Some Progress, and a Pleasant Surprise

So my passport has been sent off to be renewed, and I will get the needed visas upon its return. Final payment has been made to the travel agency, so there's no turning back now.

Zenda, BZ's male lion

It's been arranged for me to have a roommate for the Tanzania portion of my trip. Chris Panek, from the staff at Brookfield Zoo and I will be rooming together for that portion, but he will not be going on to the Kenya portion. Too bad. He and I have spoken on the phone and he seems really great. Plus he has been to Africa before, last fall with another zoo group, so he knows a lot of the ropes.

I have upgraded my camera's memory chip supply (have over 5 gig now, enough for 9,000 photos or some video), bought a few clothes that I think will be appropriate, have a headlamp, a flashlight, and a few other goodies.

Tomorrow I go to the medical travel specialists for my inoculations:  Yellow Fever, Hep A&B,  and whatever else they recommend, plus I'm going to need a prescription for pills to ward off malaria. Not really looking forward to it.


Had some great news today about a really unbelievable coincidence.  I found out that two of my favorite

African Painted Dog at BZ

colleagues from my first teaching job at Jefferson Middle School in Villa Park  have volunteered to teach a five week session at an orphanage/school right in the same area of Tanzania where I will be. They arrive the same weekend that I come back to Arusha from the Serengeti, and will only be a few miles away in Mailisita on that Saturday night. I'm going to do my best to find a way to meet up with them for dinner, and am excited to see how that might work out. Here's a link to the school/orphanage/hotel where they are are volunteering, looks like a very worthwhile place:

The Mailisita Foundation

The Decision

Well, I've finally decided to do it. An African Safari has been on my wish list for a long time, and the brochure from the Brookfield Zoo-sponsored trip finally put me over the top. As of today I have committed to joining their group from May 21 to June 7, exploring some of the greatest game areas in Africa.

On this blog, I hope to post regularly about plans, arrangements, and finally, during the trip, regular reports whenever there is a Wi-Fi opportunity. If I can figure out a way to do it, I will also try to post a limited number of pictures from each day of the trip.

A friend of mine from basketball officiating, Lou Leuzzi, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro last year on an expedition, so he was in virtually the same area of Tanzania where I will be, and he has already been very helpful with details about visas and cash and some very important local knowledge and lots of encouragement. He also got me started on this blog idea.   Pictured at right are the climbers from his group that made it all the way to the top of Kili. Lou is upper left. Thanks for all your help, Lou!

Here's a link to Lou's blog from his trip, if you'd like to read or see more of that: Lou's Mt. Kili Blog