The Power Of One

More than half the world's population lives on $1 a day. Every little bit helps. Please give if you can, even if it's just a dollar. Visit the "First Giving" Link to the right to donate for Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up. When we first posted September seemed so far away, but it's creeping ever closer.

Feist on Sesame Street

I think I like Feist's music even more now... Enjoy!

Snapfish

In an effort to share all of our pictures, we created a snapfish account to create albums. That way, each of the travelers could purchase prints of anyone else's work. I don't know if Blogger will allow me to link to the snapfish library. Let me know if this works!

Camping at Cunningham Falls

We went camping this weekend at Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland. The waterfalls were really neat, but much to my sister's chagrin small children were slipping and sliding all over the rocks that make up the falling water's landing points. When we got back to the bottom we noted the signs banning climbing of said rocks and playing in of said waterfall. Much to my dismay, no one else was as excited as I by the prospect of going to the "Birds of Prey" show at the amphitheater in the evening. We enjoyed s'mores instead - which is definitely a good alternative. Alas a good time was had by all and we enjoyed the lake/beach on both Saturday and Sunday. We literally just beat the rain. As we were packing up our gear to go home, the skies darkened ominously. The rain chased Jeff and I home all the way as we witnessed the doppler radar on the news upon our arrival. This was like practice camping since we're going camping for a longer stretch of time come August in Colorado. Look out!

CUSKCGU

After going to the Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up page I found that they've taken the liberty to abbreviate their title. Jeff got an email indicating that we weren't yet registered. Evidently we were so gung ho to get started that we skipped all that silly registering and just got fund-raising pages instead. So, while registering we found the somewhat sobering news that we're expected as a team entry (with just two of us so far - anyone's welcome to join our team (hint, hint)) to raise $5,000. So, I changed my fundraising goal on my First Giving page from a skimpy $100 to $2500 (1/2 of $5000) and my neat-o percentage went from 70% (thank you to all those who gave already) to 3%. So sad. So, if you can, please give by clicking on my First Giving widget on the right. Thank you - and check out the video in the June postings somewhere. I do love the video.

Can You Hear Me Now?

While I was in Tanzania, I was amazed by the saturation of the market when it came to cell phone usage. At my mountaintop chit chat, Godwin explained to us that the Maasai don't have tv's or radios, but they do have cell phones. He also explained that people in rural areas have to travel to town to charge their cell phones. Here is a compilation of pictures of people in Africa on cell phones (even while driving - gasp!). My favorite was the village elder with his on a beaded lanyard around his neck.

Places to See Before You Die

One of the "Places to See Before You Die" on my iGoogle widget today is: Amsterdam...check!

4th of July

Happy Fourth of July!

Vote Boyle

This morning, I got to walk in the Rockledge 4th of July Parade and hand out candy for "Brendan Boyle for State Representative." It was really fun!

Motorcycle Madness

Some friends joined me at Chickie's and Pete's on the Boulevard in NE Philadelphia last night and we discovered that the 1st Thursday of every month there is a motorcycle rally there. Who knew? Crab fries...yum!

Welcome Home!

I arrived back on US soil at 6:00 exactly on Wednesday evening. From there, I took a train trip from Newark to Trenton and from Trenton to Philadelphia where I met up with Jeff and proceeded directly to a surprise party for a friend of ours - also named Jeff. The surprise was long over as I got there after 9:30. People began to leave shortly thereafter and some already had...I was so confused - then I realized it was a Wednesday, and people probably had to go to work the next morning! I was still pretty wired, but I definitely hit a wall and fell fast asleep on the drive home from the city. After 34 hours of traveling and 27 hours without sleep! But, by falling asleep at that time I once again readjusted seamlessly to my new time zone.

