Homeward Bound

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We took photos and said our goodbyes to our friends at home base after lunch.<span><span> We said goodbye to Kilimanjaro on our way to the airport but once airborne we flew directly in front of the mountain.<span> We know two people who are climbing now so it was fun to imagine them hiking up as we flew<span> past.<span> My seat mate was a young man going to school in Dubai who had just summated Kili.<span> It was a much tougher endeavor than he had imagined.<span> His climbing companion had to turn back and go down so my seat mate summated with his guide.<span> Last week someone died of altitude sickness below base camp.<span> Our guides on the coffee tours said people die every year because they don’t pay attention to the early symptoms of altitude sickness.<span> There are no helicopters to rescue people.<span> The only way out is to climb or be carried.<span> He said guides also die because they lead too many tours and don’t rest in between treks.<span> On a much more inspirational note,<span> this same young man was coming down from the summit on July 4^th when he heard singing.<span> There was a group supporting and recording the ascent of a soldier who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and lost both of his legs.<span> Apparently the soldier has only had his prosthetic legs for 6 months.<span>What amazing courage and determination.



We made it to Nairobi and were in the process of trying to get our luggage transferred to our Swiss Air flight to Zurich when the power went out at the airport.<span> I can’t deny that I had flashbacks to all of the negative comments people made about the Nairobi airport but generators got main hallway lights on and in about<span> 20 minutes the power was back on.<span> No long delays.<span> We had a 6 hour layover so we had lots of time.<span> We walked to stretch out and we found a delightful restaurant<span> where we had veggie burgers and veggie burritos and Dave indulged in a chocolate milkshake.<span> A men’s tennis match was on – Fedderer vs someone.<span> It was a bit surreal to see television, especially tennis.<span> Everyone we spoke to at the airport was very helpful. We’ll find out soon if our luggage was correctly tagged and routed.<span> We saw a woman talking on her red cell phone,wearing the fanciest burka imaginable. It was silky black and the ends of the headcovering and front veil as well as the hem of the garment were all sparkling with either rhinestones or actual diamonds. Burka bling! Now that I think of it and put 2+2 together the royal plane - the plane of the Sheik who is the president of Dubai was on the tarmac when we landed in Nairobi. I know this because the young man who sat next to me mentioned wishing he could a get ride with the Sheik to avoid the 5 hour layover. I'll bet the woman I saw was his wife (or one of them) - that would make the "bling" real diamonds.

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We left Nairobi just before midnight on Swiss Airand to our disbelief, we were served dinner about 12:15 am.<span> We tried to get a little sleep, had a croissant breakfast at 5:30 am and arrived in Zurich about 6:30am. The representative that met our flight had no information about a flight to Frankfurt and suggested we just go to terminal A or B.<span> The first flight<span> monitor we saw showed an hour delay for our flight.<span> That gave us lots of time to find our gate.



We are currently in Frankfurt and are really ready to begin this last leg of our journey home.<span> It’s been 23 hours since we left Moshi and we have the 10 hour transatlantic flight ahead of us.<span> Unless I canaccess internet here, I won’t even be able to post this until we’re in Denver.<span> Syd and Dave have worked on photos & videos on our longer layovers.<span> We all hope to sleep well tonight.<span> The plan is for Syd & I to start driving to KS tomorrow, her Dad and Mom will drive towards Colorado and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle, so neither of us has a 2 day drive (there and back).



Thanks for taking the journey to Tanzania with us.<span> Our minds and hearts have been forever opened and altered by the experience.<span> Sydney is sure she will return (she’d like to bring her whole family) and even Babu Dave said he wouldn’t rule out another trip.<span> There is much more to process and discuss in the coming days and we will be in touch with our new friends half a world away.



Love,



Sharon, Sydney and Dave

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