On to the next one...

I couldn’t think of the right title for this entry, so I wrote a few down below:

Here’s to being Time-Rich

How I can save the world next

What the cluck am I doing now?

The adventure continues...

My next adventure

Don't be jealous, live through my blog

Pre-trip planning

As Jay-Z says...On to the next one!

                (now double your money and make a stack)

Well here I go on my next adventure.  And how could I not?  I am in the right time of my life where I am blessed with time unlimited...so eff it...I am going to Africa!!  Tanzania to be exact.  I am only going to the one country, although will get close to the southern border of Kenya, and potentially will be able to see into Kenya from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.  I leave on Tuesday the 28^th of June, and finally, as of this past Tuesday, am able to be actually excited for the trip...on Monday I was still unsure, despite having my ticket, if I was going to make it.  That story will come.

First, I will tell you how and why I am going.  How is easy...I am flying.

Why?  My cousin Jory, who can be seen in this video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQeUgr1KfVM

acting as the manager of,  and sole white dude in the video for, this Tanzanian rapper, has been there since I believe September of last year.  He was planning on staying for a year, but is cutting his trip a little short to go back to MTL and get a job for September...similar to what I will be doing when I return.  Jory graduated from Ivey and went to Tanzania to work on a micro-finance project, building a honey farm and selling the honey.  I guess the bees took their time.  So myself, as well as Jory’s sister Amanda and their mom, 

Aunty Heidi (her actual name), are going to travel around Tanzania for the month of July, and then everyone will return back to Canada and life will begin.  

So that is the plan.  And here is the actual plan (as planned by Jory):

1 - arrive in Dar es Salaam
2 - Zanzibar (Stonetown)
3 - Zanzibar (Stonetown)
4 - Zanzibar
5 - Zanzibar
6 - Zanzibar 

7- Travel to Tanga
8 - Tanga
9 - Tanga
10 - Travel to Moshi
11 - Moshi
12 - Kilimanjaro

13 - Kili
14 - Kili
15- Kili
16 - Kili
17 - Kili or Moshi
18 - Arusha
19 - Safari
20 - Safari
21 - Safari

 

22 - Arusha
23 - Peace Matunda
24 - Peace Matunda
25 - Peace Matunda
26- Depart from Moshi

There you have it.

Now I will tell you about my journey before my journey.  The passport and the post office...(insert scary sound effects of something eerie and scary around the corner...so scary that scary had to be said twice and now four times in total)

In my nonchalance of not planning anything and just showing up with everything planned for me, I didn’t get a travel visa to go to Tanzania.  My bad.  It turns out I need one.  So I talked to the consulate, yada yada yada I need one.  I got everything prepared, my passport (here-on shortened to pp), the picture, the application form, the money order, and spent 30 bucks to overnight everything there with a self-addressed overnight envelope for the way back.  And sent it.  With Canada Post.  The next day they get locked out.   Fuuuuuuck.

OK....so now what...  I called Canada Post to find out what the deal is, and they let me know that the deal is I am hooped.  Since the Canada Post striking unionists are locked out by the Canada Post management, there is literally no way to get inside the Canada Post building in Ottawa where my pp is currently located.  It is stuck there, and until the strike/lockout (strike-out) is resolved there is absolutely no possible way to get in there and get it.  And when the strike-out ends, the package will be delivered, in due course, to the Tanzanian High Commission as per the address and it is up to them to open it and do what they will.  As I said before....fuuuuuuck.

Just to get all the information, I called both my visa, with whom I paid for the tickets, and my travel insurance company, both with RBC, both of whom said I am hooped since I did not buy cancellation insurance, and since this is not a medical reason, they will not repay me for the flight fare.  (Run-on sentences are great).

