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Diary - Sunday November 10, 2002I've always liked that classic song by Willie Nelson, "On the Road Again". I'm sure it has become the theme song for travelers the world over and not just for those in the music industry. So Pat and I are definitely on that road once again, and what a journey we have had so far. Some
people believe that if you are traveling on your ideal path that
the universe will support you in one way or another, perhaps by
giving you signs or opening doors for you. If that is truly the
case, then I think we are on that ideal, "road less traveled".
It started with Tony Pugh, the Cargo Manager with Air Transat. Although, we have never met this man, we already have a huge amount of respect for him. Pat had managed to connect with Tony several days before our departure and was able to explain to him a bit about our project and direct him to our web site. From that conversation and from the goodness of his heart, we were able to transport to the UK, about 80 Kilos of excess baggage free of charge. Of course this so called excess, consists of supplies and materials for the clinic in Jambiani, so we are very grateful to Tony and Air Transat for their generosity and thoughtfulness. We arrived in the UK in the later part of October, and during that week, we managed to deliver a presentation to St. Aubyns School in Essex, meet with Dr. Carlyle Jenkins and visit with Pat's relatives. St. Aubyns is a private school and they have been involved in fund raising for Jambiani School for a couple of years now. We had a really enjoyable time, meeting the kids and Malcolm Watkins, the teacher responsible for the fund raising projects in the first place. They are interested in establishing video conferencing capabilities with the children in Jambiani, so we will be investigating that possibility when we arrive in Zanzibar. We also had an excellent visit with Carlyle, a Chiropractor from Australia who is donating a month to the project later in the New Year. Carl is an avid hiker and telemark skier and should add some very positive energy to the Jambiani Wellness Center. I'm not certain the skiing will be that great though. Water skiing maybe. Of course, the visit with the "relies" was fantastic as usual and we eventually rolled out of Aunty Gwen's and Uncle Bill's several pounds heavier and with several pounds in the bank thanks to the generosity of many of the relies. To them we offer our sincere gratitude. Our good fortune continued with Air Emirates, our carrier down to Dubai and Dar Es Salaam. Once again, Pat managed to connect with "the" man in their cargo department and although they were not able to give us free transport for our excess, they gave us a substantial discount that saved us literally hundreds of dollars. So our thanks go out to the good people at Air Emirates. We had a gentle cruise down to Dubai, our next destination in the United Arab Emirates, and were met at the airport by Mr. Jan Demmink, an old friend of one of Pat's father's friends. Words alone cannot express our gratitude to Jan and his lovely wife Hannelore. We can say, without a doubt, that if not for the generosity and help given to us by Jan and Hannelore, we would not have been able to accomplish the tasks we had set for ourselves in Dubai. They kept us on track, made appropriate connections for us, introduced us to some fabulous local cuisine and shuttled us around town. Once again, we felt supported by the universe as we set out to buy supplies to outfit the clinic and accommodation. In all we shipped close to 7 cubic meters of goods down to Zanzibar, hoping that it will arrive there by mid December. To Jan and Hannelore, we say, "thank you so much for your support and assistance extended to us during our stay with you in Dubai, for your donation of clothing, for your most gracious hospitality and for introducing us to your dear friend, Michelle Meuleman, who so generously donated a large quantity of kids clothing for us to take to Jambiani. Also for organizing the donation of two used computers from KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines in Dubai. Much appreciated. We can only hope to meet with you again on Zanzibar, perhaps sometime in the New Year and to extend a warm Swahili welcome to you." Diary - Thursday, November 14, 2002Mambo vipi na salaama sana. Well, we have finally arrived in Jambiani after a pretty hectic time in Dar Es Salaam. We were given a tremendous opportunity to practice patience at Customs and Immigration in Dar as we spent 7 hours clearing two small pieces of cargo that we had sent separately from our checked baggage. I think we handled the situation as well as we could and certainly much better than we would have five years ago. We eventually had to get a bit forceful when they were asking us to return to the cargo area to get a gate pass. As it turned out, we literally had to jump on the ferry to Zanzibar as it pulled out of the port.The run to Zanzibar is about two hours by fast boat and in what seemed no time at all, we arrived, a bit tired, but relieved to be home again. Our dear friend Mrisho was there to meet us as well as Salehe, the engineer who built the house and clinic. We had a very relaxed cruise out to Jambiani and ate Swahili style on the floor of the clinic. Both Pat and I were really surprised with how much work had been done since we left in May. Most noticeable was the landscaping that had been done by our two askari, Maulidi and Simai. They had really gone out of their way to have the site looking very clean and well groomed. We were impressed!! As well, the house and clinic are looking awesome with only a bit of finishing work left to do over the next couple of weeks or so. As to be expected, I did manage to treat a few patients today and with the new table, it was a real treat. Anyhow, we are off to town tomorrow with a pretty full agenda to attend to. No lying on the beach for these imports. Feels tremendous to be back in Jambiani, and we are really looking forward to the weeks ahead, as we officially launch the Jambiani Wellness Centre. We send our love to you all and until the next update we can say, binadamu wote ni ndugu na wamoja. Ali Baba and Mama Pat  |