Transition Day

This was a day of travel and meeting most of the team of Global Volunteers that will be sharing our lives for the next few weeks.

We left Kilimanjaro just a little late, then had a short stopover on Zanzibar to let off a few passengers. Mohammed met us at the airport about 1:30pm & found us a place to sit. There were two more people to pick up...one around 2:30 & the other at 4:00pm. Though we were tired, there was plenty of people-watching available. It is clear that this must be predominantly Muslim, judging by the clothing. The styles of both men and women varied greatly. It would have been interesting to take pictures, but of course that would have been intrusive, so no photos were taken.

The first to arrive came from Kentucky, but is originally from a small town near Seattle. Her plane was late & her bag didn't make the connection. The local people are confident that it will be here by morning. When LuRue opened up her toiletries case, she found that her shampoo bottle had burst, covering everything in goo. Such is life on the road.

After the second person arrived, a young woman from Salem, Oregon, we took off. Even though the hotel is only a few miles away, it took an hour to get there. Mohammed told us that there would be seven tie-ups (think gridlocks) on the way. He said that it is like that every day except Sunday.

There is still one more person to arrive...the lone man on the team except for Edward, the Tanzanian team leader. He arrives this evening. The rest of us met in the lobby at 6:15, then were taken by van to the Coral Beach Hotel for dinner. The setting was wonderful...on the lanai with the Indian Ocean just over the railing. The climate is quite tropical. There are seven people on the team...one woman probably close to LuRue's age and the others probably in their 30s (we don't know yet about the man). One young woman has already been here for three weeks & is avidly looking forward to three more weeks.

We are meeting for breakfast at 7:00am, then leaving immediately. Hopefully the lost suitcase will be at the airport as we depart for our 10-hour drive to Iringa. We have been assured that there will be plenty of stops to break up the trip...about 7 hours of driving.

No pictures for today. And we don't have any idea when we will be able to post again. We are heading into a situation in which there is very little electricity, let alone the Internet.