Little too cold outside to expose the belly.

December 26, 2007

Most everywhere I’ve traveled in Tanzania over the past 4 1/2 months I’ve had my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx turned on to record my path. I’ve selected all of the best tracks and waypoints and loaded them into a Garmin database which you can download from this link:
www.jonathananddana.com/gps/TZ.gdb
Here are some of the things you’ll find [...]

After being told by KLM/NWA that we needed to handle our problem with Continental and Continental telling us they couldn’t help us and we should take it up with KLM/NWA, drastic measures had to be taken. Hopped on the wireless internet (the only good thing about Newark Int’l Airport so far) and bought us [...]

Here we are in line at the KLM/NWA office.

Dana has a post about this ‘diversion’ here.

We left Dar 30 minutes late but got to Amsterdam right on time.  The flight was uneventful and we’re getting ready to board our flight to Newark in about half an hour.  It takes off at 10:20a local time (+6 on Charlotte).  Dana is doing great.  She got up numerous times during the flight to [...]

We’re sitting in Julius Nyerere Int’l Airport in Dar es Salaam finally getting to eat dinner.  Toasted cheese sandwiches and fries.  We had to shift some weight from suitcase to suitcase at check-in because 3 of 4 were over the 23kg (50 lbs.) weight limit.  At $75 fee each, we couldn’t keep them that way.  [...]

Just sitting in the guest house room right now.  I’m piddling on the computer and Dana’s doing some cross stitch stuff.  We’ve got a lot of time to kill today but we planned to just stay here and rest as much as possible before our 30-hour trip home… that starts at stinkin’ midnight tonight.
As we [...]

Ijumaa, Desemba 14, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007

If you’ve ever traveled overseas, especially to a 3rd world country, and spent time close to real life there, the feelings I’m about to describe may be a little familiar.
I went to town this afternoon and on the 15-minute ride there, I had a little time to just ride and think about what I was [...]

I’m enjoying where I am in terms of speaking Swahili. I’ve probably had hundreds of conversations by now, both short and long. I love being able to communicate with people in the language they know best. Rich Reid, a good friend of ours who has served in numerous places overseas, wrote to [...]