Time to look into a new passport...again.  For reference, here is another story that happened three.5 years ago.  I was going to San Francisco in January.  I checked my passport one week before Christmas to find that my pp was about to expire (pp...haha).  I, therefore, needed a new pp and quick (haha again).  I went to the pp office and had one rushed to me, bringing my itinerary to show them I had a flight booked and really needed it.  Therefore, this current example is the second time in a row where I have needed to rush a

pp (hee hee).  Last time was different though, since I had one which was simply expiring, and the renewal process is easier than for a lost passport.  I.  Am.  Awesome.

Back to the story at hand.  So I have a flight, I have my shots, I have my dukarol to take (so that I won’t ‘dukarol’ all over myself...SB), but I do not have a pp (hahaha...I laugh at this every time I read it 

[maturity level = extremely high]).   I have a decision to make.  The feds are about to legislate the Canadian Posts back to work, so I can a) wait for them to do that and see if I will get my pp back on time or b) go get a new pp from the pp office.  Maybe a bigger pp.  (hahaha again!)  JK, all pp’s come standard sized with 24 pages.

I decide I will wait til Monday to see what happens with the legislation, and go on Tuesday morning if necessary.  This is what I do, and on Tuesday, after getting everything printed, filled out, signed, witnessed, stamped, licked, scratched-and-sniffed (do you remember those stickers?), signed with blood, take a nap, eat a bagel (like a boss), send some faxes (like a boss)...my new pp will arrive on Monday at noon, and my flight departs on Tuesday afternoon.  I am finally all set to go to Tanzania!!!!  WOOT mother-fucking WOOT!  Now I am excited!  Finally.

And that is my passport story.  And I am set to go to Africa.  I sold my motorcycle, have rented out my condo for July, and have done some volunteering making phone calls to pass the time.  I won a piece of art from Timeraiser so all the volunteer hours I do will not only be good for the organizations I am volunteering for, but I will get a piece of art in the end (http://timeraiser.ca/).

(this is my piece of art)

Now all I need to do is laundry, pack , clean, tidy, eat the food in my fridge, pick up my passport, hit on Deborah (like a boss), get rejected (like a boss), swallow sadness (like a boss), [see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c], write this article, finish my book, find a new book, and any other minor details that are required when flying for 23 hours to Tanzania for a month.

In other news, I convocated from school earning my Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA).  That was neat.  This trip is therefore part two of my time-rich, as yet unemployed, travel schedule.

Thank you for your attention and your time.  Thank you to those people who helped me get through this difficult time.  Mike, my friend, attorney and pp guarantor (still funny!), Jared and Sarah on my pp forms, N-Train for asking if I actually needed a passport to get into the country, Taryn for volunteer hours to keep me busy and add up towards my soon to be art, Jeff cus he’s my boy (keep getting better and will see you when I get back), Jory for making this trip happen because you spent a year making the world a better place, Amanada for making sure I am on this trip, Aunty Heidi because we are going to have an amazing time together in Africa!, Sisco b/c he said to me ‘you don’t have a job and you’re thinking about not going to Africa??? WTF!!,’ Sally for letting me stay with her in Israel and having an amazing time there and talking to me whenever I need advice, the dude who bought my motorcycle and paid for my trip, Amy for finding someone to stay in my place, Dave for staying in my place, Purple Perk http://www.purpleperk.com/ for letting me sit there for hours with only one cup of coffee while I read/studied/procrastinated, prolly some others too.  My brothers, sisters-in-laws, two nephews and one nephew/niece to be for coming and helping me celebrate my graduation.  Of course my parents for understanding that I am going on a (nother) trip of a lifetime.  But seriously, what else could I do?  Please see the comment above given by Dave Sisco. 

I will most likely write again from Africa in one week.  I will try to do my best to keep you updated, but cannot guarantee based on internet availability.  I will keep some notes as I travel and try to keep the postings to short notes about some of the events; whether amazing, happy, funny or sad, and the experiences I encounter.

Here’s to being Time-Rich.

PS:  If you want a postcard from Africa, please send me your mailing address.

Sincerely,

Master Elliot S. Weinstein