Landed in TZ!!!

We’re here! After a long and somewhat stressful trip, we arrived in Tanzania yesterday afternoon. It feels great to be “home”, and I thank God that he answered our prayers, and we all arrived here safe and sound. At the commencement of our trip, I quickly became weary when our plane began to have mechanical issues DURING take off. Not before, not after (thank God!), but during. It was our first flight, and I remember sitting in the plane in Calgary, vaguely listening to the announcements, and everything seemed fine! As we prepared for takeoff, the plane gained momentum as it sped down the runway, but then… the whole thing just shuddered, all the lights flickered on and off, and we stopped. Everyone was like… um? What was that?!?! Since I am by no means a frequent flyer, I had no idea if that was normal, or not… everyone around us seemed calm, which somewhat helped my own demeanor. After this happened, an announcement came on, (all of a sudden the announcements had my FULL attention of course, lol ) and they explained to us that they were experiencing “minor mechanical difficulties”, and that they would get it fixed shortly. Until then, we were to remain on the plane and keep ourselves occupied. We had updates like this every 20 min, and with each update I remember growing uneasy, and thinking, “I don’t care how minor this problem is, I don’t even think I would feel comfortable taking off in this plane!” Sure enough after 2 hours of waiting, there was an announcement which informed us that there was a serious engine problem, and the plane would not have made the trip, so we were to disembark and further arrangements would be made for us. So we got off the plane at about 9pm, and waited around for further information. About 20 minutes after, an announcement came on to tell us that they had arranged another flight for us at 2:30am. So our initial thought was great, we’re still in Calgary, we can go home and nap 4 a bit before coming back, BUT… they wouldn’t let us leave the terminal, so even to go to Tim Horton’s down the hall wasn’t allowed. Needless to say, it was a bit frustrating, especially since a lot of us hadn’t eaten because we were expecting to eat right away on the plane. However, I would have rather been hungry than flying on a plane with serious engine problems, so I was quite content to sleep, and wait until the replacement plane was ready to go.

Once the plane arrived, it was an uneventful flight, food was good, movie selections were also good (from what I hear, I slept the whole way through), and we arrived safely in London to find out that due to the delay we had missed our connection flight, but were assured that everything had been taken care of, and our flight had been rescheduled. We ended up only having a 2 hr wait in London, before we were on our way again to Doha, Qutar. Let me just take this time to say, that Qatar airlines is wonderful compared to Air Canada. Seriously, Air Canada is an embarrassment compared to Qatar airlines. Anyways, so when we got to Doha, we literally only had 20 min to make our next connection to Tanzania. It felt like amazing race (for those who watch the show) running around the airport, trying to get through security in time to make the flight. We embarked and disembarked our plane in Doha outside, and man was it humid! The air was so thick, it was almost suffocating, and the heat was crazy… 35 Celsius and it was only 6am in the morning! Lol… definitely a big change compared to Canada weather. Once we were in the air, we ate, and I quickly fell asleep again… it was weird because I slept on every single flight, without the use of sleeping aids. From the advice of Sara, I had stocked up on melatonin to aid me in sleeping on the fights because I usually have difficulty falling asleep anywhere that’s not a bed, but this time around, I fell asleep quite easily. So when we arrived in Tanzania, while I still felt exhausted from the travels, I felt very well rested. We arrived here at around 1pm, and quickly dropped off our belongings at the condo before visiting our grandparents. Our arrival in Tanzania was a complete surprise, only my mom’s sister knew. We went to my paternal grandparents’ house first. When my grandma saw my dad, she just stood there, and burst into tears and loud exclamations. My aunt, who was at the house at the time heard this, and she also burst into tears as we all reunited. My grandpa who was taking a nap at the time woke up and honestly believed he was dreaming. Ha-ha.. I literally still giggle out loud when I picture the look on his face when he saw us all.

After, we headed over to my maternal grandparent’s house, and after we were let in the gate we saw my Grandpa sitting on the porch in his rocking chair, listening to his portable radio. I was the first one out, and he glanced over at me, and didn’t even bother to get up. Lol, he didn’t recognize me or my family who was behind me until he heard my mom’s voice. Lol, then my grandma who had heard the commotion from inside came out and joined in the reunions. It was great to see the grandparents again. Growing up, I often envied the relationships my friends had with their grandparents, and promised myself I would try to avoid the same separation with my kids. Seeing them again after so long was great, because it allowed the opportunity to build on the few memories I have with my grandparents. After we made the rounds to see our grandparent’s it had already grown late and we were so exhausted, so we headed home for the night, with plans to see everyone else the next day, and we’ve been here ever since. Its currently 4pm right now, and everyone is still sleeping. They are so jet lagged! Meanwhile I have been up since 6am, trying to keep myself busy with TV, internet, and finishing up my last online assignment. Sleeping through all those flights really helped, because I don’t feel jet lagged at all… maybe the time change and everything will eventually catch up with me… We shall see I guess!

Anyways, that’s my trip summary…! I tried to keep it as short as I could… I’ll continue to update my blog as my trip progresses. I’ve already taken tons of pics, and hope to upload them soon!