I have been truly blessed to have the dear friend of a former student's parent come with me on my trip. When NF and I were trying to arrange things, the shots were the only problem. NF then emailed and said her dear friend LC would love to come with me. I met LC for coffee on Saturday morning at J.J. Bean on Main Street, a fabulous little coffee place, and don't know how to begin to thank her for accompanying me on this trip. She is like an angel in disguise! She is very well travelled in developing countries and will be a tremendous resource to me. I stand to benefit greatly from her background and experiences. As KR said at work today to have somebody with me to observe the children in the orphanages and that is so experienced is truly amazing. Now we have our work cut out for us as we are going to be visiting 18 orphanages. I can only hope and pray that LC will blessed with becoming an honorary aunty!
After two hours on Sunday and two hours on Monday at the Flight Centre, we have our flights. We fly to Toronto and then on from there. I had done copious amounts of research into flights and went in with the best routing and best prices. On Sunday the agent's computer wouldn't recognize or accept my routing. You should see the 'milk run' through the United States that was one option!!!! The other option that was Air Canada most of the way with the last leg on a local airline had poor arrival and departure times in the country. The tour book, thanks dad for the amazing stocking stuffer, and embassy websites all say not to arrive late at night or leave early in the morning. The road from the airport to the town is notorious for bandits or thugs!!!! On Monday after my Flight Centre agent phoned head office, he was able to get the route I wanted. My agent worked so hard and then waived the booking fee. Thanks DI. Every little bit helps at the moment. The flights were more expensive than I'd found but we have excellent insurance for almost everything. Now I am trying to decide on a hotel. Have you ever read hotel reviews on Trip Advisor? Eye-yah! The place I was considering staying can apparently be quite noisy with a neighbouring all-night night club! So I am looking at somewhere else. Will keep you all posted.
Next few jobs are to order local currency from the bank on Wednesday. Go to my GP and get prescriptions for a whole host of things on Thursday, and to meet with my lady at the bank on Saturday morning to drain my TFSA and part of my mutual funds! Due to delays at this end locally, I was unable to travel over spring break as I had hoped to so am now having to take personal leave from work.
I will post about my treat bags soon. I haven't done anything on them on this week. Just by luck at the weekend I found a sombrero at MEC that fit! It is hot pink in colour and has SPF 50. I did quite a bit of damage at MEC. I got a bum bag and a day pack. I need to return a few things and pick up a few more. The hat is amazing as I have such a big head, in size my friends, that I have had to have hats made for me in the past.
Next week: I have my last rabies shot and need to buy some supplies at the travel clinic. For example; rehydration salts, DEET spray, and the sterile needle/syringe pack.
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