Back At Last!!

It has been thtree years and three months since I last left Tanzania. I never expected that the hiatus would last so long and I have honestly missed spending time in East Africa. I have been traveling to East Africa long enough that I am aware of changes in procedures over time. Ever since my first visit in 2014, before they would let you into the Kilimanjaro terminal you had to show that you had a yellow fever vacination. I actually have stapled my yellow international shot record to the back side of my passport so I didn't always have to go fishing for it. They checked your shot record outside the building. This evening when I arrived, they didn't ask for proof of a yellow fever vaccine but you had to show proof that you had had the COVID vaccinations. Interesting. I understand why they wanted to see proof of COVID vaccines, but yellow fever is a far deadlier disease and I am suprised that they jettisoned that procedure.

We flew in an enormous aircraft--there were a bizillion people on it and the vast majority were Europeans heading for Kilimanjaro to either trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro or visit safarfi parks. The parking lot was filled with safari vehicles waiting to pick up the guests and take them to varying safari parks across Tanzania--there are many, many fine safarai parks here. The Serengeti is located in Tanzania. The destination for my flight was Dar es Salaam and only about 10% of the passangers stayed on the aircraft. Some passangers would board from Kilimanjaro, but it wouldn't be that many. 

My driver whom I always use is Mr. Mwanga. He met me a the airport with a big smile and a hug. He was a friend of one of the World Vision leaders in Tanzania, Daniel, who first hired him for me and I have been using him ever since. He is a Muslim man who has three sons. A number of years ago he took me to his home to meet his wife and two of his three sons who were there, and took me to visit his sons school on another visit. He is a friendly person, but he doesn't speak much English and I don't speak Swahili, so it's tough to communicate somtimes. The picture below is of the visit I made to visit Mr. Mwanga's son 6 years ago.

The next two nights I will be staying at the New Safari Hotel. It is a hotel owned by the Lutheran Church, and George and Sayuni are friends with the bishop and they get a discount for my room. (Tanzania was a German colony called Tanganyika until the end of WWI and so the Lutheran church is the largest protestant church here.) But it was so great to arrive after 3 years and the employee at the desk recognized me and greeted me warmly, He said it had really been tough with COVID but this past year things are going better. I asked him if had been laid off, and he said he wasn't but everyone had to work one less day.  

In any case, I have arrived, will spend Saturday trying to deal with jetlag and reorient myself to the various workshops we will be doing.