Questions and Answers

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I have heard it said that you ask questions when your interested and daydream when your bored. I must be doing something right, as I have gotten several questions. And this REALLY gets me going! The proverbial "Ask me about my Grandchildren" syndrom. You all know what I am talking about .. the pictures come out, the grandious stories of how your grandson or granddaughter made the winning goal or touchdown, and the gleam in the eyes with pride. Well, we are sort of like that about Africa. We could talk all night!

So, as questions are posed to me, I'll answer so everyone can see, maybe someone else was thinking the same thing.

Do they use dollars? And if not what? And how much is that in dollars? They use shillings instead of dollars - and the exchange rate is approximately $1 equal 1,100 shillings. I say approximately because the exchange rate changes EVERY day ... When we first got to Chimala in 1992 it was right at 400 shillings to the dollar. Which means there economy has NOT improved over the years.

Cokes come in GLASS BOTTLES - yes! I said glass bottles and they are wonderful!!!!! NO ... there is no Mt. Dew. Sad for me as I'd rather have a Mt. Dew than food on most days.

Winter and summer are opposite ours .... it gets "cold" in June ... we'd call it spring/fall. No snow except on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. No frost. But you can find me packing my gloves and boggin, as I do NOT DO cold weather - even if it is in Africa and not realllllly cold. I am taking no chances!

As far as what we are doing right this minute - well right this minute I am writing this - but you get the idea, we are trying to get our container shipment arranged. We have been told that right now at this time the difference between a 20 ft. container and a 40 ft. container is only a few hundred dollars as the military and government is using most of the 20 ft containers for shipments overseas. This leaves us with a blessing in disguise as we won't have the hard decision to make of what to leave off if we have more than a 20 ft. container will hold.

For those who don't know what I mean when I say a container .. it is the box that is the back of a tracter trailer semi ... the box actually comes off the wheels.

Being the buyer in the family I have bid out the job so to speak to see who will give us the best price, plus the quickest and safest shipment. It has become very interesting. I have a couple of clearing agents in Tanzania and Kenya that are very promissing and then a couple of folks here in the states to make arrangements on this side. Say a prayer for the best at the cheapest price for us. After all what is on this container is everything I own in the world!

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