Woke up at 5:30AM to get ready to leave. The boat was scheduled to take Pam, David, and I to the village to deliver our school and medical supplies. Kate and Cameron met us at breakfast to say farewell. They had a lot to do because a full house was expected in the afternoon and they were all persnickety eaters – demanding things that were not available like no meat of any kind; Arugula lettuce only; some very specific type of tofu; gluten-free pasta and baked goods; and no sugar or butter. Thank god I was leaving cuz this butter lickin’, meat eatin’, and gluten-full mama would not be able to survive in their environment.

It was a sad farewell as I said good-bye to the staff. Butati was going with us to lead us on our village tour. Butati is one of the success stories of the Nomad foundation. He was a child recipient of one of the scholarships and went to university. We toured the village and visited the school to deliver our supplies and meet the children. Then we walked through the center of town and met some of the merchants and learned about how they dry and smoke the local sardines. The clinic was closed so we left the medical supplies with someone who works there. It was funny we walked by a sign that had the names of the English soccer teams that would be playing. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Then we piled back in the boat and headed to the airport to meet up with the guests. When the plane finally landed. The persnickety new guests deplaned. The woman and the man were perfectly coiffed leggy supermodels and their Plain Jane, but stick-thin lesbi-friend. I actually forgot about their dietary demands. So when Mr. and Mrs. Talker started whispering and making fun of the beautiful people, I thought they were just filled with the anger and envy that only the mediocre know too well (me included). Then when we got on the plane, my memory of the earlier breakfast conversation with Kate came back to me, which made me exclaim, “Now I know why you two were making fun of the new guests and that the female super model was eating yogurt!” Everyone on the plane started chuckling. Then I said, “But I bet she has beautiful swimsuits!” This made everyone laugh loudly. Mrs. Talker added that she had no interest in finding out while cutting an eye at Mr. Talker.

My first flight to Amsterdam was late due to thunderstorms. The storm blew out the power and the computer systems at the airport. So there was a huge line of people waiting to check in. The lights came back on, but the computers remained down so the attendants had to handwrite all the boarding passes and luggage tags. It was nuts, but a fun end. Everyone in line was quite calm and laughing about the slow state of affairs. We all started talking and exchanging travel tales. There was a 30 Christians travelling on a mission. Each time someone got through the check-in process, the group cheered for them as the passengers walked to the immigration area. I met a group of travelers that had climbed Kilimanjaro to raise funds to build clean water wells in Pakistan. The flight to Amsterdam ended up being 2.5 hours late, which meant that I would probably miss my connection to the US…bummer.

Oh well . . . as long as I arrive in DC before Feb. 20th, which is the day I am slated to leave for Churchill, Manitoba to see the Northern Lights with my trusty travel companion – Veta (AKA my big sister).