Our Trip to Tanzania

It was Feb. 21, 2011 and we were finally on our way to Tanzania! After many hours of crazily stuffing our clothes into our bags, we finished minutes before we left! Addison, my brother, was the last one to finish and we were literally packing up the taxi to take to the airport while he finished. Our trip to Logan Airport in Boston, MA was blessedly uneventful and we arrived there with plenty of time. We checked in our bags as well as our dog(Peaches, our standard poodle) and headed toward the gates. We were all a little nervous about Peaches because last time we took her on a plane we could hear her barking in the baggage hold, but thankfully she was silent- Praise the Lord!!! Our first stop was in Schiphol, Amsterdam where we had heard countless tales about how there were many professional pickpockets...... my parents warned us to take very good care of our bags. When we got to the airport, my dad proposed that my mom go to the frequent flier's lounge(my dad used to travel a ton) and keep the bags, while the rest of us go and get a bite to eat since only the person with the miles and one guest could stay in the lounge. My dad went to get my mom situated with the bags and set everything up while Addison, Grace(my sister), and I waited in the entry way. However, embarrassingly enough, the desk clerk apparently thought it looked bad to have three, tired, dirty kids in the entrance to a "frequent flier" lounge, and told us after about 20 min. that we could go in. We, therefore, were able to have some breakfast, check our emails, and keep our bags safe! To us, tired, weary souls:) it was a miracle! We then left for Kilimanjaro on another providentially quiet flight and got some sleep which we definitely needed! When we arrived, it was nighttime in Tanzania and quite warm after the freezing temperatures we had left behind in America.  We went to get our bags and green cards sorted out and then went to customs with our dog. ( who was very happy to see us) We then got a wake up call to Africa when the officials decided that peaches was very valuable and tried to charge us money to take her into the country. My Dad finally agreed and priced her at $2.50. (my mom joked that she was probably only worth half of that because she was in heat) The custom's officials argued that she was worth 50$ and we finally agreed on $12.50. We left the airport finally and got into the cars.(because we had so much luggage, 2 per person, we had to take two cars) My dad, Grace and I were in one car and my brother and mother were in the other car. We started off and the going was smooth for about 15 min. but then the driver of my car suddenly got a call- the other car had some engine trouble…… I started praying. After a few minutes of trying to get the car running, we finally ended up hooking up my mom’s car and towing it. We headed to the hotel where we were supposed to meet the owner of the hostel in which we were staying. We met him there and followed him to the hostel where we were greeted by Tammy( the hospitable wife of the owner) She hastened to inform us of hot showers,  clean beds, and pilou, a traditional Tanzanian dish.(It is rice with some seasonings and meat) We sat down and ate, surprised about how hungry we were. Even though we probably would have eaten anything at that point, we found that the pilou was fantastic! I ate more than I had eaten in one sitting since Christmas! We tumbled into bed at about 3:00 am and were sound asleep in minutes!