Wednesday, 29 August 2012

PACKING....UGH!!

For those of you who are following our trip to Zanzibar with CUSO international, the next few postings are going to be somewhat selfish in that it will be us complaining about what has to be done before you can take off and separate from Canadian society for a while....

Remember all those little jobs you promised yourself you would do....well they all come to roost when you have rented the house out and they still need to be done.....Today for the first and definitely I hope for the last time....I blew in insulation in the attic of the house...to increase the R factor....what a dirty, messy, dusty job...but it was also relatively easy...with a friend feeding the hopper and me in the attic.....we had it done in about 3 hours......

Also decided not to sell the car...as I could not get the value out of it...and the only inquiry I had..the guy wanted me to go down about $3000...NOT going to happen....so we will store it and pay about $660 for the two years....and be ahead of the game....its a diesel...so it will not hurt it too much to store....plus the kids will go down and start it every two or three months to keep the rats out of the engine......

So most of the packing is done....we have contracted with a mover to come and take the big stuff to the storage place..they will pack the mattresses, sofas, big chairs in bags to protect against dirt and damp to a certain extent. We also have carpet cleaners and stretchers coming...and we still have a few weeks left to go....so we are now in a bit more of a relaxed mode.....

Our passports arrived back today with our entry visas for the Republic of Tanzania duly affixed.....that will get us into the country...now all we have to do is to get the next ones..that will allow us to stay for more than three months and will also allow us to work.....

So thats where we are today, August 29th....and we can have the long labour day weekend to play with the grandkids.....yahoo......

more later

Monday, 27 August 2012

Well hi there.....our second posting to our blog.....still cannot figure out how to put in pix...that will come I suppose...and in any case...we dont have any pix yet....I guess we could always put in some from Guatemala for the time being.....its now about  4 weeks away until we leave Canada for England and a week with the relatives there....we were just talking tonight about how nice it will be to land at heathrow...go to the hotel, have a shower and a nap and then go out to a pub and have a nice $16 pint of beer......hmmmmmm so much for the budget...

We have done our shots and are in the process of taking the two oral vaccinations that are needed....the last one we will do is Dukoral for Cholera and coincidentally travellers stomach ailments....and its good for about 3 months on that aspect.....bonus....

Our house is now rented to a nice family and we hope that will last for the entire 2 years we are away...Derrick is now struggling to find a place to store the jetta in nanaimo, so the kids can keep an eye on it....today we built some big shelves in the storage unit to hold the sofa, love seat and easy chairs up high....and we can pack the smaller furniture down below....what a pain this packing...we had a garage sale on Saturday and while Derrick worked on the dock...Lois sold the family heirlooms....we are worth a lot...ha ha....

so the prep is continuing and we will post again in a few days to bring you all up to speed on our boring transition from nort americanos to Africanos.......its all going to be a blast....

nuf said for now...more later, keep checking back with us....
derrick and lois


Wednesday, 22 August 2012

The Beginning

The Beginning

Over the past 6 days, Lois and I have been in Ottawa at CUSO HQ to undergo training in the fine art of cultural awareness and understanding. A jampacked agenda, saw us working from about 8 am each day with a breakfast session to allow for networking with other volunteers. People from all over Canada and one token American were all brought together to learn more about other cultures, how to cope with issues such as gender equality and equity, perceptions of corruption, understanding that there is more than one story to analyze and so much more.

Each day was different and one to certainly look forward too as we ploughed though the works of well known social authors and their take on cultures and how we adapt and grow within them.

We came away from this weekend dog tired, jet lagged and yet more optimistic than we have been about our upcoming posting to Stonetown, Zanzibar in Tanzania, East Africa. We will be there for the next two years of our lives, absorbing a new and fascinating kaleidoscope of new cultures, languages, customs and peoples. We are looking forward to this as we do with any of our travels.

This is just a brief first blog and we will add to it each week as our adventure plays out before us. We leave Canada on the 23rd of September and will spend a week in England visiting relatives we have not see since we were evacuated out of Cambodia in the 90's. We have to arrive in Dar Es Salaam on the 30th to start in-country awareness and language training. So stay tuned..this is going to be an adventure from the edge.