Arrival at Mt Kilimanjaro National Airport

And I have arrived!  It's a beautiful Wednesday afternoon here in Tanzania.  Kilimanjaro International Airport is pretty small; no pulling up to a gate here.  There are few enough flights that the people who live around here know what flights land at one time; Lewis says that there is a daily KLM flight that comes in in the evening so when you see a big plane at that time, you know that's what it is.

Once we got off the plane, I had to fill out a form for my tourist visa.  The forms were available in a tent out back, so I had that ready by the time I made it in the building.  The line for visas wasn't too long; I waited there while everyone else went ahead to get the luggage (not out of sight; arrivals is really all one big room).  I had no problems at all getting a tourist visa (despite the worried of the Italian check-in guy); five minutes later I was walking out the front door of the airport, to be met by this little welcoming committee:

I'd been on the flight with the girls, of course, but they'd run on ahead as the others were taking the luggage out to the cars.  Beth, an American who is married to a Tanzanian and lives in Monduli, has become a close friend of the Shorts' and she had come to drive one of the two cars needed to pick us all up.  She had made a nice sign for me, and her little boy was there to hold it up for me.  He's such a sweet kid. :)  (If you can't read it in the picture, it just says 'Welcome to Tanzania, Katy.'

It took two cars for all of and all of our stuff.  Beth had driven one, and Albert, the Shorts' neighbor and driver for the school, brought the other.  The one Albert drove, that you can see in the photo below, takes diesel and is a tough four-wheel-drive, which you need around here.  The other car we were in is also a four-wheel drive, but slightly smaller and not diesel.  In the end, all the luggage was piled into the brown car, leaving room for only Albert and Lewis.  The rest of us piled into the other.  I thought I took a better selfie than this in the car, but I think I took it on Michela's phone and I haven't remembered to get it from her yet.  And no...I am not driving.  This part of the world drives on the left.  :)

It's a nearly three hour trip from the airport to Monduli; we fortunately stopped at a nice gas station with a little shop about forty-five minutes in for cold drinks.  I got a pineapple Fanta...if you ever get the chance, try one!  They're amazing.  

Made It On the Plane!

Well, we made it on the plane.  As much as I enjoy flying, it can be stressful.  We took the airport express train from Cadorna as I mentioned in my last post.  Once Michela and I got to the airport, she went down to help the rest of her family as they sorted out their luggage (two suitcases times five people plus carryons, adding in the things bought in Italy and putting back what they'd taken into Milan to wear while in Milan, etc., means an awful lot of luggage) while I went ahead to check in my suitcases (yay, I have two again!) to get them out of the way.  The guy at the check-in counter worried me by wondering aloud if they'd let me into Tanzania on a tourist visa as I have a one-way ticket (thanks for giving me THAT to worry about for the next sixteen hours.  Spoiler alert: they did let me in.), but he was also great because he wasn't too fussed about whether my luggage was exactly within the weight limits.  They were close at least.

Michela and I got to the airport a good three hours before our flight, and the Shorts even earlier; still by the time we got all of their luggage checked in we had an hour and forty-five minutes.  Security, customs...slow.  But, we had plenty of time by the time we were done still, so we stopped for food (gigantic pieces of pizza) and last cups of Italian coffee for those that means something to (not a coffee person myself).  Then we started for the gate...the sign said seven minutes' walking time to that gate, but it lied.  We heard the announcement that our flight was boarding, and so we started running ( I HATE RUNNING).  We were some of the last people to board, but it was fine.  Honestly, we weren't actually late, it was just that boarding went more quickly than usual because there were so few people on the flight.  We got settled and then still had a good twenty minutes before the time scheduled for take-off.

My seat was right over the wing while the Shorts were almost all the way in the back; after I was settled I went back to take some pictures.  We took a few as selfies that I was in as well, but I think they were on Tammy's phone and I haven't gotten them from her yet.

The reason why there were so few people on board is that the plane was stopping in Rome on the way to Addis Ababa to pick up more people.  So, for the first hour, I had three seats myself (and no one was in the center four, either).  It would have been nice to stay like that all night, but of course we did pick up quite a crowd in Rome.  Still, it was just two people to every three seats so it could have been much worse.  The only further annoyance was that a large number of the people boarding in Rome seemed to be a large tour group of elderly Italians.  Now, I love Italians, but that was a bit much in one place.  Nobody could just sit down and mind their own business; everyone had to stand up and inquire as to where so-and-so was and complain a bit and make sure everyone else was well settled first.

The rest of the overnight flight was fairly uneventful; I got a bit of sleep and woke up in Africa.