 11:30 pm. But we were comforted knowing that we had that 7:30 am option to get to Dulles in time to catch our 11 am flight to Africa.

We caught a shuttle back to the Detroit airport at 5:30 am only to discover that our 7:30 am flight had been cancelled. Kirk found some wonderfully helpful Delta employees, but found out that the next available flight would be at 5:30 pm today, much too late to catch our flight to Ethiopia.

As we were walking down the concourse to get a cup of coffee, we saw a gate for an 8:45 am Delta flight to Reagan Airport. Kirk asked about available seats and told the agent about our problem, so she put us on the stand-by list and made sure that we got on that flight. We knew that we were flying to the wrong airport, but by taking a really fast 40 minute cab ride from Reagan National to Dulles, there was still hope that we would be able to catch our Ethiopian Airlines flight.

By this time, our bags were booked all the way to the Kilimanjaro Airport, and Jean was pretty sure that things were so mixed up that we would never ever see them again.

The sun was shining as we landed in Washington. Our cab driver was from Ethiopia and very excited that we were going to be visiting his country. He spent the entire 40 minute cab ride to Dulles telling us what books we should read and where we should go while visiting Ethiopia. We learned later that we will actually fly into the city where he lived before moving to the USA. Upon arrival at Dulles, he wished us a wonderful visit to his beloved country.

Alas, upon arrival at Dulles we learned that our flight had already left. We found helpful Ethiopian Airlines employees who helped us rebook our flight to Addis Ababa. We’ll be going on the same flight… except tomorrow rather than today. Unfortunately, we’ll be on stand-by for the flight from Addis Ababa to Tanzania. But they also booked us on the next flight to Tanzania in case we can’t get on the flight that we want.

Since we now had an unexpected 24 hours in DC, we tried to find out where our luggage was. We learned that our bags were back at Reagan National! Delta had made sure that the bags followed us. When we asked Delta to transfer our bags to Dulles where we now were, Delta told us that that could only be accomplished by first flying them to Atlanta and then to Dulles, arriving about 9:30 pm tonight (maybe). Since Kirk didn’t have anything better to do, and we really wanted to see our bags again before turning them over to Ethiopian Airlines tomorrow, he decided to take an hour shuttle ride to Reagan, gather up our luggage from Delta, and return to Dulles via the shuttle with our bags.

In the meantime, Jean checked us and our carry-ons into a Hampton Inn, called travel agents and Cross Cultural Solutions representatives who needed to know about the change in our plans, and did some suitcase reorganizing.

Now we are both in our hotel room, all rested and repacked, and will soon meet niece Lana and her friend James for dinner. It is ironic that the roadways today in Washington are clear. The snow is piled 20 feet high on the sides of roads and is weighing down the branches of trees, but the roadways are clear. However, people who live here tell us about the terrible storm last night and how impossible and dangerous it was to be out and about.

This unexpected disruption in travel makes us happy we added an extra day to our travel plans. We are thankful that we are safe, and that we have our luggage. It could have been so much worse. We encountered many helpful and pleasant airline employees at all four airports that we’ve been in since yesterday afternoon when we thought we’d be making a short one-hour flight from Cincinnati to Dulles.

Assuming that everything tomorrow goes as planned, the next posting on this blog will be from Moshi, Tanzania. The excitement builds as we anticipate the next several weeks!

Last entry from home

Hello to all of you, Friends and Relatives, where ever you may be.

We are frantically packing and getting ready to fly from Cincinnati tomorrow afternoon to Dulles Airport where we'll spend the night before flying via Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and on to Arusha, Tanzania.

Yesterday we had a telephone conference call with the CCS Program Director and approximately ten of the volunteers who will be beginning their stay in Moshi this coming Saturday as we do. We learned several important things during that telephone call:

First, we are a very diverse group. About five or six of us are at or nearing retirement age. Several others have just graduated from college. Two are Italian and joined the conference call from Italy. Two others are Canadian. There is one couple who has already been to Tanzania twice with CCS. While this upcoming trip will be their first experience in Moshi, they certainly like Tanzania well enough to return there often. Several of the volunteers have already spent significant time in Ethiopia and love that country. They will be a wonderful source of information for us.

Second learning: our experience in Moshi will be much less cosmopolitan and much more "rural" than we experienced in Morocco. We've been warned that electricity is rather sporadic and that the home base in which we will be living has no Wifi. That means that we'll probably not be able to upload our blog entries daily. Homebase is approximately a five or ten minutes walk from Moshi, so we'll enjoy walking into town to visit an Internet cafe often. However, we've been warned that electricity is also not reliable in the Internet cafes. Therefore, we're not sure when we'll be able to post our first blog entry from Moshi.

Third learning: Our visa application to volunteer in Tanzania requires a resume of work experience. It doesn't have to be "official" in any sense. If I had more time and energy, I would be tempted to claim that I have been an astronaut or a personal trainer. However, I have to stick to the truth in light of my lack of time!

Last learning (for Jean): Another CCS volunteer is working with me in the day care. She is a substitute teacher for Kindergarten through fifth grade classes in California and has already written some lesson plans. It is clear that she has much more experience with this aged child than I do. I look forward toward learning from her.

