The trip home - physically

Taxi, ferry, taxi, airplane x 3, and daughter + 36 hours is the marathon journey to physically get home from Africa.

I left the resort at 2:00pm on Nov 30th to begin my journey home. Then a two hour fast ferry ride from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. The ferry was somewhat like the Victoria clipper, but bigger, more comfortable and possibly faster. That I don't know. They had 3 or 4 big screen tvs in the part I was in and they played movies. It made the crossing time go fast. The ferry was not crowded which was nice.

Once on the other side there are taxis and porters galore. You can negotiate a price for your taxi ride to where you are going. On our way to the airport we got stuck in traffic. This was no big deal to me as I had about 6.5 hours before my flight. Once at the airport I had dinner and then watched a movie on my portable dvd player.

The flight from Dar es Salaam was good. It was smooth with very little turbulence. I looked out the window periodically to see if I could seen anything. Since it was a clear night anytime there was a city or town below I could see its lights. I arrived in Amsterdam at about 7 am, I think.

Once in Amsterdam, I wandered around the airport and waited for my flight. The flight from Amsterdam to Seattle was very neat. We again flew over Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Island, Hudson's Bay, over Edmonton and down to Seattle. The day was bright and clear and everytime I looked out the window I could see the scenery below. I made a point of looking out the window everytime we were above one of the above mentioned places - except Edmonton. I saw frozen ocean, rivers, snow capped mountains, snow filled valleys, large chunks of ice flows, frozen barren looking ground, and the majesty of the Rockies. Wow!

The flight from Seattle to Victoria was beautiful and the plane flew over the Cowichan Valley on its approach to the airport. Sun shining on this beautiful place I call home. Green trees, green grass, green shrubs all healthy looking.

I was home, but my suitcase wasn't. I had to fill out a missing baggage claim, then go through customs. When I got to customs, two of the three agents had already closed their wickets. The only remaining officer was giving detailed information to the couple at his wicket. By this time I was very tired and began to worry that my daughter would worry when no other people were coming through the door and she still hadn't seen me. When I finally got to the customs officer he had questions concerning my missing luggage and it's contents as well as some things I had declared on my form. I told him about my concern for my daughter and he let me go and get her before we finished. That was nice as Tammy had began to worry when she didn't see me.

A nice dinner with Tammy and her fiance Trevor and then "home sweet home". Greeted by Ferne and then a phone call to my parents before a nice hot shower and then into bed. Boy, was it ever nice to be in my own bed. Not that I missed it, but I sure appreciated it once I was back.

This trip has been an amazing and eye opening experience for me. I am looking forward to seeing all of you who have been following my blog. Thank you for doing that as it has been fun reporting back to you. Sorry there wasn't more pictures. (If anyone know of someone or somewhere that can retrieve pictures from a memory card please let me know.) I look forward to sharing more in person.

Prayer request: That I am able to find someone who can recover the pictures on the memory card that have been lost.

That God continue His good works in me and that I have the courage to let go of my will and walk in the perfect life that God has for me. All for Him! Amen.