Getting There . . .

They say that getting there is half the fun!  I’m not sure about that.  Getting there was quite an involved, stressful procedure, eased by the SLF givinguseful  advice and information via a number of teleconferences where we were briefed,  and questions were answered.  Lists were sent of things we should bring with us. We began to know our fellow travellers by their voices and names.  I started packing.

We each needed to apply for a Ugandan Visa and we each had to go to our local travel clinic and have all the necessary vaccines administered—both costly and a little painful.   Each of us was responsible for our own fund raising.

 

                                                                      Photo by Laurie Wierzbicki

                                                                        

 The whole trip probably cost $5000+.  We were given the option of soliciting AeroPLan Miles or dollars for our airfare.  I opted for AeroPlan miles and was eventually successful in  collecting enough AeroPlan  miles (120,000) to pay for the $1,800 ticket. 

 

My thanks and gratitude go to friend Pat Webb, friend/son Brian Patrick, and two of his friends, Laura Mills and Ian Burgess, my friends Gissa Israel, Theresa Stott, Bev & Gary Crandall and several anonymous donors.   

Very Important . . .The staff and Grandmothers of SLF do most of their flying back and forth on AeroPLan miles.  They are very grateful for your donations, and it is very easy to do.  Please consider donating your AeroPlan Miles to the Stephen Lewis Foundation regularly.  More information can be found on the AeroPlan website, and the SLF website or just Ask Me!   

The rest of the trip was paid for in cash donations, again from family and friends and my own resources.  It was well worth every nickel.  I did solicit our local politicians and 16 Quebec senators, but only received the courtesy of a reply from one of them, whose answer was “sorry, but NO” .  

I left home at 2 am October 1, and Granny Alice drove me and my two bags to the Pierre Trudeau Airport for 4 am.  My Aeroplan route took me from Montreal to Washington to Addis Ababa to Entebbe.  I was very nervous about travelling alone in unknown airports.  So I was advised by friends to ask for “assistance” , and this worked very well, as I was whisked in a wheelchair through the Dulles airport by a very genial Egyptian worker, onto a shuttle bus, and to the gate from where the Ethiopian flight was leaving.  There I met my first Granny colleague, Laurie from Oakville, wearing her distinctive granny scarf, and we travelled together the rest of the trip, which was long but smooth.  We spent three hours in the Addis Ababa airport, window shopping and drinking fruit juice in a little restaurant, and getting to know each other—a lasting bond.  At last we arrived in Entebbe at 1:00 pm Uganda time on October 2, where SLF folks were waiting for us.  Hooray!