That is the extent of my thoughts right now. In the next few hours I have to see if I can get my luggage below 50 pounds. We're flying via Delta from Cincinnati to DC tomorrow and will have to pay for any luggage that we check. Ethiopian Airlines, on the other hand, allows two pieces of luggage to be checked free of charge, but both pieces have to be under 50 pounds. Kirk has found that my carry on is too big for Delta to accept it as a carry on. Therefore, it too will have to be checked. That means about $60.00 for each of us to get our luggage to Washington! I wonder how much that is per mile of flight? Musings, no time to find the answer right now.

Love to all of you,
Jean and Kirk

We received our Tanzania volunteer assignments!

We were happy to receive our Tanzania volunteer work assignments today. We can already tell that our Tanzania Experience will be very different from Morocco. But that's good, of course. Instead of living in a thriving cosmopolitan capital city of millions, we will be in a small rural town of a few thousand residents.


Kirk will work at an orphanage...

Kirk was told today that he will work at the TunaHAKI orphanage and child development centre. In Swahili,YunaHAKI means "We have a right!" TunaHAKI is home for abandoned street children and children who have been orphaned by AIDS... all from our little town of Moshi.

TunaHAKI is a Tanzanian non-profit organization that is funded by a Los Angeles-based and Hollywood-related foundation. If you want to know more try googling "TunaHAKI." I'll describe the orphanage in greater detail once I've seen it in action. The orphanage provides shelter, food, clothing, health services, and formal schooling for 25-30 orphans of both genders who are in the 5-18 age range. It is home for these kids until they age out and are capable of making it on their own. Kids are helped to develop skills in raising livestock, vegetable growing, cooking, carpentry, cleaning, music, and the visual arts which are useful in preparing children for their future employment as adults. Kirk was told that he'll be an assistant to the orphanage's Director while providing adult male/grandfatherly support and presence for the kids. But who knows? Perhaps he'll end up painting walls or being in charge of gardening!

The distinctive and amazing characteristic about TunaHAKI, and the thing that makes this assignment so fascinating, is that the orphanage's resources and attention are focused on helping the orphans become highly skilled dancers, acrobats, aerialists and gymnasts. They are eventually invited to perform around the world, including the USA where on previous trips they received specialized training by members of the Cirque du Soleil troupe. One wonders if the kids will teach Kirk to do back-flips and swing from a flying trapeze! Check back in the weeks ahead and find out.


Jean will work at a nursery school...

Jean was told this morning that she will work at a nursery school that cares for 25 three and four year olds. The school is located 3 miles outside Moshi, runs from 7:30 to 11:00 every morning, and is operated by a lady who is heavily dependent on volunteer assistants. Parents who can afford to do so pay $1.50 per month for their children to attend. We don't know yet what kind of arrangements are made for children whose parents are not able to pay.

Jean was told that she will teach English and basic math, games, songs, and arts and crafts. She will also be expected to help create testing procedures and standards that assess student development and progress. The teacher-in-charge is also asking Jean to help develop new activities and fresh materials that will strengthen the school's curriculum and position it to be more effective.

This will certainly be very different than Jean's experience in Morocco where she taught English to university masters and doctoral degree students! This time she will be on the floor, playing with toddlers who are our grandson Gilbert's age. And, of course, when she's finished playing on the floor she's going to have to find a way to get up! Thank heavens for her new joints and yoga classes.

Jean was told that the school has very few resources, so she has begun going around our house to find yarn, old crayons, large buttons, pencils, construction and regular paper, stray poker chips, and macaroni to string on the yarn. She plans to shop today for small paper bags and stickers. And she'll need to quickly learn a three year old's vocabulary in Swahili. Future blog postings will describe how Jean is doing!

Tomorrow morning we travel to Kansas City to be with Audra, Gilbert, Elizabeth and Chris for a couple days. We will return to Louisville in time to finish packing, and then on January 26 leave for Tanzania. We're eager to share stories and describe our experiences, so be alert for new additions to the blog. They will appear as we are able to post them.

Happy New Year

Hello to everyone who checks this blog. As you can see, I set it up long ago because I was afraid that I had forgotten how to do it. It wasn't that hard!

Because my next three weeks are very, very busy, I've sent the blog's address to you now. Please let me know if you have received two messages about its address. I'll eliminate the second one. If you choose to not look at the blog, we won't be offended.

We leave home on January 25. I will probably write one entry just before leaving. Then will have to search for Internet connections in Tanzania. Am not sure when the next entry will be after Jan. 25, but please be patient. We may write our daily diary entries and download several of them at a time at an Internet cafe. That uncertainty is the joy of travel!

I've developed two maps of our journey -- one is the basic trip to and from Tanzania. The other focuses on our planned safari. Let me know if you don't want to be invited to access those maps. Again, we won't be offended. It was a fun experiment for me.

Those of you who have a gmail account should be able to leave a comment/message on the blog. Others can contact us privately via our other email addresses.

Happy New Year to all of you with wishes for many blessings to you and your family throughout this very special year.

Fondly,
Jean and Kirk