The Back Story

Ron and I returned from 13 months in India and Thailand in late April 2017. After such a long time away I really wanted to just spend some time at home nesting. We needed to spend some time settling in and it actually took two months for that to happen, surprising both of us. It was as if every closet, drawer and cabinet needed cleaning out or straightening up or organizing. It took days to get our phones and email up and running in spite of making arrangements for the internet before coming home. It took a few days to get the car working as the battery had died and jump starting didn’t work. Our hybrid requires a special battery. Our Quicken software had stopped working in India and it took a while to input data so we could then get our tax information to the CPA. You get the picture, lots of items on the ‘to do’ list.

Next we ventured to WY to see Mark and his family and it was a wonderful trip driving through a great snow in the Rockies en route, but with no problems. WY was sunny and snow free in Sheridan. That was in May I think. 

Bill, Sandi and Tricia

Sister Toni and husband Charlie

Then in late June  we headed east to visit family in RI, NY, PA and SC.

We got home on the 12^th   of July.     While we were traveling Ron got an email asking if he would like to do some pro bono work in Tanzania. Well of course!  Who would pass up another opportunity to travel to Africa? So we leave July 30^th and fly for 10 hrs to Amsterdam direct (yahoo!). We will have a two hr layover then board a direct flight to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, another 10 hr. flight. We will spend a few days in the capital where Ron will work with staff on the project before we head to Iringa, a mountainous community of about 112,000. It will be in the 70’s there during the day which sounds delightful. In Dar Es Salaam is will be in the 80’s and humid. Anything after the 115-120 temps in India should be easy. We will go back to Dar Es Salaam for Ron to debrief the staff and to review his work. Next we will fly to the Serengeti where we hope to witness the great migration of the wildebeest. They follow the rain where they can get green grass for grazing and we hope our timing will be just right to see them. If not I am sure there will be other sights in the Serengeti. I will post in the blog as time and internet access allows. We return to Portland August 21^st.

We will travel to Iceland and Norway from Sept 5-16^th with Sandi and Bill Rosen. Ron’s sister and Bill live in RI and we will meet up in Iceland for yet another travel adventure. I will use this same website for that blog.