Ok, so shoot me, I haven't figured out this blog machine yet. Apparently you have to put photos in first then write your comments or something. I had done this on an Apple, then to a flash drive, then changed to PDF and then back to flash drive, then to blog, but no photos showed up, so I'll let you cut and paste the photos where they should go in the spaces in my comments. Please bear with me, I'm still learning and hopefully will do better in the future. Enjoy and God Bless Mark and Pam

We finally got internet, so we have a lot of catching up to do. Pam has done a great job
on trying to give you a quick overview, but Iʼll try to give you a more detailed account of
our beginning and trip over here to Tarime, Tanzania.
LEAVING DES MOINES AND FLYING TO AMSTERDAM
At about 6:30am Sunday August 1, my Mom
picked us up at Harringtonʼs auto as that is
who we sold our last vehicle to. Bill was great
to us, he bought my truck and let me use it
until we left and also bought the car we had
took in trade-in from my mom when she
bought our LeSabre. (Bill, all this free
advertising means a large discount when we
buy our next vehicle from you.) Anyway, here
we are on the curb, with 4 big bags, two
carry-on bags and two backpacks. One of the
big bags had power tools, another big bag
had a sewing machine, sewing supplies, a very
small printer and medical supplies. The other two large bags had some more tools and
mostly clothes and personal supplies. When Mom drove up, her first words were, “I
wish I had a camera.”
The four large bags couldnʼt weigh more than 50 pounds, and luckily the previous
Thursday, we had pre-weighed a couple of bags, one weighing in at 63 lbs and the
other at 57. Needless to say, we had a big repacking job, and when we went to the
airport and did a last minute shuffle, we finally ended up at 49.5, 47, 48 and 49. After
saying goodbye to Mom and Deanne, we made it through security and boarded the
plane to Minneapolis. From there, we flew to Amsterdam and arrived there at about
7:30 am on Tuesday the 2nd.
AMSTERDAM
What an interesting city Amsterdam is. A lot of canals and small streets. I will say it is
very easy to get around in, once you learn how to. The people are very friendly and
very helpful, but can be hard to understand and sometimes the directions they give are
not that easy to follow. I never did find a good explanation of their transportation
system.
It was great to land with only a backpack and carry-on bag on wheels to deal with. Our
4 big guys were checked through to Nairobi so we didnʼt have to hassle with them. We
had a 27 hour layover in Amsterdam. I had found a hotel on the internet, supposed to
be 4-star, but wasnʼt. The price was not 4-star, so that should have been my first clue,
but it was still very nice, clean and in a great part of town. Within walking distance to
the Van Gough museum, another museum with Old Masters and the Ann Frank house
where she hid from the Nazis. Canals are everywhere, more on them later.
I had read on the internet from more than
one source, that getting from the airport to
downtown and to our hotel was easy. Just
get on the train at the airport, get off at
Central station, catch a #1, 2 or 5 trolly and
there was a stop right at the hotel. Sounds
easy, execution was a little more difficult.
First you need Euros. I personally did the
wrong thing and got them from a bank at the
airport, better to use an ATM. But also make
sure you contact your credit card company
before you leave and let them know that you
are traveling and where you are traveling to.
I knew to do this, but was a detail I overlooked. Making a long distance call from a pay
phone to the U.S. is not all that difficult, but a lot harder when you havenʼt slept much,
have a headache, and have been spending the past 45 minutes figuring out how to get
Euros, a train ticket and asking all kinds of people what to do. Anyway we finally got on
the train, and made it to the central train station. We then got out of the station, only to
find out we needed near exact change to get on the Metro/trolly or whatever itʼs called.
Pam, bless her heart, took on that task as I stood grumbling on the sidewalk.
We then made it on a #2, and there was a stop not more than 50 feet from our hotel
entrance. One reason we chose this hotel is we knew we probably couldnʼt check in,
but they had a luggage room where you could park your stuff until your room was ready.
I must say, Pam didnʼt like the security of this luggage room and she was right. They
say they keep it locked, but after did check-in, we noticed when we passed by it a
couple of times, the door was wide open and all the luggage was there for the taking.
We left our four bags in the luggage room and got direction to the Van Gough museum.
There were lots of his drawings and paintings, but Pam was hoping for some of his big
ones, especially Starry Starry Night, which was not there. There were lots of paintings
and works by other artist and teachers of Van Gough. The museum was really nice, a
long line, so buy a ticked before you go and you get right in. Then again, the long line
was maybe 20 minutes, so not to bad.
