Getting there part I

Some of this may not be of interest to everyone—but our intention is just to document our experience. So if you want to skip around we will not be offended.

We have surely been granted traveling mercies. We are now safe and sound in Ntagatcha, Tanzania! We left for Charlotte Saturday morning. After our connection in DC we flew to Zurich, Switzerland (8 hrs), from Zurich to Nairobi (8 hrs), 2 nights in Nairobi and then an AIM Air (Africa Inland Mission) flight to near the Kenyan border (1 hour) followed by a 30 minute ride to the actual border, some time spent at immigration and another 30 minutes bumpity-bump ride to City of Hope.

I (j.) will say that traveling to Africa is not what it used to be before we had children. There is no option to just stick the headphones in and zone out, self-medicate, sleep, talk to your neighbor or even really watch a movie. On the leg to Nairobi w. took a short nap and somehow woke up fully recharged. Big T and little t were thankfully sleeping so I tried entertaining her on my lap which just made her more excited. Looking at books turned into hurling them. Itsy bitsy spider turned into face grabbing and screeching...eventually I put her in the sling and stood next to my seat bouncing her around, singing to her, and trying not to be in everyone's way. I actually watched most of “The Help” while doing this so it was not all that bad, except my back and shoulder got petty tired. I started to cry close to the end of the movie when the in-flight entertainment was turned off for landing. So don't spoil the ending for me!

In Zurich we were thrilled to find a children's play center in the airport. It was amazing. The kids LOVED it and I was amazed by them also. It was 2 AM Eastern time when we got there, and they just were running around like it was the middle of the day. It was staffed by a lovely Swiss woman who kept apologizing for being away when we arrived (she was only gone for 5 minutes). There were 3 rooms of toys, games and activities. In one corner there was an Indian couple (with no children) sleeping on the sofas. They were in their 60s and snoring very loudly while about 10 kids screeched and laughed and played. They must have been really out of their time zones or something.

The leg to Nairobi was definitely the hardest. All I wanted to do was sleep but it just never worked out. Thankfully the kids were fairly quiet and they handled it better than I did. When we arrived in Nairobi we had no trouble getting our luggage or finding our host, Imani. All answers to prayers! When we were carrying our things out to the van t. started spontaneously singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and he asked me to sing with him. Then he said “Children come in all different colors don't they, mommy?” Well, he was about to find out!