3:30 on Sunday morning and could not fall back to sleep, which was going to make a long day even longer. Oh well...
We decided to go to the Mansfield Flea Market on Sunday morning. The Friends Together group got an original XBox donated to give to Bruce's family. Cathy has worked with this family during each of the trips. Bruce is a guide for those climbing the mountain and Piece coordinates the transportation and visits we do in Moshi. Cathy sent an email asking if anybody had any kid friendly XBox games, as the donated ones were all teen and adult games and would not be appropriate for their 7 year old (through Bruce would certainly enjoy them!). Devin and Owen suggested we hit the flea market, as they have tons of games and you really can't find them anywhere else. So we were on a mission! We were not only paying attention to the game's rating, but also the content. Would an African child know anyting about hockey or basketball? Probably not, so those games were out. Soccer? Yes! Racing? Sure! Tetris? That works! We also picked up a few others including Nemo and Sid Meyer's Pirates (which was rated T, but mostly for online content that wouldn't apply here and the boys loved that game when they were younger!) We left the market with 9 games! Most were only a dollar. I had to haggle with the guy for the last two. I even said, can you take $4, they are being donated. I'm actually getting on a plane and bringing them to Africa tonite!! He gave me the price, but I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me!!
We left for Boston at 2:30. More traffic than anticipated. I tried to ignore the wicked traffic in the other direction, and some of Brian's sighs... they were going to have a long drive back home! Check in was pretty easy. Our 4 bags were all JUST under 50 pounds.... once that was done I had this adreneline rush of excitement.
We said our good byes to Devin and Brian and headed towards security. At the passport check they man checked my passport, then said was clear to fly, but Owen wasn't, Not sure what he meant, I jokingly asked if he had to walk to Amsterdam. The response? "He can't fly wearing that hat! What's the matter Owen, you don't like the Red Sox? At least we beat you last night" We laughed. The hat came up again going through security. Owen had put it in the bin. After going through the scanner (does anyone else suck in their gut when going through these things??) I headed toward the conveyor belt and saw one of the workers notice Owen's hat. With disgust, he exclaimed, "Whose Yankee hat is that?" I laughed as Owen came over and claimed it. A woman next to the guy told him to be nice. He couldn't! "What are you doing with that hat? At least we won yesterday - what's the score for the game going on now?" Owen replied that the Yankees were ahead. Luckily the guy let us go! Haha....maybe he shouldn't be sporting a Yankees hat in Red Sox territory!!
Our flight was packed. We were happy to see blankets and pillows... and sleep masks and earplugs!
I just wanted to settle in and fall asleep! There was full entertainment on the seat back screens, but I chose some sleepy music channel and spent most of the flight with my eyes shut, listening to the peaceful sounds but not really sleeping. Owen watched the Avengers then fell asleep for a bit. We took off at 8 and 6 hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. We had an hour to find our next gate before they started boarding so we didn't feel stressed out. Good thing, because once we left the plane there was no one to ask and not a lot of signs pointing us in the right direction. We walked down long corridors, stopping to look at a gift display and giggling at some advertisements with words with more letters than we had seen before. We finally found an area with gate information. Kilimanjaro was gate E18. We were currently at A. I was glad we weren't carting around a lot of baggage as it probably took 15 minutes to get to the gate. Lots of construction in that airport. We got a snack and eventually boarded our very crowded flight. Owen's plan was to stay awake for the 8 hour flight and then fall asleep when we go to the hotel. That way he would be instantly on Kilimanjaro time. My plan was to fall asleep as soon as possible and stay that way! I took the window seat first and did fall asleep right away for about 2 hours. Woohoo! When I woke up I checked out the entertainment. Look what movie they had!! I had been suggesting this movie at home for the past 2 months and no one wanted to see it! So Alexander was my first of 3 movies - 8 hours is a realllllllly long time! I also watched Big
Eyes (which Owen watched while I was sleeping) and some delightful old people romantic comedy (the name escapes me). Owen didnt quite follow his plan and fell asleep for a good 3 hours towards the end of the flight.
We exited the plane and walked into the night air (740pm Africa time) into the small airport. We were greeted by a ZARA tours employee named Joseph, holding up a sign that said Jennifer Klark x2. He took our passports, Visa applications and fees and went off to process the paperwork. Upon his return we entered the lines. They took your picture and scanned fingerprints! Our luggage all arrived. Joseph put it on a cart and brought it over to the scanner. The woman asked me what was in my bags. I told her 3 bags had donated items that we were bringing to schools and orphanages in Moshi. She asked what type of items and the value. I wasn't expecting this and didn't know why she was questioning me. She walked away and Joseph advised me not to give her a list and just say small things like pencils and soccer balls. small values, a dollar, three dollars.... She came back and had me open two of the bags, commented on the brand new soccer balls and said even through it was donations it had a value,,, how much 100? 200? 300? Taking Joseph's advice I gave a low amount and said 100 - 150 maybe. Finally she let us go. Apparently if I had given the items enough value they would have charged me a tax to bring it in. Glad I had Joseph with me.
IT was an hour ride to the hotel. Owen and I both passed out for part of the trip! When we arrived we were greeted by Cathy, Kelly M, and Tashoy. They had already checked us in, turned on the water heater and AC (the hotel recently got AC!!) and arranged for our bags to be brought up. IT was nearly 10:00 so if we were hungry we needed to put in an order for something to eat. I convinced Owen to come to the garden area and try a grilled cheese since he barely ate anything on the flights.
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