Tired, but glad we saw the museum, we made it back to the hotel at about 12:30, check
in was usually 2, but luckily they had a room available, which was good, because there
was a chair in the small lobby that had my name on it. After a nice nap of about 5
hours, yes 5 hours, we were ready for supper and some more sightseeing.
The area we were in had shop after shop and restaurant after restaurant on street after
street. They had every flavor of food, Portuguese to Mandarin Chinese, but we wanted
some ʻtraditionalʼ Dutch. We were directed to a little place on a small side street, not
more than 25-30 wide. Thatʼs from entrance of our restaurant to the restaurant across
the street. Making the street even smaller, were the outside tables where we sat and
people and vehicle watched. Yes, even a
small car drove by. Food was great, Pam had
a pea soup appetizer, I had fresh herring. The
soup was great and the herring was fresh for
sure, not cooked, and I donʼt think pickled that
much, but it was good.
The main course we both had was similar, but
not tasting the same. Pam had beef over
mashed potato, but the mashed potato had
carrots and other vegetables mixed in. I had
a sausage over mashed potato mixed with
vegetables and sourkraut. Both were really
good. We then widow shopped and
eventually found our way to a canal tour.
# #
We were starting to wear a little thin, but glad
we took a canal tour. There is a pass you can
buy that is a hop on and hop off canal tour. It
stops at various places of interest, like the
museums and Ann Franks, and you just get
off, see the site and get back on the next boat.
We took a one hour canal tour. It had a live guide and was very interesting. We went
by the Ann Frank home, past the various
museums and out into the harbor.
Who knew that along the canals there were
boats where people lived, interesting to float
by and see a guy shaving. We also went by
the Red Light District. We saw no ladies in
the windows, only an empty chair in one
window. Amsterdam is very liberal, this
district is one example, their stance on
recreational drugs is another. What an
interesting city. One thing that was of
surprise to me, I had always thought the
Dutch kept their towns extremely clean. Although we did see some street sweepers and
cleaners, Des Moines keeps their streets and side walks a lot cleaner. And while weʼre
talking about observations, the traffic is crazy. Trolleys everywhere, cars everywhere,
bicycles everywhere and with very narrow streets, itʼs very interesting walking around.
Back to our hotel, for what sleep we could get, then on to Nairobi. Not to eventful
getting to the airport, other than when we were trying to get on the train to the airport. I
had purchased a return ticket when we arrived, and trains run rather regularly to the
airport, so it shouldnʼt have been that big a deal. Well we get to the platform weʼre
scheduled to leave from, waiting to leave with tons of others, when all of a sudden,
weʼre told itʼs leaving from platform 11 instead of 14 that we are on. So down the
escalator we all go, over to platform 11, then we find out that escalator is not working.
Up we finally make it to platform 11. The train comes, everyone is getting on, I thought I
heard that only the first 3 cars were going to the airport, which didnʼt make sense, we
went towards the front, started to get on, but then were told only the first 3 pink colored
cars were going to the airport for sure. We rush to them, get on and to the airport we
go. On to Nairobi.
NAIROBI
In the United States, the airport security is at the beginning of the terminals. (Hate to
see that word when Iʼm flying out of an airport.) In Amsterdam they are at each
individual terminal. We didnʼt get to the airport any to early, got our boarding passes like
you do in the U.S., at an automatic dispenser and then went to the terminal. They made
the mistake of wanting to see inside one of my carry-ons, and of course itʼs packed
tight. But we get on the plane and arrive in Nairobi at like 7:30pm. If youʼve havenʼt
been to bored reading this account by now, youʼre lucky, because now it really gets
interesting.
Holly, our host at the mission house and director of the Angel House Mission, said she
would meet us and hold of a sign with our names on it. I also had the impression she
would meet us as we got off the plane. I was wrong. First you go through immigration
to get your visa. No biggie, and they take American and bless KLM Airlines, they
provide you with the documents you need to get into Kenya. We had pre-filled those
documents, waited in line and got our visas and I had my first stamp on my passport.
Now on to baggage and my first lesson in patience.
The carousel is the same as ours, of course with a plane holding 400 people, thereʼs a
lot of luggage. I thought I had given the carousel enough time to deliver our luggage, so
after helping a lady with her luggage, she gave us her space to wait with our luggage
carrier. Pam waits while I head off to the luggage help stand. Thinking that since we
had checked our luggage in Des Moines 2 days earlier, that maybe they had sent it on
an earlier flight and had placed it somewhere. After talking to the lady and finding out
that she didnʼt have any of my numbers on her list and that I could fill out a report if I
wanted, I gave up and headed back to Pam.