I AMsterdam

Bette and I arrived in Amsterdam at an eye popping 6 in the morning. Now, when I flew over to TZ, I adjusted to the time difference by sleeping on the plane at what would be the night time in my new destination. In order to do the same on the way home, I would have had to sleep right through our layover. Not a chance! We took the train from Schiphol airport into Amsterdam Central Station. From there, we walked the streets, ate breakfast at a coffee shop and rode the canal bus around town stopping off at the Van Gogh (pronounced goch - who knew?) Museum for an hour. Overall, I feel like we really took advantage of the time. I did have some heart failure for a few moments - when we got on the train to return to the airport at 1:30, I pulled out my boarding pass to take a look-see. The boarding time was listed as 13:31...the same time it was at that moment. That would mean we were supposed to board 2 hours prior to the take off time. I thought, this can't be possible...but what if it is? We arrived in the airport to check the departure times and our departure time was, in fact, 15:10...so we proceeded to our gate, where they were checking people in - only to walk through security and sit an enclosed room/terminal, where you couldn't go back out. The plane wasn't even there yet! Phew... I was just happy we weren't "those people" whose name get announced indicating that "You are delaying the flight, we will start to offload your baggage."

Really Out of Order...

Well, as I'm updating posts, Blogger is moving them back out of order, so in the end, I'll make sure they're in a sensible order, but they may no longer have the original dates...worse things have happened, right?? The conundrum of technology... once you think you have it figured out...well, you get the idea.

Nakupenda

Nakupenda (I Love You) Jeff! Jeff is my very understanding husband who told me I could go to Tanzania...as long as I come home. I'll be headed there shortly. I really did fall in love with this place though and with all of my fellow traveling friends too. I hope that I have forged some lifelong friendships, not only with my fellow classmates, but also across continents with some contacts I have made here. So, I'll be home soon!

Arusha National Park

We spent a wonderful last day in Tanzania at Arusha National Park. It was a bit chilly and rainy to start the day, but that didn't stop us! We left with "Green Footprints" early this morning to arrive in Arusha National Park, right at the base of Mount Meru. When we arrived, we drove to our spot and on the way got a great view of some of the same animals we saw on Sunday at Lake Manyara. This time, the giraffes were even closer. We went on a nature hike with our armed ranger and were able to view some other animals pretty close as well as Tululusia Waterfall. The water in these lakes and streams is very alkaline. When we got back to our jeep, we ate a quick lunch before proceeding to the lake to canoe "with hippos". This sounds much much more dangerous than it actually was. We canoed through little lake Momella and viewed a mama and a baby hippo on a small island in the middle of the lake. We did not go anywhere very close and it wasn't the kind of canoing I'd imagined (bumping into hippoes left and right) which is a good thing as this was much safer. The sun finally made a wonderful appearance while we were canoing which added to the surreal feeling on the lake. What a way to go! Here's a video of a monkey climbing through the trees above our heads.

Counting 1-10 in Spanish

Patty, an ESOL teacher, is one of two Spanish experts in our group. Jess is the other as she spent some time in Spain as well.

Off to Amsterdam Shortly

Well, it is 4:17 here in the Arcadia Computer Center. We'll be leaving shortly to return to the Everest Guest House to Crystal's room. She was kind enough to store our stuff since she is staying on a little longer here and then headed to Uganda. We'll catch a shuttle at 6:00 from the Impala Hotel to go to the Kilamanjaro Airport. Our flight leaves from there at 8:40 and we'll be headed to Amsterdam for (get this) an 8 hour layover!! Since it's such a lengthy layover, professor Bette and I have decided to try to make the most of our time in Amsterdam. We'll be leaving the airport to explore the city a little and get back with plenty of time to spare to get our last flight back to Newark. I'll see you all soon!! Hopefully I'll be able to re-adjust to home time as well as I was able to conform to Tanzania time. We'll see...

Counting 1-10 in French

Cindy, a high school science teacher, is also pretty fluent in French. Here goes!

Safe in Zanzibar

The girls (Leeron, Patty, Cindy, Jess, and Audrey) let me know via email that they've arrived safe in Zanzibar. I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to join them, especially after we've all grown so close, but at the same time I'm ready to head home. I fully expect to add a picture here of their arrival. Since we went to the travel agent, they were hooked up with (what I've just heard) excellent hotel accommodations and I expect to hear some fun stories from their next adventure. Good luck, girls!
Picture coming soon...