Through the Seasons

Where are we?

Well, at the moment I am sitting on my couch in my home in Mbeya, Tanzania.  Yep.  We made it!!  Sorry we couldn’t post earlier.  Once arriving in Tanzania things have been a bit of a blur. 

Every flight we took left on time and got to its destination early.  Every flight was also smooth, provided us a little bit of rest, and had the dogs on it.  In Amsterdam we didn’t have much time so we did a quick post online then took an hour nap.  We were the last people to get on the plane.  (Whoops.  Not really taking advantage of that “you have a baby and can pre-board” thing, huh?)

So we arrived in hot, sticky Dar around 10pm where we then spent 2 hours in their lovely airport.  It was chaotic because Asher’s dependant’s pass had not yet been processed so we had to get him a temporary visa until then.  Jonathan had to go back and forth between the immigration official, visa desk, atm/currency exchange, and baggage claim.  During all this I’m watching our carry-on bags while tending to Asher who is hotter than I’ve ever felt him and screaming his head off.  The dogs came off the plane right away so I (and everyone else there) got to hear Theo yipping at the top of his poodle lungs.  Can you say stressed???  I calmed Asher down by taking him down to his diaper and fanning him with a little battery-powered fan we got at Wal-Mart.  The best dollar we’ve ever spent because it has helped us numerous times now on this journey! 

Finally, the immigration thing gets accomplished and we have to fill out forms about 2 missing pieces of luggage.  Amsterdam airport still had them and is sending them all the way to Mbeya for us (kind of makes me wish more had been left behind).  We are finally walking out at midnight and the customs official starts asking how valuable the dogs are.  Uh-oh.  Jonathan tells her Teddy is old (he is) and that Theo was given to him free (he was) so they weren’t valuable at all really (only true monetarily).  Then she wants to start going carton by carton to find out what she can charge us customs on.  Cue the kid.  Asher starts crying and I’m frantically trying to calm him back down.  She says, “The baby is crying.  Just go.”  Yes!  Way to go Asher!

At our friends’ house in Dar we slept about 2 hours before getting our things re-gathered to catch the train.  It usually leaves late, sometimes many, many hours late so we were prepared for a long wait.  But there was none!  We left ON TIME!  (A miracle!!)  The train ride should have lasted 24 hours if all went well but a friend of ours was on that trip once and it took 49 hours so I prepared us for a 48 hour trip.  But how long did it take?  24 hours!  It arrived on time as well!!  Unbelievable!  The ride itself was fine.  Pretty scenary.  A place to sleep.  A nice way to travel really. 

But we did have Asher with us and he did good most of the time until the train began stopping VERY frequently.  I would get him asleep and the train would stop abruptly and wake him.  So I’d get him asleep and it would start back up and wake him.  This was about every 10-20 minutes.  Finally he just got frustrated and started crying a lot.  I would too!  I felt so bad for him.  But finallly we had some good long stretches this morning before arriving in Mbeya around 9am.  A coworker gave us a ride to our home and we’ve been here ever since sort of going through boxes and getting a few things out.  We weren’t too ambitious about what we accomplished today.  We had lunch with our landlord and his wife, took a nap, had quite a few visitors, and took care of Asher and the dogs (who did extremely well and are recovering today with a lot of sleep).

We finished off our night with me actually making dinner:  grilled cheese sandwiches and canned corn. 

Now it is 9pm and we all 5 are ready for bed.  Good night.