Into Africa

A wonderful breakfast (complete with leverpostej) begins our day in Copenhagen on the right foot. After checking out, we check out the National Museum, but are disappointed to find that it is closed on Mondays. We walk around downtown for a bit (too much), and then catch the train out to the airport. Once there, we get another nice surprise‹our missing piece of luggage has caught up with us. We retrieve that and complete our check-in for Amsterdam, Nairobi and Lusaka. We change planes in Amsterdam and Nairobi, so we hope our luggage makes the change as well. I am experiencing some problems with my computer; it seems the video card is not behaving; twice now it has filled the screen with random lines and required me to reboot. This is not performance! Must be time to retire this old laptop and get a new one! I can't tell if something has damaged it on the trip, or what the problem is, but it is certainly frustrating. Anyway, we manage our plane changes, and land in Lusaka about 10am on the 18th, however, our luggage does not perform as well, and only one of our pieces has come with us. We fill in the necessary reports and when we go back in the afternoon to collect our Yellowknife team members, we have a report that two pieces have been found vacationing in Athens! So we hope they will arrive in the next day or so, and we hope the final bag will also be located soon. As it is we have very little of our own clothing; the one bag to make it contains mostly baby clothes to give away. Anyway, we get settled in with the rest of the team at Eureka camp in Lusaka, and continue our preparations for the month ahead.

And We're Off

The first legs of our journey take us to Copenhagen. We start off with a short flight down to Toronto. We spend three hours there finding our way around to the international departure gates and having a lunch at Tim Horton's—a last touch with Canadiana! Our flight is delayed, and then delayed again. Finally, they change airplanes from a Boeing 767 to an Airbus A340. Then they have to round up a different flight crew who know their way around an Airbus. Finally, we get boarded over an hour late. But we're in first class, and that makes all the difference. We relax our way through the night across the Atlantic to London, in our spacious digs. Imagine reaching out as far as you can with your feet, and not even coming close to the seat in front of you! Unfortunately, the flight ends about 2 am (body time) as we land at Heathrow. That's early morning in London, but not early enough. Our flight to Frankfurt leaves while we are trying to change terminals. We report to Lufthansa; they send us to Air Canada; they send us back to Lufthansa, who give us a new boarding pass to Frankfurt. This will be a lunch time flight instead of the morning flight we were expecting. They decline to give us another boarding pass for the trip up to Copenhagen. We'll have to check with Lufthansa when we get to Frankfurt and arrange that. Once in Frankfurt the wonderful connections counsellor advises us that all will be well, and even provides a gate number. When we get close to there we go to the check-in counter, and discover, as we feared, that our reservations for the leg up to Denmark were cancelled when we missed the scheduled flight to Frankfort. Eventually we are awarded new boarding passes on the original flight we were supposed to take in the first place! We arrive in the Danish capital in the early evening, and go to retrieve our luggage. Eventually three of the four pieces do show up. Our new Roots bag has a wheel broken loose, and our other wheeled bag is torn open, This must not be Africa—nothing is missing! The lovely lady at the luggage counter is very kind and helpful. She awards us a new bag—she has several for us to choose from—and takes note of the damage to the other one and invites us to claim for repairs. Then she tracks down the missing bag—it's still in Frankfurt, and promises to do all she can to get it to Copenhagen in time for us to take it with us to Africa. We manage to check-in for our Africa flight, sans one piece of luggage. Then we take the train into town, settle into our room at the Hotel Centrum, and try to catch up on the six time zones we've been flying over!

News Update

Another week is ending here on the shore of Lake Superior, and we don't plan another week like it for a while! We're off to Zambia tomorrow. We travel via Copenhagen, and look forward to spending a few days there on the return trip after mid-August.

It's been a busy week with many things to do in anticipation of Zambia or in completion of some projects here. Everything has come together well, and we feel ready to board the plane tomorrow at noon. I have also managed a couple of golf games, including a new low of 76 on the 11th! Then I followed that up with an 85 today. It was a little difficult to accept using nine extra strokes to play the same course two days later, but that's golf, and it was fun anyway. I've reduced my handicap to 12.2 from 13.9. I'm aiming to get to single digits, but it doesn't look like it will happen this year.

I also managed to get some progress on the work front as all my school boards are putting together plans to complete some data reporting for the Ministry of Education. I shall look forward to hearing news of second-year funding some time while we're in Zambia. Then I got a used computer and a new printer for our old friend in Zambia. I still have no assurance that the ink can be found there, but we've packed a few extra cartridges just in case. We're going to use the printer to produce photos of our students in Zambia. Most of them don't get pictures of themselves in their lifetime—no school photos there!

Wendy has been busy around the place getting things assembled and packed for the trip. The new weight restrictions for air travel mean our bags are forty per cent lighter this trip. However, they still seem plenty heavy to me!

The boys have been involved in summer day camp activities. This week Haaken was in a Business Camp operated by the University. He developed a business proposal, arranged a loan and operated a hamburger joint for two hours today. He cleared about $60 for his efforts. Erin and Kristian have had a rough week as Kristian has a cold as well as thrush. However, Kristian has continued to make steady progress in learning to walk. We're going to miss them all for the next five weeks.

Eric has been able to get a few bus driving charters this week, and has continued to hit the links with me as often as possible. His golf is progressing well, and I expect him to be playing about bogie golf by the end of the season. Erica has continued with work. She has recently negotiated a new office location, so they'll be renovating and moving while we're gone.

