Welcome to the first installment of my spring 2014 trip to FAME and Tanzania. I’m typing this from my iPhone (with a bluetooth keyboard, thankfully!) as my iPad SIM card didn’t want to work on arrival and is now our first destination tomorrow morning to make that happen as my iPad is essential while traveling here not only for my email, etc., but also as my navigation system for getting to the villages.

Megan and I had an incredibly uneventful trip here with a smattering of fortunate events. The first was to have been randomly given a TSA pre-check boarding pass which meant that I didn’t have to take all the electronics out of my carryon bag that I had so carefully wrapped – two MacBook Airs for FAME, my old iPad for FAME, my iPad and a brand new iPhone 5S for someone here. We had time in the club at Newark which totally blew Megan’s mind as she had never had the opportunity to relax in an airline club. The little perks of frequent travel. Our Amsterdam airport visit was short and the flight to Kilimanjaro went quickly – helped by a few movies and some sleep. We were through the immigration line quickly and our bags were nearly the first to arrive! We found Leonard and Pendo and hit the road for the hour drive to their home.

It was great to see both Lennox (now 11) and Lee (nearly 5) first thing this morning and they took to Megan immediately. I’ll have to admit, it’s so great to have Megan here as a bit of a buffer with the boys (Danielle will greatly appreciate that comment) as they can be a bit overwhelming at times, or perhaps most of the time. We spent a quiet day at home though Megan did accompany Pendo to the salon to get a bit of Tanzanian culture along the way. This afternoon, Megan and I took both boys out for a visit to a nice shop and then to town where I caved in and bought them ice cream at a nice little shop.

Tomorrow we’ll be up early to do some last minute errands in Arusha and then it’s off to Karatu and FAME where we expect to be sometime in the afternoon. I can’t wait to get back there. It will be my eighth visit and I plan to keep doing this. Megan is a great traveler and having grown up in Indonesia makes her totally accustomed to a third world culture. She’s a natural at this.

I didn’t do any photography today other than a few photos with my iPhone that I will attach. Lennox and Lee acting totally themselves in one and entertaining Megan in the other.

Lennox and Lee

It’s wonderful to be back in my second home and I’m looking forward to the next two weeks here.

All the best,

Mike