Goodbye Europe, Hello Africa

Today was a 100% transportation day. We had breakfast, and walked to the train station. Once in the airport we checked in with the airline. Hey, where's the security line? It's at the individual gates. This means you stand in a much smaller line. It also means they need more scanning equipment.

I'll say this for the Netherlanders, they are polite. I wear suspenders, and the Nude-O-Scope objected. I was asked to stand on the carpet with the two footprints. What struck me was that as I was waiting to be frisked, the guard stopped and asked permission. Wouldn't it be nice if the TSA was so polite?

We arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport after dark. We didn't have entry visas. Back in The States we would have had to send our passports to the Tanzanian embassy in Washington, D.C. We knew visas were available at the airport, you just had to wait. But the immigration people were much faster than we expected, and were done quickly. It helped that we had downloaded and filled out the visa application and attached passport photos before we left The States.

Here's the first hint about how the Tanzanian government views tourism. The fee for a visa is fifty US dollars, unless you're American, then it one hundred US dollars. Tourism is for raising hard currency.

It was time for us to learn Kiswahili. The first word was jambo for hello. The tour company was waiting with a bus to take us to Arusha. Immediately, we were greeted in Kiswahili, if you said thank you when they took your bag, they would respond karibu for welcome. In a small way, this trip was going to be an emersion in Kiswahili.

We expected to pay 80 dollars for the ride since we didn't buy the transportation add-on to the tour, but no one asked for money. This one hour ride was going to be to last ride where this group was comprised of strangers. After this ride, we would be talking most of the time.

We arrived at Olasiti Lodge which is owned by the tour company. There was a short orientation. The tour leader's name is Godliving. The other game driver/guides are Good Luck, and the very unexciting-named Joshua. Godliving and Good Luck are not nicknames. These are their real names given to them by their parents. Already, we see that Tanzania is going to be full of surprises.