Our Trip Begins by Playing Traveler’s Jigsaw

God brought together a team for this year of all veterans to Tanzania. And our veterans sometimes like to make their own arrangements for side trips before or after our trip. So we had an interesting puzzle to plan out for our first day.

Cindy Pennie, RN, Stillwater, OK, is again our team leader. Nancy Bean, retired Veterinarian, Weatherford, Tx is assisting our nurses, putting her medical knowledge to use and will be again acting as our unofficial ambassador. Cindy flew to Dallas and joined Nancy for a direct flight to Doha, Qatar.

Pati Murdock, Rogers, AR, is again acting as our team manager. Debbie Jones, Xray tech, Tuttle, Ok will be assisting wherever she is needed but will be particularly valuable in reading any Xray results. Pati and Debbie met in Chicago and caught a direct flight, also to Doha, Qatar.

Both sets of the team met in the airport in Doha. An interesting part of their flight involved a 16 hour layover in the international city of Doha. But Qatar airlines has a wonderful way to overcome that and includes the cost of a room for each traveler at a 4- or 5-star hotel. A quick hop on a shuttle bus led them to the Oryx Rohara hotel. The foursome enjoyed a leisurely meal at a Tapas restaurant and hit the sack for a great night’s sleep before catching the last leg of their flight this morning into Dar es Salaam, where they arrived at 3 pm and were met by Tabita Kilatu. who is the representative from the Tanzanian church and helps the team in every way.

Dinner in Dar with Kilatu, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive.
From L to R, Kilatu, Cindy, Pati, Nancy and Debbie. 

Meanwhile, John Houck, ENT MD, Edmond, OK was enjoying a tour of Italy with his wife, Sally Houck, who is a pastor in the ELCA and joined us two years ago, along with John and John’s brother David. David is an engineer and lives in Millpitas, CA. John and Sally left Italy to go to France, where they visited with family. David joined them in France. After their time there, Sally returned home and John and David caught a flight from Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam and are scheduled to arrive about 11:30 pm.

Gamma Cyprian and his wife, Emily, RN, live in Neosho, MO. Emily has been on the team in two previous years and actually met Gamma on her first trip with the team. The couple later married and have two beautiful daughters, Andie and Eva. The family was able to arrange to serve on the team this year and will be introducing their daughters to their Tanzanian family. Gamma will serve as our advisor, guiding us in the social and political ways, and will be translating as well. Emily will be working as one of our RNs. They intended to join Cindy, Pati, Debbie and Nancy on the flight to Qatar, but were unable to get seats.  They were able to book a flight but were forced to leave one day later so will be arriving in Dar es Salaam tomorrow around noon.

Finally, our team will be complete once Lance Miller, retired engineer, Hot Springs Village, AR and his wife, Eileen, retired music teacher and their granddaughter, Courtney Giebel, Naperville, IL arrive on Monday night. Courtney is graduating today from Northwestern University, Il, so the Millers attended Courtney’s ceremony and will fly out tomorrow.

We will all be together for the first time Tuesday in Morogoro. So please continue to pray for safe travels for us all.