Come to find out, sheʼs off-loading our baggage
and itʼs all there. Great! After stating we had
nothing to declare, outside we go, to be greeted by
a mob of people, standing behind a small gated
area, ALL holding up signs. Glory to God, I had
sent a description to Holly and I heard our names
being called out. There was Holly and Anna, the
supervisor of Angel House.
Weʼre in Nairobi, in a van with all our luggage,
being driven by a driver named James. We get to
our hotel, check in, and sleep, or at least attempt to.
Weʼre up to a decent kind of American breakfast, pay our bill and load up in our driverʼs
van again. James is from Kenya, this is what he does, drive people around, and heʼs
going to take us to Tarime, an 8 hour drive. Iʼm not going to tell you how much this cost
is, but with all we were carrying, the security of knowing our luggage would not be
stolen, was worth it.
Anyway, he we are in Africa and itʼs now daylight and we can see Africa as it really is.
THIS IS NOT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AFRICA
When we traveled from the airport to our hotel in Nairobi, Pam asked what the smell
was, and found out it was trash burning. That smell was still there in the morning and it
is my understanding it is always there. Nairobi is very large and from what we saw, a lot
of small shops and large shops and nice hotels and other places. We were going to
spend one day sight-seeing, going to a zoo, feeding some giraffes and other places, but
pretty much everything was closed down as it was voting day for a new constitution.
We decided to just head to Tarime, an 8-hour drive. We
come to find out they drive on the left-hand side, and very
close to each other. City driving is a madhouse, and
would drive my friend Tom, an engineer with Iowaʼs
transportation department,
absolutely mad. You
quickly find out you place
yourself in the hands of
whoever is driving you
and try and not think in
terms of how you would drive.
Roads are ok, main ones paved and we had some 4-
lane roads. The drive to Tarime was basically on a two
lane road, with people walking on the shoulder. I
believe it is 169 miles
to Tarime from Nairobi, and takes 8 hours, ya right. I
think we made it in 12.
When I say people walking along the road, I mean
there wasnʼt a mile along that whole route that you
didnʼt see someone walking or resting or having a
little stand selling. I found that totally amazing. The
towns along the way were mostly very poor, open
sewer towns. A few larger, but that just means more
small shops and a gas station and maybe a place to
stay.
Itʼs hard to describe these shops or stalls. They are
maybe 10 foot wide, and maybe that deep. There is
usually a counter, sometimes no counter and you
would stand outside and look through a window.
The shops have shelves with all their wares sitting
on them. You would ask for what you want,
negogiate and purchase. There are manufacturing
shops, like wood furniture or padded furniture.
There are people everywhere, some just sitting,
walking, working outside their shop. Most shops or
business are specialized. A bicycle shop just does
bicycles, fixing tires, selling new and used, etc.
A fabric store will have just things pertaining to
fabric and sometimes buttons or other sewing
needs. They pretty much sell everything by the
piece. We went to purchase about 40 buttons for
the orphanage, and thatʼs what we got, 40
buttons, counted out one-by-one. There are
some general store places, but again, they have
limited space and limited choices.
The countryside on this journey was what you do
see on National Geographic, but mostly
grasslands with some farm
ground. What we saw for crops
was mostly corn in one area,
then over the ridge in a different
terrain was mostly sugar cane.
We did see two small herds of
zebra and some gazelle, but for
the most part, people were
herding cattle and goats.
We did stop at a beautiful site overlooking a
plaine. That was the one of two national National
Geographic moments we had, the other was
seeing some monkeys/baboons; otherwise it was
mile after mile of countryside with people along the road and small towns with their
shops.
We stopped at a gas station for a bathroom (choo) break. Where I stood and did my
business was beside a guy washing clothes. The women would have to see me to get
to their little choo, but luckily I was done before they came in search of the bathroom.
Back on the road for again, mile after mile of people walking and towns all looking the
same. Finally, we reach the border, and the real adventure begins.
(Iʼm going to end it here and try and get this on our blog as a lot of emails want us to
add at least something to our blog. Iʼm writing this on a laptop to transfer to a flash
driveI and then to our blog. Iʼll write up our continuing adventure, such as right now, the
internet is down so I canʼt blog this if I want, the lights are flickering and weʼll probably
lose electricity for a time. TIA((Which means: This Is Africa and everything is on their
time and patience is needed to do anything and you need to accept occurs and not get
overly anxious, Iʼll have plenty on TIA later) Mark