Live from the KIA Lodge Compound...

As I am sure everyone has heard, a volcano erupted in Iceland last week. Mass chaos has pretty much ensured around the world as thousands of people were stranded and everything from car manufacturers to flower exports ground to a halt.

Unfortunately my family was set to fly out last Friday evening. Perhaps even more unfortunately (or less, depending on how you look at it?), we had no idea that anything had happened until they arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) on Friday afternoon, and I was on the dala dala back to Moshi to catch a bus home to Morogoro.

So after a few days of frustration, confusion for everyone and a lot of time spent waiting on the phone or the airport to talk to someone, ANYONE, who had any idea, or at least had heard a good rumor, about what the hell was going on, I decided I needed to head back up to the north to spend sometime with my family during what was shaping up to be their unexpected third week in Africa.

When I walked into the KIA Lodge near Arusha, I found a beleaguered but generally in good spirits family, and a group of stranded travelers from around the world that had quickly formed a community of sorts - where people might not know your last name or speak your language, but they definitely knew if you'd gotten your flight rebooked or not. Mary of course knew everyone and quickly took me around to meet people, who it turned out already knew my name, where I lived, what I was doing in TZ AND that I was going to UNC next year...that sort of thing:)

As of today (Wednesday), my parents are booked on a flight home on Saturday and Nick is booked on a flight out on Monday. Since the airports just re-opened today, we're hoping that we'll be able to get him out earlier, since people are likely double or triple booked on flights. However, we've also heard that now they are re-booking people as late as May (!!), so he might be lucky to leave then!

But until then, we are here, going for a swim at the pool, taking in views of Kili, waiting for Happy Hour to start and in general trying to make the most of it. My family has definitely had more than their share of snafus on this trip (KLM lost my mom's bag...for a week...on the way here, but more about that later) and while the trip has had its tough moments, they've been amazing at facing the unexpected, rebounding, ordering another beer and finding the humor in all of this.

No matter what, it's been an amazing trip and wonderful to have them here...as well as keep them for a few extra days.