Travis and Sylvia are back from their honeymoon and back at work. Their car suffered another setback this week. The automatic transmission refused to shift. Then a small hose near the water pump blew apart, so they pumped all their coolant onto the engine. It made for a great cloud of steam! The transmission problems were electronic, so were easily fixed. The hose has been replaced, but is still not satisfactory. It requires a small, curved hose, and I fashioned one out of straight heater hose. It seems to be working for now! Anyway, they have our car while we're gone.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

Seventy-six!

I hit a new low today—seventy-six! The first nine went pretty well, as I had five pars and four bogies, but the second nine!!! Yi, yi, yi! There were a couple of scrambly holes, but I ended up with one bogie, one birdie, and seven pars. I was even par for the nine holes! Yowsa!

Eric and I were playing our first full round at Strathcona. We were joined by a regular for that course, and he proved quite helpful as he advised us on how to play each hole. He was also a nice, smooth player, although not as long as Eric or I are off the the tee. I was hitting my drives well; I was hitting my irons wonderfully. I hit a lot of greens, and those I didn't, I was close by. I made a few one-putts to salvage par, but also missed two birdie putts within six feet, so it could have been better!

Playing well is very uplifting; even playing poorly is a lot of fun!!

News Update

Another week draws to a close here on the shore of Lake Superior. The wedding accomplished, Travis & Sylvia are travelling south of the border this week, and are expected back this weekend.

I have also travelled some this week. On Wednesday, I flew over to Sudbury where representatives from our company met with our counterparts from northeastern Ontario to plan the professional development program for the next school year. I returned on Friday evening. The sessions went well.

I also managed a couple of golf games this week. On Sunday afternoon, Tom, Eric, Chris and I checked out the Whitewater Golf course here in Thunder Bay. It was a difficult experience, as the greens were faster than I was used to, and I also found them very tricky to read. I was also spraying the ball off the tee, so I was frequently in trouble and eventually staggered in with a 95. After corrections for triples, I posted a 92 for handicap purposes. Tom scored, as he described it, "The best of a bad lot!" He also found the course quite challenging, and the rough impossible. Later, I golfed with Eric back at Chapples, and that went better (84), as I was able to reduce my swing to merely Herculean proportions. I have concluded that golfing with a brother tends to bring out undue stress and very undue swing speeds!!

Wendy has spent time recovering from the exertions of the wedding preparations all the while continuing preparations for our next venture, i.e. to Zambia. We are scheduled to fly out of here next Saturday, the 15th! I shall try to post on Friday evening, and then as often as possible from Zambia while we spend the next month there.

Kristian continues to develop and grow. He is getting around famously, and driving his mother to distraction—the answer to a mother's curse!!

Liam and Haaken are enjoying summer holidays and a few special activities that come with the freedom from the school schedule. Haaken has taken to making movies, with a new release almost every day! Liam participates in some of the movies as a star, or a producer, or an extra, but he enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors riding his bike as well. The pool is in full operation in the back yard (along with a small one for Kristian), but they're not being used that much despite the thirty plus temperatures. We are really enjoying the newly installed air conditioning!

And that's the kind of week it's been.

SCAM

I hate it when people forward bogus warnings, and I have even done it myself a couple times... but this one is real, and it's important. So please send this warning to everyone on your e-mail list:

If someone comes to your front door saying they are checking for ticks due to the warming weather and asks you to take your clothes off and twirl around with your arms up, DO NOT DO IT!! IT IS A SCAM!! They only want to see you naked...

I only wish I'd been warned before yesterday... I feel so stupid!

The Royal Wedding 06

Since a picture tells a thousand words, this blog is already getting long. I hope you can see that it was a beautiful wedding, and that we all had fun! Travis and Sylvia are now travelling on their honeymoon and are expected back this coming weekend.

To help you make sense of the photos, I offer this commentary.
-the wedding party was set up under a bower of trees along the shore of Lake Superior. This beautiful setting provide on the property of John & Diane Whitfield.
-Travis sailed off (Viking that he is) to claim a bride and drag her back by the hair (hand) to be his wedded wife!
-After plighting their troth, the deed was duly sealed with exchange of rings, and duly signed paper work!

Travis, I'm sure, will develop a proper website of the wedding replete with a quantity of photos. When it is complete, I shall post the URL on my blog.

News Update

Happy Canada Day!

It's been another busy week here on the shore of Lake Superior. We have a lot of things to complete or get ready for the big wedding on Saturday. Wendy is building the wedding cake, and a wondrous sight it is. We are hosting a large crew here for a barbecue after the rehearsal on Saturday. And we have some additional house guests as well. All in all, it's a busy but good week. I'll prepare another post on the wedding as soon as I have some pictures ready to post.

I do manage to sneak in some golf and I also buy a couple of new drivers. I trade in my old driver, and now have two of the newer, big-headed variety to try out. Surely one of these can get me further into trouble. And no, I didn't say hard-headed... that's the golfer, not the equipment!

I get more of the yard work done, and begin building a walkway around the pool. The completion of that task will have to wait for another year, as the installation of the pool will need to be upgraded first.

Erin and Kristian both experience some sickness this week. Erin comes down with food poisoning after eating at a local restaurant. We get her to the hospital, and they get her rehydrated with four litres of IV fluids. She seems to be recovering well. Kristian comes down with a bout of thrush, so he's on medication now, and seems to be coming around fine.

My computer is still not back, so I'm still in mourning over that! Our preparations for Zambia can begin in earnest now that the wedding is accomplished.

And that's the kind of week it has been.