Saturday, February 12, 2011

Less Than 2 Weeks to Ghana

I leave in 13 days!  13 days!

The keyword for the last couple of weeks has been "hectic". 

As I wrote in my last blog, Kristina Bryson, my fellow Canadian Ghana 6 team members and I had elected to tour Egypt after our 4 week assignment in Ghana.  We had bought and paid for airfare the to/from Cairo, booked hotels and put a down-payment on a tour with an Egyption tour company.  However, after the rebellion broke out in Egypt on January 23,2011 it was clear that was not going to work anymore.  As of the time of this blog, the Canadian government has issued an "Avoid All Travel" advisory.  So a quick change of plans was in order - now our final week in Africa will be spent on safari in Kenya!

As you can imagine, this decision created a major scramble.  We had to to cancel our Egypt travel plans and negotiate with the tour companies and airlines to minimize penalties and cancllation fees.  At the same time we had to research and book new air travel to Kenya while researching safari itineraries and options.  A lot of late night research and even an early morning call with a Kenyan tour operator before we could make a decision.  However, the decisions are now made and we are both very excited about the new plans.  An African Safari!!!!

Our Kenyan tourist visa application was sent to the Kenyan High Commission in Ottawa last weekend along with revised flight information, passports, vaccination proof etc.  Hopefully the Visas will arrive back soon  - this is one of the last remaining "hurdles".

This weekend I filled my perscription for malaria pills and picked up some over-the-counter medications that I think would be good to have with me.  Tomorrow I am going to get my suitcase out of the closet and do a packing "dry-run".  We have to limit the amount of luggage weight to what the airlines will allow so packing efficiency is definately the name of the game!

No comments:

Post a Comment